Jacinta O'Hagan

• PhD ANU
• Managing Director at The University of Queensland

There are growing calls to address the Eurocentrism of classical English School (ES) scholarship and to adopt more holistic frameworks of analysis, which include alternative, non-Western forms of international order and interactions with the European international systems. This article investigates Adam Watson’s contribution to ‘decentring’ the ES....

The concept of civilization is intrinsic to the English School’s understanding of international society. At the same time, engagement with discourses of civilization has been an important site of contestation within the English School, with quite different narratives of the evolution, structures and dynamics of international society being articulat...

Humanitarian diplomacy has always been a crucial element of humanitarianism, however it is now becoming a more prominent element of states’ foreign policies. It holds many attractions and much promise. It provides states with a way of expressing important qualities of international empathy and solidarity and can also enhance a state’s international...

In the ‘Disunity of Mankind’, Martin Wight addresses a recurrent dilemma in Western thought: how do we reconcile conceptions of human community with those of human diversity? The ways in which diversity is understood and the meanings attached to difference has significant implications for political orders and human interaction. The deployment of di...

One of the most important developments in world politics in the last decade has been the spread of the idea that state sovereignty comes with responsibilities as well as privileges, and that there exists a global responsibility to protect people threatened by mass atrocities. The principle of the Responsibility to Protect is an acknowledgment by al...

There is an ever-growing demand in the world for humanitarian action in response to the suffering caused by complex emergencies and natural disasters. Part of the power and appeal of humanitarianism is its universality, that is, the idea that humanitarianism is premised on cross-cultural moral truths and principles and a concern for the alleviation...

Media has always been a critical dimension of politics and of political violence. Information about violence and conflict is disseminated through the media. Media is also a mechanism through which the politics of violence is monitored, represented and interpreted. While the historical relationship between old media and political violence has long b...

Debates about liberal internationalism in general and ‘purposes beyond ourselves’ in particular have focused largely on the role of states. Such a focus risks limiting our potential to achieve solidarist goals by tying us to the ontological and ethical concerns of the state. This article argues that a more expansive conception of agency, which incl...

Introduction This chapter begins by briefly outlining some of the key principles and concepts that are widely viewed as comprising the core of modern humanitarianism. It then outlines why and how humanitarian ideas and concerns have become more prominent in international relations, before reflecting on the challenges posed and faced by humanitarian...

Civilization is a notoriously complex term the meaning of which has evolved and shifted across time and context (Arnason, 2001; Braudel, 1995; Mazlish, 2001). It has stood for many different ideas across history (Salter, 2002). In order to understand this complex term we often draw upon associated concepts, locating civilization in particular geogr...

Considers the relationship between culture and international society, a question that subtly permeates the work of the English School of International Relations. Begins by examining ideas among the first wave of English School authors about the role of culture in the formation of international society. Next, it considers assumptions about the relat...

Without a doubt, the politics of identity are now firmly and prominently placed on the agenda of IR. Events in the Balkans, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia have increasingly drawn attention to the importance of how communities perceive themselves and others. This renewed interest in identity and world politics has often focused on national and et...

This paper engages with that by William Tow. By discussing the contentious aspects of the interpretive traditions used in Tow's article and further interrogating the distinction between hard power and soft power, it draws attention to the contested nature of international relations theory in general, as well as to the need for a diversity of approa...

West is a concept widely used in international relations, but we rarely reflect on what we mean by the term. Conceptions of and what the West is vary widely. This book examines conceptions of the West drawn from writers from diverse historical and intellectual contexts, revealing both interesting parallels and points of divergence. It also reflects...

The contemporary debate concerning the shape and possibilities of world politics, on which this volume has focused, is a debate about fundamentals. The protagonists have not focused on questions concerning the relative power of particular states, or on how particular international regimes can be bolstered, or on the fortunes of particular alliances...

The relatively peaceful conclusion of the Cold War encouraged many to hope for the commencement of a new era of international relations; one characterized by co-operation and growth. However, by the early 1990s, there was a growing sense of pessimism and insecurity. This was reflected in the emergence of a new metaphor for future world politics, th...

In 1989, just prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall, Francis Fukuyama penned his famous essay, ‘The End of History?’. His dramatic image of a new world in which ideological struggle was coming to an end, and in which perpetual peace among the liberal democracies was in prospect, was the opening gambit in a debate about the essential features of the...