Description:

Power has long been a central but contested part of the study of international relations. But, like other sociopolitical concepts, the concept of power has a history of its own. In my talk, I will outline some of the necessary steps to explore the changing meaning and function of the concept of power in international thought from the sixteenth to the mid-twentieth century, arguing that despite the many changes this concept has undergone, some significant continuities in its usage explain why the modern study of international relations has been so preoccupied with power. I will then describe some of the formative episodes in the making of the modern understanding of power, from the spread of the idea of grandezza in the sixteenth century via its disaggregation into military strength and wealth during the seventeenth century to its final essentialization in the early social sciences in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Bio:

 

Jens Bartelson is professor of Political Science, Lund University. His fields of interest include international relations and the history of international thought. He has published extensively on core concepts in international thought and their history. He is the author of Becoming International (Cambridge University Press, 2023), War in International Thought (Cambridge University Press, 2017), Visions of World Community (Cambridge University Press, 2009), The Critique of the State (Cambridge University Press, 2001), A Genealogy of Sovereignty (Cambridge University Press, 1995), as well as of numerous articles in leading journals across the human, legal, and social sciences.

Registration:

The event has a hybrid format, either in person at the Faculty board room or on Zoom:
https://stockholmuniversity.zoom.us/j/68879575677
Meeting ID: 688 7957 5677

SCILJ appreciates your registration at scilj@juridicum.su.se before 16 December.