The Study of International Relations in the United Kingdom

Abstract

The notion of a ‘British school’ of International Relations has become common currency over the last decade, certainly among the British themselves. Roy Jones has strongly attacked the illusions of the English approach (sic) with its supposed emphasis on the existence of a discrete international society; Steve Smith has written on the contrast with American approaches (and encouraged colleagues on the same path), and Gene Lyons has reviewed recent literature from the United Kingdom for readers of World Politics.¹ They all assume the existence of a distinctive British perspective and school of thought on International Relations, although none are so naive as to pretend that this school does not overlap with other national traditions, or that it does not have internal divisions of its own.