-- Please excuse multiple posting --
SURVEY OF "CLASSICS" IN THE STUDY OF FOREIGN POLICY
------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a request to students of international relations and
foreign policy to help me in compiling a list of key works (or
"classics") in the study of foreign policy. The list is
intended to serve as a guide in the context of a larger
research project on foreign policy analysis (to which I will
say more below).
The question is this:
What do you -- as a student of international
relations and foreign policy -- consider to be
THE FIVE (5) MOST IMPORTANT WORKS
(OR "CLASSICS") THAT HAVE CRUCIALLY
SHAPED THE STUDY OF FOREIGN POLICY
since the beginnings of "International Relations" as an
academic discipline after World War I?
Before I elaborate in more detail what I would like potential
respondents to focus on, let me emphasize the following:
WHAT I LIKE YOU TO DO:
I do realize that I am asking you to spare some of your
precious time in helping me to conduct this peer survey.
I also realize that what interests me may be of little
interest to others.
In order to minimize the boredom of non-interested
addressees I would invite respondents to
SEND their REPLY directly to my e-mail address:
WHAT I OFFER IN RETURN:
In return for your efforts in responding to my request I
offer to send the results of this survey to any
individual respondent in addition to making them available
via internet.
DETAILS OF THE SURVEY
In order to be as clear as possible about my objectives I
would like to emphasize the following points about the
question of this survey:
1. _ADDRESSEES_: This request
is NOT ONLY addressed to those "experts" in International
Relations (IR) or Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA) /
Comparative Foreign Policy (CFP) who would regard the
study of foreign policy to be their primary research or
teaching interest. It is ADDRESSED TO ANY STUDENT OF
IR/FPA/CFP who has, in one way or another, been
confronted with the study of foreign policy during
his/her carreer; in other words, the "range" of potential
respondents to this request includes the "typical"
graduate student of political science who has done but a
few courses in the subdiscipline of IR as well as the
senior scholar who has published widely on foreign
policy.
2. _WHAT KIND OF "IMPORTANT WORKS"?_: I am interested in
EITHER MONOGRAPHS OR ARTICLES;
3. _WHAT CRITERIA?_: The central criterion for including
titles in your "hit list" should be whether -- from your
point of view -- the monographs or articles considered
have had a MAJOR IMPACT ON HOW THE DISCIPLINE HAS
APPROACHED THE SUBJECT MATTER of foreign policy; in other
words, I am NOT asking you, which works in particular you
"liked" or which you thought would have deserved to have
been influential in shaping the discipline (even though
they weren't); rather, I would like you to name those
titles which, in your perception, have IN FACT SHAPED THE
DISCIPLINE;
4. _WHAT "FOREIGN POLICY"?_: My principal focus is on
"foreign policy". Having said that, I am aware that some
colleagues regard the distinction between "international
relations" (or "international politics" or "world
politics" etc.) on the one hand and "foreign policy" on
the other as arbitrary. If you would -- for a moment --
accept the notion of "foreign policy" in terms of the
traditionally widespread (and obviously very rough)
conception of the EXTERNAL POLITICAL ACTIVITIES OF
STATES, what scholarly publications do you consider most
influential in _EITHER_ "International Relations" [ie.
the political science sub-discipline] _OR_ "Foreign
Policy Analysis" / "Comparative Foreign Policy" [ie. so-
to-say the IR sub-discipline]? The rationale here is to
allow for the inclusion of titles which some may not
consider part of "Foreign Policy Analysis" / "Comparative
Foreign Policy" even though they might have had some
(indirect) influence on how "foreign policy" is studied.
5. _WHERE TO START_: Some might want to locate the
beginnings of "serious" scholarly work on foreign policy
after Word War II; others may want to point out works
that predate World War I; I thought that the widely
accepted convention of locating the beginnings of IR as
an "academic discipline" in the immediate aftermaths of
WW I would be a good way to start. However, feel free to
choose the works you consider most influential --
irrespective of what you think is an "appropriate" way of
locating a "beginning" for the discipline;
6. _NUMBER OF TITLES_: The exact number of titles listed by
any individual respondent is less important than
collecting as many responses as possible. So if you feel
you can only list 2 or 3 titles, do not let yourself be
deterred by the proposed number of 5 titles. Conversely,
if you would like to list more than five titles, please
titles; however, I thought that this might not be
manageable);
7. _ESTABLISHING A HIERARCHY?_: If you wish, feel free to
establish a hierarchy of what you consider the MOST and
LEAST IMPORTANT monographs among the "classics" you list;
(however, establishing a hierarchy is less important than
naming titles, ie. responding at all;)
8. _WHAT BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DATA?_: In order to use your time
effectively and efficiently, do not bother with the full
bibliographical details. It would be perfectly fine for
respondents to simply list the LAST NAME(S) OF THE
AUTHOR(S) AND THE APPROXIMATE TITLE. It shouldn't be that
difficult for me to figure out what is being refered to.
I hope that this elaboration clarifies whatever question may
arise. However, if you think it doesn't, please do not
hesitate to contact me. (It may take a little while, though,
until you hear from me, since I am not plugging in on e-mail
that often these days.)
BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE OF THE SURVEY
This survey is part of a larger project on (German) foreign
policy. In this project I am planning to include, among
others, a longer review of the literature in IR and FPA/CFP on
the study of foreign policy, trying to show HOW the discipline
evolved -- with respect to how it approached its subject
matter -- and trying to explain WHY it developed as it did.
(BY THE WAY: if respondents have suggestions as to
particularly good and/or "unconventional" "state-of-the-art"-
reviews of the study of foreign policy, I would very much
appreciate a note.)
When I did some preliminary research, it occurred to me that
it would be helpful to ask fellow IR/FPA students and
colleagues to name the most influential works in the study of
foreign policy (the assumption being that the titles they
would point out would indeed have to be counted among the most
important ones; the idea to conduct this survey was also
pushed forward when I recently read an article by the American
sociologist Jeffrey Alexander on "The Centrality of the
Classics" in sociology [in: Anthony Giddens and Jonathan H.
Turner, Eds, Social Theory Today, Polity Press 1987, pp. 11-
57] ). In the review of the literature I am planning
to conduct I would then concentrate in particular on those
monographs/articles pointed out by colleagues and fellow
IR/FPA students.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
I hope that recipients of this message now have at least some
idea what this survey is supposed to be good for. In addition,
I hope that recipients will come to share my judgement that
such a survey could be of some value to the "scientific
community" more broadly. As a result I hope that many will
participate.
A final note: If you agree with me that this is a worthwhile
project, I would very much appreciate if you could forward
this message to relevant colleagues: the more responses we can
collect from the GLOBAL "scientific community", the better!!!
Thank you for your time and assistance.
Gunther Hellmann
_______________________________________
Gunther Hellmann
Technische Hochschule Darmstadt
FB 2 / Institut fuer Politikwissenschaft
Residenzschloss
D-64283 Darmstadt
Germany
Tel. +49-6151-16-2542
Fax. +49-6151-16-3992
email. hellmann@pg.th-darmstadt.de
________________________________________