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A distillation of the thought and research to which Herbert Butterfield devoted the last twenty years of his life to, this book, originally published in 1981, traces how differently people understood the relevance of their past and its connection with their religion. It examines ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia; the political perceptiveness of the Hittites; the Jewish sense of God in history, of promise and fulfilment; the classical achievement of scientific history; and the unique Chinese tradition of historical writing. The author explains the problems of the early Christians in relating their traditions of Jesus to their life and faith and the emergence, when Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire, of a new historical understanding. The book then charts the gradual growth of a sceptical approach to recorded authority in Islam and Western Europe, the reconstruction of the past by deductive analysis of the surviving evidence and the secularisation of the eighteenth century.

`This is a real feast of a book.... a landmark book. It is clear enough to be used as a teaching text, and could make an excellent introduction to the discipline for those courageous enough to revise their courses.'International Affairs`This is a bold, successful and valuable book... It is written with admirable clarity and merciful conciseness.'International Relations`A stunning success. Watson's book is a masterful piece of theoretical and historical analysis.'John A. Vasquez, Rutgers UniversityAdam Watson, who died in 2007, was a former diplomat who in his later academic career became a pioneer of the discipline of international relations. Originally published in 1992, The Evolution of International Society made a major contribution to international theory and to our perception of how relations between states operate, and established Watson's place within the canon.This acclaimed and uniquely comprehensive work explains how international societies function across time, starting by examining the ancient state systems before turning to look in detail at the current worldwide international society. The book demonstrates that relations between states are not normally anarchic, but are in fact organized and regulated by elaborate rules and practices.In this timely reissue, a new introduction by Barry Buzan and Richard Little assesses Adam Watson's career as a diplomat and examines how his work as a practitioner shaped his subsequent thinking about the nature of international society. It then contextualises Watson's original work, situates it alongside current work in the area and identifies the originality of Watson's key arguments, helping us to understand Watson's place within the canon.

This collection of essays records the development of Adam Watson's thinking about international theory from the 1950s to the present, exploring his contribution to, and the development of, the English School. Adam Watson was one of the members of the British Committee on the Theory of International Politics alongside Herbert Butterfield, Martin Wight and Hedley Bull and a founding member of the English School. The committee developed a theory of international society and the nature of order in world politics, which have had an important impact on the discipline of international relations, providing a framework and research agenda for understanding international politics that continues to shape the discipline in the present day.Hegemony & History examines issues such as: the behaviour of states in international systems and societies hegemony and empire justice non-state relations, including the economic involvement of communities and the role of other non-state actors the increasing focus of international politics on individuals as well as states. The book will be of strong interest to students and researchers of international relations, political science, history and economics, as well as diplomatic practitioners and others concerned with international affairs.

In the first major assessment of diplomatic dialogue since Nicolson's Diplomacy in 1939, Adam Watson traces the changing techniques of diplomacy from ancient times through the'diplomatic society'of Europe to the present global system. In examining the conventions and institutions which help to shape the international system the author aims not so much to preserve diplomatic order which worked well in the past but rather to identify the continuities and the new conditions which will enable the dialogue to function in the future. He pays special attention to the extension of the dialogue into new fields and to the impact of the newly independent states of the third world. This leads him to argue strongly that the world's growing interdependence has increased rather than lessened the scope of diplomacy in the nuclear age.

Nation states are not as independent as they seem. In The Limits of Independence, Adam Watson explores how independence of action is limited by both a tightening net of interdependence between countries and by the rules which the'international society of states'has put in place to manage order and change. He also argues that the external and internal behaviour of independent states is increasingly determined by the influence of the richest and strongest powers. After setting out the general framework of restraint imposed on states, Adam Watson details the attempts to limit national sovereignties from Napoleon to the European Union. The Limits of Independence discusses pressures on smaller states and relates reactions against independence to current international theory and the practice of world powers.