International relations as a system and a discipline: From the westphalian to the post-westphalian world order

Alla Kyrydon

Director of the State Scientific Institution “Encyclopedic Publishing House" , Ukraine
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4375-5350

Sergiy Troyan

University of Rzeszow , Ukraine
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3053-6530


Abstract

 The review is devoted to the analysis of scientific work of Amitav Acharya and Barry Buzan, The Making of Global International Relations. Origins and Evolution of IR at its Centenary (Cambridge and New York, Cambridge University Press, 2019, 383 p.). Structurally, the work consists of an introduction and ten sections. Well-known Western theorists of international relations gave their vision of the evolution of the Westphalian world order during the twentieth century. They also revealed the reasons and nature of the transition of the world order to Post-Westphalian international relations after 1989 and substantiated the causes, principles and effects of the emergence and development of knowledge about International Relations. Based on the study and critical rethinking of the theory and practice of international relations of the XX – early XXI century (until 2017/2018) the authors singled out several meaningful blocks. This grouping allowed us to state the modernization of the Westphalian model of international relations and the formation and development of the science of International Relations in the Сenter and in the Periphery under the influence of a number of fateful events. First of all, we are talking about the impact of the two world wars, bipolar confrontation and the process of decolonization on the evolution of the Westphalian international system. The genesis of the discipline of International Relations after the end of the First World War was accompanied by the active expansion of its institutionalization, subject field and the inclusion of the periphery in this space. Radical changes in the world and international relations after 1989 led to the globalization of international relations and the final formation of the Post-Westphalian world order. The conceptual analysis of the evolution of international relations during the XX–XXI centuries on the basis of fundamental research by Western scientists and also theorists from outside the Western core allows us to state their essential changes under the influence of two world wars, globalization, decolonization and changes in the ratio of forces between the Сenter and the Periphery.

Keywords:

international relations, Westphalian international system, world wars, Cold War, decolonization, post-Westphalian world order

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Published
2021-06-28


Kyrydon, A., & Troyan, S. (2021). International relations as a system and a discipline: From the westphalian to the post-westphalian world order. Studia I Analizy Nauk O Polityce, (1), 107–122. https://doi.org/10.31743/sanp.12325

Alla Kyrydon  akyrydon@ukr.net
Director of the State Scientific Institution “Encyclopedic Publishing House" https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4375-5350
Sergiy Troyan 
University of Rzeszow https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3053-6530



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