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ID: 177733

Jeremy Bentham’s vision of international order / Cello, Lorenzo

Cello, Lorenzo	Journal Article
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Summary/Abstract

Despite the global influence of his works during and after his lifetime, Jeremy Bentham is a largely neglected figure in IR. While his utilitarian mode of reasoning and his relentless efforts to change British society have received significant scholarly attention, the same cannot be said of his international writings and his vision of an international order of liberal nations. Bentham’s “global intellectual activism” in promoting legal reform abroad during the 1810 s and 1820 s suggests that the prospect of “exporting” constitutional and representative forms of government was key to this vision. In piecing together Bentham’s mature constitutional theory and his vision of an international order of liberal nations, this paper sheds some light on the historical emergence of a deep-seated assumption that informs much of current debates about the future of the liberal international order: the belief in the moral superiority of liberal democracies and their central role in upholding international order.

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International Order ; Jeremy Bentham

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ID: 158721

Taking history seriously in IR: towards a historicist approach / Cello, Lorenzo

Cello, Lorenzo	Journal Article
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Summary/Abstract

IR scholars have always invoked history as a valuable resource for understanding the present. However, the question of how should we go about investigating and interpreting the past is rarely asked, let alone answered. While most IR approaches are anchored to the attempt to situate oneself outside history – reading the past in terms of the present or in terms of a hypothetical future – this article strives to redress the kind of historical perspective adopted, if at all, by IR scholars. It does so by advancing a distinctive historicist approach that emphasises the importance of understanding past practices and discourses in their own historical and intellectual contexts. In order to substantiate this claim, the article goes on to critically engage with recent calls to historicise intervention in IR, arguing that a historicist mode of analysis represents a corrective to presentism as well as an alternative route into present-day debates.

Key Words

Intervention ; Genealogy ; Critical Theory ; Context ; Presentism ; Historicism

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