The Historicity of International Politics. Imperialism and the Presence of the Past
Klaus Schlichte (U Bremen) & Stephan Stetter (U of the Bundeswehr, Munich)
Abstract
Book Discussion: The Historicity of International Politics. Imperialism and the Presence of the Past.
The past is constantly present, not least in the study of imperialism and imperial forms of power in international politics. This volume shows how historical trajectories have shaped international affairs covering a wide range of imperial and (post-) colonial settings in international politics, substantiating the claim that imperial and colonial legacies – and how they have transformed over time – are foundational to the historicity of international politics. It contributes to debates on the role of history in International Relations (IR) by combining theoretical arguments on the role of history through the concept of ‘historicity’ with concrete empirical analyses on a wide range of imperial and colonial legacies. This volume also advances interdisciplinary perspectives on this topic by fostering dialogue with Historical Sociology and Global History. It will interest scholars and advanced students of IR, historical sociology and global politics, especially those working on the history of international politics, and the legacies of colonialism and imperialism.
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Biographical Note
Klaus Schlichte (University of Bremen, Germany)
Since his PhD research in Senegal and Mali in 1994 Klaus Schlichte has studied dynamics of war, state formation and in different policy fields (taxation, social policy) in several countries (Serbia, France, Uganda, Germany). Numerous field research stays abroad and teaching at various universities in Germany and abroad (France, USA, Kyrgyzstan) have enriched his continental theoretical perspective that is built mainly on the political sociology of Max Weber, Karl Marx, Norbert Elias, Hannah Arendt and Pierre Bourdieu.
Over the last twenty years, most of Klaus Schlichte’s research has been conducted in teams with PhD students and Postdocs. He is currently involved in three such teams researching the knowledge production in German security policy and research, social policies in rural Africa and the international politics of armed groups.
Schlichte’s interest is to overcome the North-Atlantic bias in IR, based on a critical reading of authors in political sociology and social theory more generally. At the center of his thinking is a pretty Weberian idea, namely the question of how power becomes domination and how domination erodes. This is basically a reflection on why global asymmetries persist or change. Schlichte’s work is situated in political science/International Relations, but he has likewise worked with sociologists, historians and social anthropologists.
Stephan Stetter (University of the Bundeswehr, Munich, Germany)
Stephan Stetter teaches International Politics and Conflict Studies. His research focuses on theories of international politics in global modernity, primarily from a historical-sociological and social-theoretical perspective; empires and (post-)colonialism in international politics; politics, conflicts, and society in the Near and Middle East, with a focus on Israel and Palestine, as well as EU external relations with an emphasis on European neighborhood policy.
After studying at the Ruprecht-Karls University in Heidelberg, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), he completed his doctoral studies in 2004 with a thesis on EU foreign and domestic policy at LSE, including a six-month research stay at the European University Institute in Florence. From 2003 to 2006, he was a research assistant in the Department of Political Science and the Institute for World Society at the University of Bielefeld. From 2007 to 2008, Stephan Stetter served as a substitute professor of political science at the University of Bielefeld, where he was habilitated in January 2008. Since October 2008, he has been a professor at the University of the Federal Armed Forces in Munich (University of the Bundeswehr). From 2012 to 2018, he was one of the spokespeople for the International Relations section of the German Association for Political Science. Since 2010, he has been one of the editors of the Journal for International Relations (https://zib-online.org/), from 2010 to 2014 as the Managing Editor alongside Prof. Carlo Masala. From 2014 to 2018, he served as the Dean of the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences. Since October 2020, he has been the Deputy Chairman of the Senate of the University of the Federal Armed Forces in Munich.