Thesis Title:
World Order Thinking: A History of International Thought since 1968.
Thesis Abstract:
This thesis is a cultural history of international thought in the late twentieth century. It examines how the major social transformations of the 1960s reshaped international thought and ideas of world order. More specifically, it tells the story of the World Order Models Project, a global intellectual movement, and the culture of “world order thinking” it cultivated.
The thesis shows how this intellectual culture both shaped and challenged prevailing ideas of what it means to be a “good” social scientist in general and a scholar of international relations in particular. It contextualises the key ideas and activities of the World Order Models Project, traces how it was received, and how world order thinking transformed over time. It argues that this culture that emerged in the 1960s continues to inform understandings of “good” international relations scholarship and conceptions of world order today.
The study draws on original archival research conducted in Britain, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, and the United States, and nearly 40 oral history interviews. To study history of international thought from a cultural perspective, it utilises and develops the concept of “intellectual persona.” In doing so, it intervenes in debates not only in International Relations but also in personae studies and intellectual history.
Primary Supervisor:
Professor Nicholas Michelsen