Edmund Burke and the Commonwealth of Europe: The Cultural Bases of International Order

Abstract

John Vincent was the first to note the neglect of Edmund Burke’s mind by scholars of international relations, compared with the considerable attention that has been heaped on his ideas by biographers, historians, literary theorists, and political philosophers.¹ I will not try to replicate his overview of Burke’s international theory. Instead, I propose to deal more specifically with two aspects of Burke’s thought which most interested Vincent in his own scholarly work: the question of intervention² and the role of culture in world politics.³ In the writings and speeches of Burke, these two areas of international relations theory can be examined most usefully through his unique conception of European international society, which he refers to as the ‘Commonwealth of Europe’. Accordingly, this chapter will first outline the features of this Commonwealth of Europe, and its substantive cultural underpinnings. It will then move on to discuss Burke’s theory of intervention, which emerges directly from the French Revolutionary challenge to that Commonwealth. It will conclude with some thoughts about Burke’s relationship to Wight’s three traditions, and the relevance of his ideas on culture and international order to the present theory and practice of international relations.