International History versus International Relations

1
International History versus International
Relations

• Different means and different ends?

2
Structure

• 1. What is international history?
• 2. What is international relations?
• 3. How are the two related?

3
Why do IR scholars need history?

•     Why can I.R. scholars avoid history?
•  
•     What are the distinguishing characteristics
  between historical and political/social
  science or international political theory
  approaches to international affairs?

4
Useful essays on IH/IR

• Colin Elman and M F Elman (eds) Bridge and
  Boundaries. Historians, Political Scientists and
  the Study of International Relations (MIT Press,
  2001).
• Introductory essays on theory and history
• Four case studies with 3-4 chapters in each on
• the 30 year crisis,
• the rise and fall of British hegemony,
• the cold war, and
• the Revolution in Military affairs
•  
• 'Special Issue' on International
  History/International Relations, in International
  Security - available 'online' vol. 22 Summer
  1997
• Excellent collection of essays on International
  History / IR interface

5
International Historians versus IR Scholars

• Need to distinguish how international historians
  (e.g. NW) write international history from how IR
  theorists make use of the past (e.g. MR)
• e.g. Dr Matthew Rendall is an IR scholar who uses
  history
• e.g. Dr Neville Wylie is an international
  historian. Other historians in School of Politics
  and International Relations past present e.g.
  Matthew Jones, Alex Danchev, Malika Rahal etc.
•  

6
History I.R

• British tradition Nottingham strength
• Particular characteristic of I.R. team at
  Nottingham
• Yet built on British tradition
• Differences between two disciplines appear
  greater in US than Europe

7
The British International History Group

• The British International History Group (BIHG)
  was founded in 1987, as a sub-group of the
  British International Studies Association
  (BISA).  It exists to draw together all those
  interested in teaching and researching into the
  history of international relations at university
  level in the United Kingdom. As well as
  organising panels at the BISA conference each
  December, the Group holds its own conference in
  September, which includes the annual general
  meeting. The BIHG committee, elected at the
  conference, also acts as a link to other
  institutions such as the Foreign and Commonwealth
  Office and The National Archives.
• http//www.bihg.ac.uk/

8
Organisations in the field of International
History

• British International Studies Association (BISA)
  the parent organisation of BIHG
• Centre for Contemporary British History
• Foreign and Commonwealth Office
• Institute of Historical Research
• H-Diplo for those interested in diplomatic method
• Royal Historical Society
• Society for Historians of American Foreign
  Relations
• Transatlantic Studies Association
• http//www.bihg.ac.uk/Links/Organisations.aspx -
  see here for links

9
Approaches of international historians

• What are the research techniques and
  methodologies adopted by international
  historians? (NW)
• Key Text Marc Trachtenberg, The craft of
  international history a guide to method (PUP,
  2006)

10
Principal Differences between IH/IR

• 1. Questions
• What drives the analysis?
• Lumping or splitting
• Parsimony over thick description
• Deductive logic vs coherent narrative

11
2. Approach towards the past

• 2.Historical
• - Locate a Problem/Issue
• - assess quantity/quality of sources
• - balance sources issue via selection of
  particular approach
• Pol Sci.
• - Formulate hypothesis
• - test by applying theory and empirical study
• - Refine theory

12
3. Subject Matter

• Human society continuity or change
• Versus Underlying patterns and structures
• 4. Audience
• Policy relevant research?
• Academic historians
• Popular historians

13
5. Sources

• Primary v Secondary
• Official documentation v interviews
• Closed/confidential v open.
• Qualitative data v quantitative data
• http//www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

14
National Archives, Kew Gardens Tube, London
15
Understand the archives in minutes

• http//www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/gettingstarted/
  understand-the-archive/default.htm?WT.acmh-unders
  tand-the-archives

16
Security or defence archives

• http//www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/securityhistory
  /?WT.acsa-securityhistory

17
IH/IR on Origins of First World War

• Historians perspective
• IR perspective
• Innenpolitik vs Aussenpolitik explanations
  polarity power transitions and preventive war
  offence-defence theory, cognitive psychology  

18
IH IR on the Concert of Europe

• The IR scholar may seek to apply IR
  theories/methods to events over 150 years ago
• The Concert of Europe
• 1. Historians perspective
• 2. IR perspective (MR)
• Realist/institutionalist debate
• Was the Concert a successful collective security
  regime?

