A Lost Generation? IR Scholarship before World War I

The traditional understanding of the origins of international relations (IR) is on the ropes. The old vision of a discipline that was born under an idealist star and matured through a first 'Great Debate' is no longer credible. This article offers an alternative understanding: viz. that a scholarly study of IR emerged during the decades prior to World War I, that the emergence represents an international movement, and that it was occasioned by major changes in Great Power economic and political affairs. By posing a few simple questions - who were the first scholarly IR-authors? where and why they write? - this article identifies some of the formative forces that produced the first (now largely lost) generation of IR scholars. It proposes a historically grounded, alternative to our traditional (largely British and mythological) understanding of early IR scholarship. International Politics (2008) 45, 650-674. doi:10.1057/ip.2008.30; published online 1 August 2008