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Period: 500 BCE to
Classical period of the Study of International Relations
The Classical Phase includes such authors as Thucydides, Plato, Hobbes, Machiavelli, Kant or Rousseau. They discussed the ideas related to modern International Relations, but it was not an official term yet. -
Peace of Westphalia
The Peace of Westphalia is important to modern international relations theory. this Treaty Is defined by many experts as the beginning of the international system and the birth of the discipline. -
Foundation of the First Think Tank
Think Tanks are another influential source for research in the discipline of International Relations. A think tank or policy institute is a research institute which performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture.
A prime example is the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace - a foreign-policy think tank. -
The League of Nations
The League of Nations was a international organization founded after the Paris Peace Conference, 1919. The League's goals included disarmament, preventing war through collective security, settling disputes between countries through negotiation diplomacy and improving global welfare. This was the first major IGO and its failure lead to the First Great Debate -
First Establishment of the International Relations Discipline
The establishment of the International Relations discipline came in 1919, at Aberystwyth, University of Wales.
The unprecedented destructiveness of the Great War(WW I), called for the eradication of War. It led to the
institutionalization of the discipline, and by that of the research program to study it in a more thorough and detailed manner. -
Foundation of the First Professional Association regarding International Relations
Journal Associations and Professional Associations were created as a tool for scholars to publish their work in regards
to international relations for their peers to receive and distribute more information regarding this discipline.
The Royal Institute of International Affairs, commonly known as Chatham House, is one of the first non-profit
and non-governmental organisation based in London whose mission is to analyse and promote the
understanding of international issues and current affairs. -
Period: to
The First Great Debate
The first great debate was an ontological debate, erupted between liberalism and realism. Carr was a key figure for the Realist side, and this debate would be later be considered as the event that lead to the double establishment of the discipline. -
Emergence of Realism in the IR theory
The Realism paradigm became strong voice in the years leading to WWII, as some thought that Liberalism was not the answer of this discipline
An important representative is Edward H. Carr, with his "The Twenty Years' Crisis: 1919–1939" book.
The book and its author are credited for the 2nd Establishment of the IR discipline. His work led to the "First
Great Debate" in International Relations between Liberalism and Realism. -
Second Establishment of the International Relations discipline
The second establishment came in 1948, after the end of WWII. Scholars consider this as the
theoretical establishment of the discipline, with the two foundational works, the one of E.H. Carr "The Twenty
Years Crisis" and H. Morghentau's "Politics Among Nations". The reaction to the liberal internationalism
dominated the discipline’s second establishment. -
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The Second Great Debate
The second great debate is said to have been a epistemological quarrel in the 1950s and 1960s between
‘behaviourism’ and ‘traditionalism’. The main question of this debate was, "what is the most appropriate way of pursuing
and acquiring knowledge in international relations?” This debate also wanted to keep the discipline on par with the other studies such as economics. -
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The Third Great Debate
In the third great debate the mainstream approaches of neorealism and neoliberalism became engaged in
dialogue and at the same time were forced to defend themselves against other "critical” theories. The first and the most
important was the appearance of neo-Marxism. This debate was called the neo-neo debate or the
interparadigm debate. This debate witnessed the rise of international interdependence. -
Emergence of Neo-Marxism
The Neo-Marxist approach emerged in the 70s, with the work of Robert Cox, Immanuel
Wallerstein and Erik Olin Wright.
The Neo-Marxist approach to development of economics is connected with dependency and world systems
theories. In these cases, the "exploitation" that classifies it as Marxist is an external one, rather than the
normal "internal" exploitation of classical Marxism. -
Emergence of Neo-Realism
Neo-realism is a theory of international relations that says power is the most
important factor in international relations. Kenneth N.Waltz's "Theory of International Politics", written in 1979, is
considered one of the main books of the neo-realist theory, which once again, puts in forefront the concept of
anarchy in International Relations. He regarded the central puzzle of world politics as the international state-system and the struggle for power and security over several millennia -
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The Fourth Great Debate
The fourth debate is an epistemological debate. It is about how should we study IRs. Which methods are
considered as the most useful tools of analysis. The participants of this debate are constructivism and the rational or
positivist approaches (liberalism, realism and marxism).
The most important representative of the constructivist approach is Alexander Wendt, he published his book
under the title “Social Theory of International Politics” in 1999 and initiated the fourth debate. -
Emergence of Neo-Liberalism
Neoliberalism is the 20th-century resurgence of 19th-century ideas associated
with laissez-faire economic liberalism and free market capitalism. This analysis of international regimes argued that the economic and technological development required new forms of international political cooperation. Robert Keohane's book, Power and Interdependence, is
considered one of the prime examples of the neo-liberalism theory. Other important figures are John Burton and Ernst Haas.
