Order and Violence
Hedley Bull and International Relations
R J Vincent editor J D B Miller editor
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Published:26th Jul '90
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
Hedley Bull, Montague Burton Professor of International Relations at Oxford from 1977 until his death in 1985, was one of the great scholars of his generation. He wrote within a tradition of political thought which he himself traced back to Hobbes and Hume and to Grotius and the natural lawyers. He not only added to the literature in this tradition, but he also showed how it could become a foundation for the study of International Relations. In this book, leading scholars attempt to come to terms with his contribution to the subject by offering essays on each of the major aspects of his thought. The central political question in International Relations is how order might exist amidst anarchy. This was the question which Hedley Bull took as his starting-point for thought, and he returned to it throughout his career, notably in his major work, The Anarchical Society. The exploration of this question is the central theme in the present volume, and each of the authors take it as a point of departure and examine it from a different point of view - such as society, order, the Third World, strategy, and the contemporary system, and of professing the subject of International Relations. The return to fundamentals involved in this enterprise will make this volume an important and valuable work. The contributors are: J. D. B. Miller, Stanley Hoffman, R. J. Vincent, T. B. Millar, Robert Gilpin Jr., James Richardson, and Carsten Holbraad.
'a welcome departure from the conventional festschrift ... which so often obscures the true worth of the recipient ... offers two distinct advantages: an appeal to the professional theorist of international relations and an admirable introduction to the undergraduate keen to explore the nature of international relations via the thought of one of its most distinguished thinkers' Times Higher Education Supplement
'an excellent volume of essays ... The book invites a reading, a rereading and a rethinking about Bull's contribution to international relations. In addition, Don Markwell's comprehensive bibliography of Bull's works provides a valuable reference source.' Ngaire Woods, Oxford International Review 1990
'an informative and revealing account of Bull's background and intellectual development ... a set of enagaging arguments which will become recommended reading and stimulate students and teachers alike' Mark Hoffman, London School of Economics and Political Science, Political Studies, Volume XXXIX Number 1 March 1991
`This is a highly absorbing book on one of the most important scholars of international relations of the post-war period ... stimulating and elegantly produced volume ... it is a most valuable contribution to international relations historiography, and no less importantly, it provides an excellent point of reference for further research on the questions and concerns which Bull did so much to clarify.' Millenium
'Festschrifts far too frequently lapse into hagiolatry. That Order and Violence is not going to succumb to this tendency is evident from the opening pages where J.D.B. Miller presents a frank assessment of Hedley Bull as scholar and colleague. The subsequent essays are equally candid in noting the shortcomings in Bull's work: his tendency to oscillate between rationalist and realist perspectives. There is, of course, much compensating discussion of the strengths of Bull's approach and of the enormous impact that he had on the international relations discipline.' John Ravenhill, Australian National University, Australian Journal of International Affairs, 11/92
ISBN: 9780198275558
Dimensions: 223mm x 144mm x 19mm
Weight: 435g
228 pages