The Never-Never Land of International Relations

Scholarship about scholarship, like theory about theory, and teaching about teaching, is rarely very stimulating. Such commodities are not in short supply in the field of international relations, and this is not an attempt to add to them. The purpose of this paper is rather to question whether the study of international relations is proceeding in a desirable direction, and, if not, thereby to offer a suggestion for the reorientation of international relations scholarship. The utility of any academic discipline (including international relations) is measured ultimately by the contribution made to the understanding of human problems and/or to the improvement of the human condition. This is particularly true of the social sciences, which focus upon human beings as they relate to each other in the process of group interaction.