From Structure to Complexity: Exploring the Relationship Between History and International Relations Theory through the Falklands & Iraq Conflicts

When International Relations (IR) began to emerge as an academic discipline in the early 20th Century,
many of its most prominent scholars, such as E.H. Carr, were themselves historians and early IR theory
was deeply rooted in the field of history (Duke, 1993). However, in the post-Second World War era
with the onset of the Cold War, the historical focus of realism was replaced with a newfound emphasis
on structure (Waltz, 1979). Nonetheless, the end of the Cold War was a transition point for the
relationship between history and IR which, overlapping with Francis Fukuyama's neo-Hegelian
approach to the end of history (Fukuyama, 1992), laid the foundations for a return to history in IR
theory (Welsh, 2016). Equally, the emergence of realist constructivism as a critique of structural
realism in the post-Cold War period illustrates that there is room to re-evaluate what a closer
relationship between history and I.R. can offer both disciplines (Barkin, 2003, p.325).