Professional Documents
Culture Documents
IR Evolution
IR Evolution
IR Evolution
• World War I
– Loss of 20 million lives
– Limitations of European Diplomacy
Cont…
• Utopianism, a liberal approach
– What ought to be done
• Post WW I advocates
– Alfred Zimmern
– Norman Angell
– James T. Shotwell
– Woodrow Wilson
Cont…
• Wilson’s “14 Points” Speech
– US Congress in 1918
– Making the world safe for Democracy.
– Creation of International organization for
promotion of peaceful cooperation among
nation- states.
– Result in League of Nations in 1919.
Cont…
• IR as decipline
– Woodrow Wilson Chair of International politics
@ University College of Wales – 1919
– Montague Zimmern Chair of International
relations in Jerusalem – 1929
– Oxford University – 1930
– London School of Economics – 1936
– University of Edinburgh – 1948
– Ends Liberalism and adopts legalistic-
moralistic approach
Historical Evolution
• Hellas, first state system in ancient
Greece
– Lack of institutional diplomacy, and no
international law and organization
• Roman empire occupy middle east and
north Africa.
– Quasi international relationships
– Invasion of cities
• Catholic empire based Rome
(Christendom) and in eastern Europe
Byzantine (Orthodox)
• Politico-religious empire
• No defined territories with borders.
• Hierarchical political and ideological
structure as Chinese Communist state
• Kings rule: semi autonomous
• 1096- 1291 A.D. fought between Christian
Crusades and Islamic world
– Global disorder, conflicts, and violence
• 1337- 1453 A.D. Hundred year war
between England and france
– Fudal and local level
– No distinction between civil war and
international war
• Freedom was not freedom for the
individual rather for rulers and their
followers and clients
• Justice was responsibility of both political
and religious rulers
• Early modern European era
– Religious-political authority of Christendom.
– Military power of barons and feudal
• Medieval to modern age: evolution of
sovereign state with all powers in the hand
of king.
• Defined boundaries
• Ambition to expand their territories results
in war
• Spain, France, Austria, England, Denmark
Sweden, Holland, Poland, Russia, Prussia
and other at war.
• War become a key international institute
for resolving conflicts between sovereign
states.
• In the modern international system
territory is consolidated, unified and
centralized under a sovereign
government.
• Thirty years war
Thirty years war (1618-48)
• Starting initially in Bohemia as an uprising
of protestant aristocracy against Spanish
authority, the war escalated rapidly,
eventually incorporating all sort of
issues… questions of religious involved a
jumble of conflicting stakes, with all sort of
cross-cutting dynastic, religious, and state
interest involved… Europe was fighting its
first continental war.
The Peace of Westphalia
• The Thirty Years War was ended by the
Peace of Westphalia which was referred
to as the "Peace of Exhaustion" by
contemporaries. The Peace of Westphalia
was not one specific treaty but rather a
collection of treaties commonly linked by
the fact that they brought the Thirty Years
War to an end.
• France and Sweden had already agreed
at the Treaty of Hamburg that there should
be a European return to the status quo of
1618.
• Ferdinand III wanted to retain the gains
made at Prague and he wanted 1627 to
be his baseline on territorial negotiations.
• The German Electors favored 1618 as
their baseline.
• In September 1640, the Electors were
summoned by Ferdinand III to
Regensburg where the emperor attempted
to get the Electors to agree to preserving
the Peace of Prague. He failed. Frederick
William of Brandenburg specifically
rejected Prague as the basis of any
settlement.
• In July 1641, Brandenburg and Sweden
signed a truce. Many German princes
followed this example of Brandenburg's to
show their displeasure with Ferdinand III.
However, Ferdinand III had already
started separate negotiations with the
French and Dutch at Munster and with the
Swedes at Osnabruck.
• Peace negotiations continued at the same
time as the military campaigns. In 1642, a
Swedish army defeated an Imperial army
at Breitenfeld at the same time as
Swedish and Imperial diplomats were
examining potential peace terms. Such
occurrences happened as a show of
strength to the opposition.
• In 1645, the Imperial army faced two
defeats at Nordlingen (defeated by the
French) and Jankau (defeated by
Sweden). The Holy Roman Empire was
clearly in no position to carry on but
neither could the Swedes or the French
deliver a knockout blow from a military
point of view.
• In 1645, Sweden and Saxony signed a peace
agreement.
• In 1646, Ferdinand III could no longer expect
support from Saxony, Brandenburg or Spain.
• In 1647, Maximilian of Bavaria was forced by the
Swedes and French to withdraw his support to
Ferdinand. Maximilian reneged on this
agreement in 1648, and Swedish and French
forces devastated Bavaria leaving Maximilian in
a position where he could not do anything else
except sign a truce with Sweden and France.
• The French persuaded Ferdinand III to
exclude Spain from the peace
negotiations but the United Provinces and
Spain did sign a peace settlement at
Munster in 1648 thus bringing to an end
80 years of hostility between the Spanish
government and the Dutch commonly
known as the Revolt of the Netherlands.
• The whole package of settlements is
known as the Peace of Westphalia. One of
its provisos was that the practice of
electing a King of the Romans in the
emperor's lifetime was abolished. The title
of the "Peace of Exhaustion" is probably a
more apt title for this series of peace
settlements that brought to an end the
Thirty Years War.
Major attempts to impose power
• The Habsburg empire(Austria) made the
attempt during Thirty year war(1618-48),
and was blocked by a coalition led by
France and Sweden.
• France made the attempt under king Louis
XIV (1661-1714) and was blocked by an
English-Duch alliance.
• Nepoleon (1795-1815) made the attempt
and was blocked by Britain, Russia,
Prussia and Austria.
• Germany made the attempt under Hitler
(1939-45) and was blocked by United
States, the Soviet Union and Britain
Nature of IR
• Before WW-Ist part of history, law and
political theory.
• Subdivision of political science
emphasized on political phenomena at
global level.
• Interdisciplinary (political science,
economics, sociology, psychology,
anthropology, medicine, cybernetics,
communication and other)
Cont…
• The study of international relation extends
from the natural science at one end to
moral philosophy … at other. This
discipline is a bundle of subjects… viewed
from a common angle.
~ Zimmern
(Ist IR Professor)
IR debates
1. Utopian Liberalism/ Idealism and Realism
3. Neo-Liberalism/ Neo-Realism