19
IR/IH from below?

• History of Mat Salleh Rebellion during British
  Protectorate rule of North Borneo under North
  Borneo Chartered Company 1882-1946
• North Borneo inland non-literate groups entering
  world history
• Colonial company records in Malaysia and UK
• Limits of company records, memoirs etc
• Use of oral history oral tradition to
  reconstruct history
• Historical/anthropological account contributing
  to IR understanding of conflict politics of
  peace negotiations and conflict management (or
  its failure)
• Plus understanding of stateless society and an
  anarchic system
• Potential relevance to understanding
  international system as anarchic system
• PhD research Sanen Marshall, November 2009 

20
IH/IR Differences can be exaggerated

• 1. Questions
• General v Specifics
• Whats the bigger picture?
• So what?
• 2. Narrative not un-analytical.
• Narrative implicit theoretical assumptions,
  priorities etc.
• 3. General/Particular
• Historians - explain the particular, refer to the
  general
• Political Scientists explain the general by
  generalising the particular. 

21
IH/IR Differences can be exaggerated

• 4. Sources
• 30 Year rule makes us all Political
  Scientists/theorists.
• Selective release of official papers.
• Government control
• Scaling the mountain
• Use of theories to sift sources and fill gaps
• 5. Approach
• Demise of structural explanations in I.R.
  theory in favour of constructivism plus
  postmodern turn in both leading to more overlap
  again

22
What can I.R. scholars take from History?

• 1. Perspective
• Perspective transient over historically
  important. Extend the hinterland
• Prediction
• I.R. claims for predictive quality frequently
  misplaced
• 2. Understanding of Historians craft to improve
  quality of case study method
• 3. Better Selection of Material Choice of
  Case-Studies
• Learn to fit and unfit, rather than use and
  abuse
• 4. Heighten sensitivity to human agency and
  contingency.
• 5. Shift from structuralism to constructivism in
  IR.
• But criticism theoretical turn in IR in 1990s
  also guilty of neglect of empirical

23
IR theoretical turn neglect of empirical?

• IR theory in Britain the New Black?
• CHRIS BROWN
• Review of International Studies, Volume 32, Issue
  04, October 2006, pp 677-687
• Anniversaries are occasions for celebration and
  reflection. The thirtieth anniversary of BISA
  presents the opportunity to look back over what
  has been achieved in the eventful years since the
  foundation of the Association, but also the duty
  of identifying things that have gone wrong, paths
  not taken or promising avenues that turned out to
  be dead-ends. We owe it to the people who founded
  BISA some still here, others, sadly, gone to
  preserve the critical spirit even when
  celebrating our achievements, and I will
  certainly honour that debt in this talk.
• Transcript of a plenary lecture given at the
  British International Studies Association,
  University of St. Andrews, December 2005.

24
Footnote History debatesHistorical Narrative

• Postmodernist challenge its culturally relative
  and merely a figment of imagination
• Is one narrative better than another?
• Is a narrative merely a reflection of our current
  concerns and vantage point
• Is there an historical truth?
• Has the craft of history improved?

    
25
Theory in history

• Scepticism towards prejudicing objective
  reading of the events by admitting to
  pre-conceived ideas/expectations
• Theoretical assumptions grounded on
  contemporary experience which is an
  antithetical to the task of reconstructing past
  events

    
26
Assumptions

• But what about implicit assumptions about the
  past, or our subject do they have a theoretical
  basis?
• Isnt our choice of subject affected by our
  theoretical outlook?
• Historians as theorists Gaddis, Schroeder

    
27
Key to Historical craft sensitivity

• What evidence are you looking for
• Where are you likely to find it
• Whats its provenance?
• How do you read the document what does it
  tell us about the past explicitly and
  implicitly?
• Dangers?
• Is the archive an analogue of reality?
• Who has selected what, for preservation?
• How can you scale the mountain?
• Freedom of Information Act (Foia!)

    
28
Dangers?

• Is the archive an analogue of reality?
• Who has selected what, for preservation?
• How can you scale the mountain?
• Freedom of Information Act (Foia!)

    
29
Thank You and Happy Study Vacation from me

• Remember final lecture next week with Dr Sabine
  Carey