Andreas Michaelis

Hedley Bulls idea of international society: A critial survey Andreas Michaelis

Essay from the year 2013 in the subject Politics - International Politics - General and Theories, grade: 1,5, University of Warwick, language: English, abstract: This October, one major headline filled German newspapers. The American "National Security Agency" (NSA) were hacking the mobile of Bundeskanzler Merkel. The country was outraged. Nobody could understand why the Americans collect information, under the justification of "War against terror", from a declared ally. Do we not live in an international society where friends can trust each other and their acts are defined by morality? Is there maybe an un-spoken rule, that anticipates such behaviour or a conceived common set of beliefs, which appear when two states start an interaction? In this essay I will assess critically Hedley Bull´s idea of "international society", which could account for the spy attack by the USA against Germany. Firstly, I will explain the statements of the "English School", which Hedley Bull assigns himself to. After this, I will distinguish it from other International-Relation (IR) theories like Realism and Liberalism. Furthermore I want to interpret the meaning of "international society". I want to show how it is built up (historically), how it is ruled and how this approach solves the problem of anarchy. After that I am going to criticize the idea of the "international system". In the end I will summarize and evaluate if this approach in international relations is valid or not. Before I start I have to give some background information. The term "English School" was coined in the 1970s to describe a group of predominantly British, or British inspired, writers for whom "international society is the primary object of analysis(Linklater et al 2013,88). Hedley Bull, a former professor for IR in Oxford, was one of the most influential early members of the "English School".