The Imperial Discipline (Paperback)

Alexander E. Davis

ISBN 10: 0745340628 / ISBN 13: 9780745340623

Published by Pluto Press, London, 2020

About this Item

Paperback. This book questions the accepted origins of the field of International Relations (IR). Commonly understood to have emerged from the horrors of WW1 with the goal of bringing about world peace, the authors argue that on the contrary, IR came from a somewhat less noble tradition that of the Round Table. The Round Table were a network of imperialists emerging in the late 1800s across five key British imperial societies: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and India. Their aim was to improve imperial governance, placing the empire into a position to control world affairs. Although they ultimately failed to rearrange world order according to their vision, they did help to build what we now call the discipline of IR. The Round Table's 'scientific method' for the study of world affairs was rapidly subsumed into each geopolitical context. Through telling this story, the authors recover it, and interrogate its meanings for the discipline of IR today. They show the importance of the Global South to IR's foundations, and argue that IR scholarship in this period was intertwined with imperial racial thought in ways that it should not and cannot forget. An analysis of the origins of the field of International Relations from a decolonial perspective Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780745340623

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Imperial Discipline (Paperback)
• Publisher: Pluto Press, London
• Publication Date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0745340628
• ISBN 13: 9780745340623
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

This book questions the accepted origins of the field of International Relations (IR). Commonly understood to have emerged from the horrors of WW1 with the goal of bringing about world peace, the authors argue that on the contrary, IR came from a somewhat less noble tradition – that of the Round Table. The Round Table were a network of imperialists emerging in the late 1800s across five key British imperial societies: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and India. Their aim was to improve imperial governance, placing the empire into a position to control world affairs. Although they ultimately failed to rearrange world order according to their vision, they did help to build what we now call the discipline of IR. The Round Table's 'scientific method' for the study of world affairs was rapidly subsumed into each geopolitical context. Through telling this story, the authors recover it, and interrogate its meanings for the discipline of IR today. They show the importance of the Global South to IR's foundations, and argue that IR scholarship in this period was intertwined with imperial racial thought in ways that it should not and cannot forget.

About the Author

Alexander E. Davis is a postdoctoral research fellow at La Trobe University's Department of Politics, Media and Philosophy, Australia.

Vineet Thakur is University Lecturer in History and International Relations at Leiden University, the Netherlands.

​Peter Vale was the founding director of the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study, and Nelson Mandela Professor of Politics Emeritus, Rhodes University, South Africa.