Violence in international relations

The first and the last word

Bibliographic Data

ID4444378
AuthorsColin Wight (0000-0001-5913-5397, The University of Sydney, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume33
Issue2
Pages172-194
Publication date2019-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Relations (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-1178 • E-ISSN: 1741-2862
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0047117819851168
OpenAlexW2950172650
LanguageEN
Citations received4

This article examines change and continuity in the function, role and moral judgement of violence in international relations. In terms of change, the conclusions are mostly pessimistic if the aim is the complete eradication of political violence. The control of violence, on the other hand, and the ability to hold those who employ it to increasing moral and legal standards is perhaps one of the most significant changes in international relations from 1919 to 2019. However, this does not mean that violence has been replaced or even transformed. Violence is constitutive of the political. It is the first and the last word in politics. This is the continuity of violence. Violence, of which war is only the most visceral expression, has not been transformed or replaced, but rather it has been displaced into legal systems, institutional orders and new forms of conflict. Inter-state war may be in decline, but intra-state conflict is rising. To develop this argument, the article argues that change can only be understood as change against a horizon of continuity

Argument (complex analysis) · Criminology · Epistemology · Function (biology) · International relations · Judgement · Pessimism · Political science · Political violence · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science) · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · Law · Mathematics · Peacebuilding and International Security · War, Ethics, and Justification

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