INVENTING INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY Inventing International Society A History of the English School Tim Dunne Lecturer in International Politics Department of International Politics University of Wales Aberystwyth in association with Palgrave Macmillan First published in Great Britain 1998 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-0-333-73787-3 ISBN 978-0-230-37613-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230376137 First published in the United States of America 1998 by ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC., Scholarly and Reference Division, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 ISBN 978-0-312-21545-3 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dunne, Timothy, 1965- Inventing international society : a history of the English school I Timothy Dunne. p. em.- (St. Antony's series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-312-21545-3 (cloth) I. International relations-Philosophy-History. 2. International relations-Study and teaching-Great Britain-History. I. Title. II. Series. JZ1242.D86 1998 327.1'01--dc21 98-17291 CIP ©Tim Dunne 1998 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1998 978-0-333-64345-7 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London WlP 9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 For Alan and Elizabeth Dunne This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgements viii Introduction xi 1 The English School 1 2 E.H. Carr 23 3 Martin Wight 47 4 Herbert Butterfield 71 5 The British Committee I 89 6 The British Committee II 116 7 Hedley Bull 136 8 R.J. Vincent 161 Conclusion 181 Bibliography 193 Index 203 Vll Acknowledgements In the course of writing this book, I have had a considerable amount of support from family, friends, and academic colleagues. The first and most lasting intellectual debt is to my mentor Steve Smith, who along with the late Martin Hollis, introduced me to the world of ideas at the University of East Anglia in the late 1980s. After completing my undergraduate degree, it was Steve who encouraged me to take up a postgraduate place at Oxford. Throughout the four years as an ESRC funded M.Phil and a D.Phil student, I benefited greatly from Andrew Hurrell's guidance and his excellent judgement. The decision by the British International Studies Assocation to award my D.Phil thesis 'International Relations Theory in Britain: The Invention of an International Society Tradition' the prize in 1994 in part reflects the first-class supervision Andrew provided. These were intellectually stimulating years. Many of my close friends, such as Geoffrey Wiseman, Marrianne Hansen, Jennifer Welsh, Shu Sun, Ngaire Woods and Iver B. Neumann had been taught by John Vincent, acquiring his sense of fun as well as critical engagement. Although I never met John, I feel he would have appreciated the intel­ lectual journey I embarked upon, particularly in so far as it builds a bridge between two of his foremost influences, E.H. Carr and Hedley Bull. It was John who used to refer to my college, St Antony's, as a 'mini-United Nations', a term no doubt used to capture the hierarchy of the institution as well as its multiculturalism. In the course of the daily round of college life, I developed long-term friendships with people who indirectly contributed to my education in Oxford, in particular David Nickles, Mats Berdal, Richard Hanson, Shelly Leanne and Ana Covarrubias. One such bond was severed tragically when Holly Wyatt­ Walter died in 1996. Other members of the Inter-national Relations com­ munity in Oxford provided encouragement and personal support; here I have in mind Geoffrey Martin Ceadel Best, Rosemary Foot, Alex Pravda (the then St Antony's Series General editor), Adam Roberts, A vi Shlaim and Andrew Walter. One week after submitting the D.Phil thesis, I moved to Aberystwyth to take up a lectureship in international politics. I realised at the time that I was coming to a Department with a famous past; four years on, I have a strong conviction that our Department has an even better future. The prin­ cipal reason for the energy and creativity in the Department is, of course, viii Acknowledgements IX the leadership of Steve Smith. Ten years after first hearing him lecture, he continues to inspire as a teacher, writer and friend. Standing alongside Steve on the bridge of the ship called Interpol has been Ken Booth. I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to listen to Ken's critical voice draw from his stock of sound-bites, and since the early part of 1997, to work with him and our 'big ed' Michael Cox on the Review of International Studies. Like all good teams, the Department of International Politics is about more than the reputations of its star. At the other end of the corridor from the professorial suites there is a wealth of knowledge about the subject and a strong measure of good humour to be found in the busy offices of colleagues and research students. One friend and colleague in particular, Nick Wheeler, has had a profound impact on my thinking on the subject. I have been a constant borrower from his thinking on a whole range of ideas, from human rights to normative International Relations theory in general. His intellectual generosity has extended as far as reading the entire manuscript (some chapters more than once); in a phrase which he will instantly recognise, his 'influence' can be found 'on every page of it'. In addition, Nick encouraged me to draw directly from previously pub­ lished co-authored material in Chapter 7. The interpretation of Hedley Bull presented here is very much the result of a shared interest in and commitment to one of the great scholars of modern International Relations. Outside of Aberystwyth, I have received support for this project from a variety of sources. Within academic International Relations, I would like to acknowledge the advice of Michael Donelan, James Mayall, Cornelia Navari, Stephanie Lawson, Richard Little, Robert Jackson, Nicholas Rengger, James Richardson, Hidemi Suganarni, and Peter Wilson. I have been inspired by the words - written and spoken - of four other scholars in the field who have in different ways brought critical insights to bear on the English School; here I have in mind Chris Brown, Andrew Hurrell (who has provided critical feedback on Chapters 1, 7 and 8), Roger Epp (who read draft chapters and helped me in particular with the Christian realism of Wight and Butterfield) and Andrew Linklater (apart from providing helpful comments on earlier drafts of Chapters 1 and 2, he has more than anyone inspired mine and Nick's attempt to bridge the English School with critical international theory). Given that the book draws from a range of unpublished papers and cor­ respondence, I would like to thank the following individuals and institu­ tions for their help: Mary Bull for allowing me to quote from the Hedley X Acknowledgements Bull papers; the University of Cambridge Library for access to Herbert Butterfield's papers, and Peter Butterfield for his permission to copy them; the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, for access to their archives in regard to E.H. Carr's years as the Woodrow Wilson Professor; Kenneth W. Thompson for granting permission to quote from his correspondence with Butterfield in regard to the origins of the British Committee; the Royal Institute of International Affairs library for access to their collection of British Committee papers; Adam Watson for permission to quote from his correspondence with Wight and Bull regarding the leadership of the group after Butterfield had passed on the responsibility; and Gabriele Wight for allowing me to draw upon Martin Wight's correspondence. These rather formal acknowledgements disguise how indebted I am to those closest to the main characters in the book for their anecdotes and advice. Here I have in mind lengthy conversations with Carsten Holbraad, Brian Porter, Adam Watson, and especially Mary Bull, Angela Vincent and Gabriele Wight. In the final few months, the burden of completing the manuscript has been eased by the technical expertise of Elaine Lowe, and by Rob Dixon, who helped to compile the bibliography and index. It only remains for me to acknowledge my immediate and extended family for the support they have given in more ways than I could possibly mention. Thank you to Alan, Elizabeth, Andrea, George, Malcolm, Christiane, Eileen, and Caroline, thank you for being you and for being with me. TIM DUNNE Aberystwyth Introduction There is more to international relations than the realist suggests but less than the cosmopolitan desires. 1 Andrew Linklater E.H. Carr's explanation for the failure of 'utopianism' in his magnificent work The Twenty Years' Crisis is often regarded as the first real analysis of International Relations since its inception as a formal academic discipline.