Whither IR? Multiplicity, relations, and the paradox of International Relations
Powel, B
Date: 16 October 2019
Article
Journal
Globalizations
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Publisher DOI
Abstract
Justin Rosenberg rightly highlights the paucity of International Relations’ (IR) influence in
other disciplines, and selected works in historical sociology demonstrate the significance
of the international to others whilst also revealing problematic understandings of the
international itself. In this regard, Rosenberg’s intervention ...
Justin Rosenberg rightly highlights the paucity of International Relations’ (IR) influence in
other disciplines, and selected works in historical sociology demonstrate the significance
of the international to others whilst also revealing problematic understandings of the
international itself. In this regard, Rosenberg’s intervention is welcome. However, in
staking the disciplinary credentials of IR) on ‘societal multiplicity’, Rosenberg inadvertently
exposes IR as part of a wider convergence on the ontological importance of relations
(rather than substances) across the social sciences. Historical sociology scholarship also
reveals the international to be but one part of an interconnected, multi-scalar social world
that is shaped by multiplicity across all scales; multiplicity and relations permeate social
scales. By exploring the Czechoslovak Corps in the Russian Revolution, the article broadens
Rosenberg’s multiplicity whilst also revealing the paradox of a multiplicitous IR: the more
IR acknowledges multi-scalar relations, the less distinguishable it becomes from the other
social sciences.
Social and Political Sciences, Philosophy, and Anthropology
Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
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