History of International Theories

“Theory is a systematic explanation for the observed facts and laws that relate To particular aspect of life”

- Babbie 1986

International relations is one of the most complex subjects in the academic and practical world.

Different views and definitions among the scholars is one of main reasons for this. For an

example scholars couldn’t even come for agreement for the question what is international

Relations? For some it is diplomatic - strategic relations of states. But some argued

International Relations is cross border transactions of all kinds like political, economic and

social. So as we can see there is no common agreement on International relation theories. It’s

about the view and the various thinking about the different scholars.

Anyway when we looked back at the foundation of International Relation theories we can see

it was all about the state based relations in the beginning. But things started to change with the

rise of sovereign states. In the medieval time medieval kings were really quite powerless. They

had no proper bureaucracies at their disposal, no standing armies and few ways of raising

money. With the Reformation these things started to change. With the Reformation and

sovereign states formed States and Rulers became more powerful. And they always tried to

expand their territories and build empires. And there was ‘struggle for power between states’.

And there was wars between states. During the time 1618 – 1648 there was a 30 years’ war in

Europe. And to end these wars and build a new diplomatic congress for the states treaty of

Westphalia was signed and it was a major moment in development if IR theory. With this treaty

a new system of political order arose in central Europe, which called Westphalian sovereignty,

based upon the concept of co-existing sovereign states. Inter-state aggression was to be held in

check by a balance of power, and a norm was established against interference in another state's

domestic affairs. As European influence spread across the globe, these Westphalian principles,

especially the concept of sovereign states, became central to international law and to the

prevailing world order.

But at the end of the eighteenth century this state idea came to be radically transformed. Or

rather, the ‘state’ was combined with a ‘nation’ forming a compound noun the ‘nation-state’

which was organized differently and pursued different goals. A nation, in contrast to a state,

constitutes a community of people joined by a shared identity and by common social practices.

And within the International relations also rules and diplomats always tried to achieve these

common goals that are benefitted for their countries by negotiations and dealing with other

countries. Anyway with this nation state ideology empires like napoleon Bonaparte conquered

Europe to create a one common goal for a whole continent. But he wasn’t successful. In 1814

Vienna Congress happen to provide a long-term peace plan for Europe by settling critical issues

that created by Napoleon. After this incident during the time of 1815 – 1914 world was indeed

an uncharacteristically peaceful. No major events in the world and nothing happened to develop

the international relations and theories that based on it.

Then came 1914, and the greatest war the European system had ever seen. Millions died

pointlessly, regimes fell, economic chaos prevailed, and the seeds of a new war were sown.

And this was the moment theoretical approaches of the international relations changes.

International relation theorists started to think how something so obviously and predictably

counter-productive could happen? Twentieth-century theorizing about international relations

begins here. Most destructive war that Europe saw so far was ended when Germans and the

central power admitted their defeat. This war made that old assumptions and theories of the

international relations were invalid. And winning powers and the other European states wonder

what they would do if another catastrophic incident happened. So world leaders joined to

maintain the world peace.

With Woodrow Wilson’s fourteen points and his idea about Self-determinations added a new

way to study the international relations theory. And then came the Peace treaties. Woodrow

Wilson and winning leaders of World War 1 specially thought that peace treaties are the best

way to protect world peace. Paris treaty, treaty of Versailles are the examples for this effort.

But the most important thing happened to the theories that based to international relations was

the idea about collective security. This idea lead the way to create international organisations

to the IR discipline. League of Nations was the result of this. This was a critical incident in the

IR history. This was the beginning of the idealist theory in the International relations. And they

believed war is a misunderstanding of political agendas and it can be stopped with the collective

peace and international organisations.

But all those peace treaties, Organisations and idealist theories fallen in 1939. Biggest and most

cruel war world have ever seen happened. No one could able to stop it. Adolf Hitler started the

catastrophe and Nuclear weapons ended it. People were hopeless. Nations fall, Millions died

and more have faced the worst time of their life. These four years created lot of changes in the

International system. Superpowers like England and France were fell but Russia and USA

risen. And world divided two these two parties. International system was on a brink. As cold

war started people thought there will be another war. As idealist theories failed scholars thought

about new way, a new idea to study these scenarios. What they understood was they have to be

more practical. They have to be more Realist. So after the Second world war one of the most

leading theories and one of the most practical theories reborn again in International Relations.

Realists started to study how the states use their power to achieve their national interest and

how these things leading a way for a war and how to stop it. So they created a strong foundation

and organisations by removing the unsuccessful ideas of the idealist. So this was a major

moment in history of IR theories.

Those were the main historical moments in the IR theoretical history. But of course Liberalist

theory, Marxist theory and constructivism also major theoretical assumptions in international

relations. They also have a major part in history of international relation theories. I’ll looking

forward to describe these theories briefly in the next chapter.

If we looked at the modern era we can clearly see that all those theories had a big influence in

practical international system. Scope and the theories that define international relations have

developed so much specially in the 20th century. Feminist IR Theory was one of the main theory

that added to the international relations. And Post–Cold War IR Theory also joined to

international relations scope after the cold war. Neo-conservatism also one of the main theories

in international relations in this modern era. All those theories created to understand this

complex subject. And these theories developed the international relation discipline also.

International relations and its theories has a big history. And this subject and the theories

changing and developing day by day. But here I have mentioned most crucial and important

incidents of international relation theories and how those theories developed throughout the

time. And all those theories will be explained briefly in the next chapter.