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Hobbes and international relations: a reconsideration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

Michael C. Williams
Michael C. Williams
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Southern Maine, Portland.
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Abstract

Hobbes has long been a central figure in the theory of international relations. He has also been a badly misunderstood one. While often invoked to support contemporary theories of international politics, Hobbes's thinking actually challenges rational-choice theories, the structural realism of Kenneth Waltz, and the “rationalist” approach of the English school. Indeed, the skeptical foundations of his political vision place him closer to contemporary postpositivist positions, though here, too, his views raise difficult and important questions for such a stance. In general, Hobbes's theory of international relations focuses not upon the determinations of anarchy in any conventional sense but upon issues of knowledge, ideology, and legitimacy in the construction of political orders both domestically and internationally.

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International Organization , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , Spring 1996, pp. 213 - 236
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 1996

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