Conceptual Change and Conceptual History in International Relations

Abstract

The aim of this panel is twofold. It will venture to further the academic relationship of history and International Relations (IR) not in the sense of a possible utility of the findings claimed by one discipline to the benefit of another, but in the sense of historicising the discipline of IR by placing into ‘rhetorical’ perspective its primary sources and the modes of theory-building. The panel will continue the debate over the merits of ‘conceptual history’ as such methodological bridge and seek to explore the potentialities of this approach to the study of IR theories. Secondly, the panel will address these issues by analysing the history and trajectories of the key concepts in IR, such as ‘world’, ‘the international’, ‘international community and society’, ‘sovereignty’ and ‘power’. Informed by the approach of conceptual history these studies will emphasise the issues of conceptual change, political and historical contingency as a key to understanding political reality via knowledge structures and as a way to identify the grounds for empowering alternative conceptual perspectives and voices without lapsing into discourse of cultural diversity and relativity. Particularly, the panel will include the studies in conceptual history that look either into transformation of concepts and disciplinary borders by the contemporary representatives of rival theoretical orientations or cases in diplomatic history that reflect a conceptual change relevant to IR theories.

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