Systems and Boundaries in International History

The recent transnational, global and cultural turns have challenged international historians to reconsider the approach, purpose and value of their field. Although the new trends are beneficial to the extent that they challenge the premise that the nation state should be the primary framework of historical inquiry, the boundaries of international history have expanded too far and that the cultural turn’s preoccupation with national discourses at the expense of international structures and processes is diverting the field away from the analysis of the causes of war and the conditions of peace. I will argue that international history should distinguish itself from global and transnational history by drawing clear yet open disciplinary boundaries. Every field of inquiry needs some consensus about what it is, where it is going and why, in other words, an identity, purpose and values. I will argue that what defines international history is its focus on the origins, structures, processes and outcomes of international politics, above all the causes of war and the conditions of peace.