International Affairs (journal)

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History

1922–1945

In the wake of the First World War, the British (later Royal) Institute of International Affairs was established in 1920. It was based at Chatham House in London. Two years later the first issue of its journal was published. The founding editor, Geoffrey Malcolm Gathorne-Hardy, wrote in the first editorial that ‘the journal will, it is hoped… become a source of information and a guide to judgment in international affairs.’ [5]

The historian Arnold J. Toynbee was a regular contributor in the early years of International Affairs Arnold J. Toynbee Anefo.jpg
The historian Arnold J. Toynbee was a regular contributor in the early years of International Affairs

For much of its early life the journal consisted of transcriptions of the major addresses and speeches given at Chatham House.

In 1931 the journal was renamed International Affairs. During that decade a number of highly regarded authors were featured including Mahatma Gandhi, who visited Chatham House in 1931 to give a speech titled ‘The Future of India.’ [6] The historian Arnold J. Toynbee also appeared several times in the journal. The onset of the Second World War in 1939 saw the journal suspended ‘until further notice.’ [7] Activity did not completely cease during the war, however, as a comprehensive book review supplement – often consisting of as many as 60 or more reviews – was published three times per year for four years. Taken together these supplements formed the 19th volume of International Affairs when publication resumed in 1944. [8]

1945–1970

In the aftermath of the Second World War and through the 1950s International Affairs published many articles focused on the development of international institutions as well as analysis of Soviet foreign policy and the ongoing Cold War. The journal also maintained its global scope by covering the major events of the period for the African continent. As the wave of independence struggles gained momentum, articles for a special issue on Africa were commissioned and published in October 1960. Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere, as well as the heads of states of Tunisia and Mali were published in the journal around this period. [9] Continuing to transcribe the major speeches given at Chatham House, in 1964 the journal published an article by Ernesto Che Guevara on the economic transformation of Cuba under Fidel Castro. [10] Domestic political figures also published in International Affairs, including Vince Cable. [11] [12]

1970–1991

By the 1970s International Affairs had transitioned from acting solely as a record of Chatham House speeches to also publishing scholarly articles. Works by the likes of Hedley Bull, [13] Joseph Nye [14] and Susan Strange exemplified this new approach, including Strange's influential article ‘International economics and international relations: a case of mutual neglect.’ [15] Indeed, Strange was a prolific regular contributor to the journal due to her links with Chatham House – publishing 81 articles and book reviews between 1950 and 1996 . During the 1980s this new reputation for academic research was combined with a focus on current affairs.

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger contributed an article in 1982. Henry Kissinger.jpg
Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger contributed an article in 1982.

Articles on Afghanistan, Iran and the Falklands War appeared alongside more theoretical contributions to the field of International Relations. International security, nuclear weapons and the continuing instability in the Middle East were recurring themes. In 1982 the former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s Chatham House speech appeared in the journal, titled ‘Reflections on a partnership: British and American attitudes to postwar foreign policy.’ [16]

1991–present

The fall of the Soviet Union created a new geopolitical landscape, and in 1991 International Affairs published its first in a long line of articles seeking to understand the new reality: future Estonian president Lennart Meri’s ‘Estonia’s role in the new Europe’. [17] In 1995, the 75th anniversary of Chatham House was commemorated with a special issue featuring reflections by Sir Michael Howard, Fred Halliday, Paul Krugman, Malcolm Bradbury and others. [18] The 75th anniversary of the journal itself was celebrated in 1999.

The political implications of the 9/11 terror attacks on the United States resulted in a response from the journal, with a special issue April 2002 titled ‘New orders, new norms,’ [19] which included an article by Joseph Nye. [20] Through commissioning targeted special issues, International Affairs has covered a range of disciplines; including topics such as bio-diversity and environmental peacebuilding, global health crises such as HIV/AIDS and Ebola, and UK-EU relations.

The 85th volume of International Affairs was published in 2009. That year the first issue featured an article by longstanding editor Caroline Soper on the journal's history as well as one by former US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, which looked ahead to the major challenges for the newly inaugurated President Obama. [21] [22] 2014 saw the commemoration of the journal's 90th issue and also the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War. Special issues marking both were published in January and March respectively. [23] [24]

2015 saw the transition to the current editorial team. Since this time the geographical coverage of the journal and its contributors has also broadened, with special issues published on China, India and Japan, featuring authors from those countries alongside western contributors. [25] [26] [27] The journal has since developed social media and blog presences, and adopted an Open Access policy, following the 'Gold' model.

In 2020 half of all contributors to the journal, apart from book reviewers, identified as women. [28]

List of editors

Since 1922, 97 volumes of International Affairs have been published by 14 editors, totalling 451 issues. Below is a summary of the tenures of the respective editors.

