Reinventing International Society: English School identitycrisis and the study of IR paradigms

This thesis is about the history of the English School (ES) -one of the main theoretical paradigms in the discipline ofInternational Relations (IR). The ES has a long history andthrough its key concepts, including international society,solidarism and institutions, it provides a distinctive macro-level approach to the study of international politics. The ESalso contributes to crucial policy debates of our time. Theseinclude debates around non-intervention, the decline of theliberal international order and the emergence of norms andinstitutions. However, in recent decades the ES has splitinto two philosophically incommensurable wings - thepositivists and the interpretivists. The ES has becomemurky and difficult to understand. My thesis seeks toprovide a detailed history of the intellectual paradigm from1990 to 2020 to improve our understanding of the ES. Thedriving force of this project is to make sense of the"paradigm identity" of the ES. This necessitates goingbeyond traditional means of investigation in the history ofinternational thought. Indeed, the project situates itself inthe interdisciplinary space of IR that embraces history andhistoriography, psychology, philosophy of science andsociology of knowledge. Although the thesis is intended fora specialised IR audience, it is of interest to everyonecurious about how scientific paradigms across alldisciplines find adherents, how they struggle to definethemselves and construct identities.