The Republican Legacy in International Thought

Republicanism has enjoyed a revival of scholarly interest in several fields. In this book Nicholas Onuf provides the first major treatment of the republican way of thinking about law, politics, and society in the context of international thought. The author tells two stories about republicanism, starting with Aristotle and culminating in the eighteenth century, when international thought became a distinctive enterprise. These two stories surround the thought of Vattel and Kant, and by telling them side by side the author identifies a substantial but little-acknowledged legacy of republicanism in contemporary discussions of sovereignty, intervention, international society, peace, levels of analysis, and the global economy. In identifying this legacy in contemporary thought, Nicholas Onuf develops his constructivist approach to international theory.