EditorTenure
G.M. Gathorne-Hardy1922-1931
Margaret Cleeve1932-1957
Muriel Grindrod1957-1963
N.P. Macdonald1963-1971
Thomas Barman1971 (January–April)
Wendy Hinde1971-1979
Robert Jackson1980
David Stephen1981-1983
John Roper1984-1989
Lucy Seton-Watson1989-1992
J. E. Spence1992-1996
Caroline Soper1996-2014
Andrew Dorman2015–present

Book reviews

International Affairs has a comprehensive book reviews section. Each issue includes 30 or more reviews in a range of disciplines including the following:

Virtual issues

In recent years the International Affairs editors have curated a series of online-only ‘Virtual Issues’, in which a collection of articles from the archive demonstrate the journal's engagement with specific critical themes. All Virtual Issues are provided free to access by Oxford University Press, and are accompanied by introductions from noted specialists in the given disciplines. Current Virtual Issues include:

Early Career Prize

In 2017 International Affairs launched their Early Career Prize, aimed at celebrating the work of journal contributors with less than seven years of academic experience. The Prize is awarded each year to an author (or authors if multi-authored article) whose International Affairs article is deemed by a committee comprising members of the journal's editorial board to fulfil the following criteria:

The prize is awarded at the annual International Studies Association Convention. The previous winners are as follows: [29]

YearName(s)ArticleIssue
2018Jasmine-Kim Westendorf and Louise Searle'Sexual exploitation and abuse in peace operations: trends, policy responses and future directions'93:2 (March 2017)
2019Katja Lindskov Jacobsen and Troels Gauslå Engell'Conflict prevention as pragmatic response to a twofold crisis: liberal interventionism and Burundi'94:2 (March 2018)
2020Paula Drumond'What about men? Towards a critical interrogation of sexual violence against men in global politics'95:6 (November 2019)
2021Olivier Schmitt'Wartime paradigms and the future of western military power'96:2 (March 2020)
2022Jelena Cupać and Irem Ebetürk (joint winner)'Backlash advocacy and NGO polarization over women's rights in the United Nations '97:4 (July 2021)
Clare Elder (joint winner)'Somaliland's authoritarian turn: oligarchic–corporate power and the political economy of de facto states'97:6 (November 2021)

International Affairs Blog

In 2016 International Affairs launched a blog on the social publishing platform Medium. It was designed to bring insights from the journal to a wider audience, and raise the profile of the contributing academics. Since 2017 the blog has also featured a series of professional development posts, providing advice on publishing in academic journals.

Abstracting and indexing

The journal is abstracted and indexed in:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arnold J. Toynbee</span> British historian (1889–1975)

Arnold Joseph Toynbee was an English historian, a philosopher of history, an author of numerous books and a research professor of international history at the London School of Economics and King's College London. From 1918 to 1950, Toynbee was considered a leading specialist on international affairs; from 1924 to 1954 he was the Director of Studies at Chatham House, in which position he also produced 34 volumes of the Survey of International Affairs, a "bible" for international specialists in Britain.

<i>Foreign Affairs</i> American academic journal

Foreign Affairs is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs. Founded on 15 September 1922, the print magazine is currently published every two months, while the website publishes articles daily and anthologies every other month.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Council on Foreign Relations</span> American think tank on foreign policy

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is an independent and nonpartisan nonprofit organization. CFR is based in New York City, with an additional office in Washington, D.C. Its membership has included senior politicians, numerous secretaries of state, CIA directors, bankers, lawyers, professors, corporate directors and CEOs, and senior media figures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Nye</span> American political scientist (born 1937)

Joseph Samuel Nye Jr. is an American political scientist. He and Robert Keohane co-founded the international relations theory of neoliberalism, which they developed in their 1977 book Power and Interdependence. Together with Keohane, he developed the concepts of asymmetrical and complex interdependence. They also explored transnational relations and world politics in an edited volume in the 1970s. More recently, he pioneered the theory of soft power. His notion of "smart power" became popular with the use of this phrase by members of the Clinton Administration and the Obama Administration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">E. H. Carr</span> British diplomat, historian, and writer (1892–1982)

Edward Hallett Carr was a British historian, diplomat, journalist and international relations theorist, and an opponent of empiricism within historiography. Carr was best known for A History of Soviet Russia, a 14-volume history of the Soviet Union from 1917 to 1929, for his writings on international relations, particularly The Twenty Years' Crisis, and for his book What Is History? in which he laid out historiographical principles rejecting traditional historical methods and practices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chatham House</span> British think tank founded in 1920

Chatham House, also known as The Royal Institute of International Affairs, is a think tank headquartered in London, England. Its stated mission is to help governments and societies build a sustainably secure, prosperous and just world. It is the originator of the Chatham House Rule.

