Civilization on Trial: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 08:29, 6 November 2021
* Book: Civilization on Trial. By Arnold J. Toynbee. (New York: Oxford University Press. 1948. Pp. vii, 263. $3.50.)
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* Review article: Civilization on Trial - Again. Civilization and the Study of World Politics: Reading Arnold Toynbee Today. By Derrick Fiedler and Bjorn Thomassen. January 2009
"The sudden collapse of the Cold War undermined many of the analytical paradigms within the discipline of International Relations, leading in the early 1990s to a scramble for a new metatheoretical framework with which to explain and conceptualize world politics. Among the forefront of these was the ‘Clash of Civilizations’ thesis proffered by Samuel P. Huntington which, while generating widespread debate and some polemics, produced relatively little in the way of theoretical development, and it generated even less reflexivity on the part of IR theorists regarding the tradition of civilizational analysis within their own discipline. This thesis will address these two issues, first by situating the work of Arnold J. Toynbee at the heart of the canon of civilizational discourse in IR. As the first scholar who was seriously occupied with the study of civilizations while simultaneously being deeply engaged in the study of international affairs, the fundamental characteristics of Toynbee’s theory of civilizational mechanics as expounded in his metahistorical A Study of History will be elucidated and the links between this work and his thinking on IR will be highlighted. Secondly, the affinities of key aspects of his work to similar developments in social theory will be explored, with an emphasis on the dimensions of IR research where civilizational analysis would potentially offer more compelling insights into explaining and understanding international politics."