1: Origins of IR

Origins of IR

International Relations (IR) emerged as a distinct academic discipline in the early 20th century, fundamentally shaped by the catastrophic experience of World War I (1914-1918). Prior to this, the study of relations between states was largely subsumed within history, law, philosophy, or political theory. The unprecedented scale of destruction and the profound desire to prevent future global conflicts provided the primary impetus for establishing IR as a specialized field of inquiry.

The formal birth of IR is often traced to 1919, with two pivotal events. First, the Treaty of Versailles formally ended the war and attempted to restructure the international order. Second, and directly linked, was the creation of the League of Nations – the first major international organization dedicated to collective security and peaceful dispute resolution. This explicit effort to institutionalize peace demanded systematic academic study. Consequently, the world's first dedicated chair in International Politics, the Woodrow Wilson Chair, was established at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth (UK) in 1919, funded by David Davies, a Welsh industrialist deeply affected by the war. This institutionalization marked IR's separation from other fields.

The discipline's initial focus was overwhelmingly normative and policy-oriented: understanding the causes of war and identifying pathways to lasting peace. Early scholarship, often termed "Idealism" or "Utopianism," reflected this optimism. Thinkers like Norman Angell (author of The Great Illusion, arguing war was economically irrational) and Alfred Zimmern emphasized international law, morality, disarmament, and the potential of institutions like the League to foster cooperation and replace power politics. The core belief was that war was preventable through reason, enlightened self-interest, and institutional design.

However, the failure of the League of Nations to prevent aggression by Japan, Italy, and Germany in the 1930s, culminating in World War II, triggered a profound crisis and shift within the fledgling discipline. The outbreak of WWII starkly challenged the premises of Idealism. This paved the way for the rise of Realism in the late 1930s and 1940s, spearheaded by scholars like E.H. Carr (whose 1939 The Twenty Years' Crisis critiqued Idealism) and Hans Morgenthau. Realism, focusing on power, national interest, and the inescapable reality of anarchy in the international system, became the dominant theoretical perspective during the Cold War, reflecting the new era's pervasive security concerns and bipolar power struggle. This early tension between idealism and realism fundamentally structured the discipline's core theoretical debates.