Current History is the oldest extant United States-based publication devoted exclusively to contemporary world affairs. The magazine was founded in 1914 by George Washington Ochs Oakes, brother of The New York Times' publisher Adolph Ochs, in order to provide detailed coverage of World War I. Current History was published by the New York Times Company from its founding until 1936. Since 1942 it has been owned by members of the Redmond family; its current publisher is Daniel Mark Redmond.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Graham Allison</span> American political scientist

Graham Tillett Allison Jr. is an American political scientist and the Douglas Dillon Professor of Government at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is known for his contributions in the late 1960s and early 1970s to the bureaucratic analysis of decision making, especially during times of crisis. His book Remaking Foreign Policy: The Organizational Connection, co-written with Peter Szanton, was published in 1976 and influenced the foreign policy of the Carter administration. Since the 1970s, Allison has also been a leading analyst of U.S. national security and defense policy, with a special interest in nuclear weapons and terrorism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Russell Mead</span> American academic (born 1952)

Walter Russell Mead is an American academic. He is the James Clarke Chace Professor of Foreign Affairs and Humanities at Bard College and taught American foreign policy at Yale University. He was also the editor-at-large of The American Interest magazine. Mead is a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, a scholar at the Hudson Institute, and a book reviewer for Foreign Affairs, the quarterly foreign policy journal published by the Council on Foreign Relations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan Strange</span> British international relations and political theorist

Susan Strange was a British scholar who was "almost single-handedly responsible for creating international political economy." Notable publications include Sterling and British Policy (1971), Casino Capitalism (1986), States and Markets (1988), The Retreat of the State (1996), and Mad Money (1998).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Cox (academic)</span> British academic

Michael E. Cox is a British academic and international relations scholar. He is currently Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics (LSE) and Director of LSE IDEAS. He also teaches for the TRIUM Global Executive MBA Program, an alliance of NYU Stern and the London School of Economics and HEC School of Management.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lawrence Freedman</span> British military historian

Sir Lawrence David Freedman, is a British academic, historian and author specialising in foreign policy, international relations and strategy. He has been described as the "dean of British strategic studies" and was a member of the Iraq Inquiry. He is an Emeritus Professor of War Studies at King's College London.

Gerd Nonneman is a Professor of International Relations and Gulf Studies at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University's campus in Qatar, where he served as Dean from 2011 to 2016. Before joining Georgetown University, he held the Al-Qasimi Chair in Gulf Studies, and a Chair in International Relations and Middle East Politics, at the University of Exeter. He is a former Director of the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies (IAIS) and of the Centre for Gulf Studies (CGS) at that university. He is also a former Executive Director of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES).

East Asia Forum (EAF) is an English-language international policy forum directed by Peter Drysdale and based at the Australian National University's Crawford School of Public Policy. It was launched in 2006 by then Australian Treasurer Peter Costello.

<i>The World Today</i> (magazine) British global affairs magazine

The World Today is a monthly global affairs magazine founded by Chatham House in 1945. It was formerly published six times a year and aims to bring the Institute's analysis to a broad audience. It replaced the Bulletin of International News, which was published from 1925 to 1945.

<i>Global Policy</i> Academic journal

Global Policy is a prestigious peer-reviewed academic journal based at the Global Policy Institute, School of Government and International Affairs, Durham University and focusing on the "point where ideas and policy meet", published in association with Wiley-Blackwell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Israel Council on Foreign Relations</span> Public policy think tank

The Israel Council on Foreign Relations (ICFR) is an independent, non-partisan forum for the study and debate of foreign policy issues, especially those relating to the State of Israel and the Jewish people. The ICFR publishes a triannual policy and scholarly journal, The Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, which offers a platform for the discussion and analysis of international affairs. The ICFR operates under the auspices of the World Jewish Congress, of which Ronald S. Lauder is president.

<i>The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs</i> Academic journal

The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs is a biannual peer-reviewed academic journal of international relations established in 1975. It is managed by students at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. It is also an online foreign policy forum with additional articles and interviews.

Professor Richard G. Whitman is an academic, think tank member and media commentator focusing on the European Union's international role and the UK's foreign policy. He is professor of politics and international relations and a member of the Global Europe Centre at the University of Kent. He is also an associate fellow at Chatham House.

Karl Wolfgang Schweizer is a historian specialising in eighteenth century European history.

References

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  6. Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand (1 November 1931). "The future of India". International Affairs. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  7. "Foreword". International Affairs. Vol. 18, no. 4. 1 November 1939.
  8. "Volume 19". International Affairs. 1940–1943. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  9. Nyerere, Julius (1 January 1960). "Tanganyika Today: II. The Nationalist View". International Affairs. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
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