Engaging

During the class discussion, Prof. Jackson asked, "What do you do with Inayatullah and Blaney's work?" To me, this seems to be the question of the semester. Now that we have made our way through these 'masterworks' of IR, what do we do with them? As we discussed, it's important to reflect on how we will respond to these masterworks in light of the fact that, for the most part, we are going to be moving beyond the bubble of the Academy. Where do Hobbes, Kant, Deutsch, Walzer, Inayatullah , and Blaney fit in "real world" discussions, such as those over the future course of policy in Iraq (other than the token mention of Iraq as the "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, short" epitome of a Hobbesian state of nature)?

Prof. Jackson's sermon lecture provided an illuminating version of the fractalization of the IR field--that between wissenschaft and politik. For those who fall on the wissenschaft side, the scholars and experts, this class provides a chance to (re-)encounter the foundational works of the discipline of IR, and participate in debates about epistomology, methodology, and of what the field is actually comprised.

For those on the politik side of the spectrum, the scholar-activists and practitioners, this class and these works should foundationally inform how they practice international relations. As Monica said during the class discussion, though the politik folks (of whom I am admittedly one) don't spend a lot of time interacting with this material, it is important to encounter it so that one's practice may be better informed*--so that they "remember" these perennial issues. (This is true for the wissenschaft folks, too, but their placement on the wissenschaft side makes them more concerned with science)

For me, this class was about engagement. Engagement with exceedingly bright people on exceedingly important issues. Engagement with the history of IR as a discipline, what that means, and what that will, potentially, mean. Engagement with questions of epistomology and normative claims. And, most prominently, engagement with the material we were studying on my own terms. It has been an engaging pleasure.

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*One is tempted to make the normative claim that a politik-focused person's practice would indeed be better for having encountered these Masterworks, but Inayatullah and Blaney would question that claim. This, I think, is one of the most useful parts of Inayatullah and Blaney.