Ciceronian international society
| Date | 01 October 2021 |
| Author | Stephen Patrick Sims |
| Published date | 01 October 2021 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1755088219895789 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1755088219895789
Journal of International Political Theory
2021, Vol. 17(3) 375 –393
© The Author(s) 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/1755088219895789
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Ciceronian international
society
Stephen Patrick Sims
Rochester Institute of Technology, USA
Abstract
This article explores what Cicero as a political thinker can offer to the study of
international relations. Although previous readings of Cicero have emphasized his Stoic
influences and his natural law teaching as the basis of a cosmopolitan world society, I
emphasize the way in which Cicero can deepen the concept of international society.
International society relies on certain norms and institutions to function properly, such
as international law, sovereignty, and the use of war to restrain violence and redress
injustice. We find all these concepts articulated clearly in Cicero’s moral and political
thought. Cicero also shows the limits of these institutions and norms, explaining why
none of them is absolute. Finally, Cicero adds to our theorizing about international
society by drawing attention to the role of honor, ruling, and inequality in international
society. As such, classical political thought, and Cicero’s in particular, provide a valuable
resource for future thinking about international theory.
Keywords
Ancient international theory, Cicero, international society, political philosophy
What place does Cicero hold in the canon of international political thought? Scholars
often pay close attention to Cicero’s teaching on natural law and its cosmopolitan trajec-
tory. For these scholars, Cicero is a cosmopolitan thinker laying the theoretical ground-
work of a natural law of humanity and sweeping away the Mediterranean “international
system.”1 This interpretation of Cicero sees the orator rejecting the classical republican-
ism of the Greeks in favor of cosmopolitan imperialism as the rule for international
social life. In the language of the English School, this understanding of Cicero places
him firmly in the camp of the “Kantians.” In this article, I argue that Cicero should be
read as a defender of international society and thus a classical exponent of the “Grotian”
tradition of international theorizing.
Corresponding author:
Stephen Patrick Sims, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY 14623-5603, USA.
Email: sxsgsm@rit.edu
895789IPT0010.1177/1755088219895789Journal of International Political TheorySims
research-article2019
Article
376 Journal of International Political Theory 17(3)
I make this argument by showing that Cicero provides theoretical support for many of
the central institutions and goals of international society inasmuch as he understands
international politics to be ordered by norms and institutions that advance certain ends,
such as the limitation of violence and the stabilization of territorial possession. While
supporting this “Grotian” account of international society, Cicero shows the conven-
tional character of these norms and institutions, and offers a new end for international
society—the honorable rule of cities. Recovering the role of honor and nobility for inter-
national society, in turn, reveals certain obscurities in Bull’s description of international
society and thus can enrich our own thinking about international society.
The meaning of international society
One of the great theoretical contributions to the study of international relations is that of
“international society,” first identified as a phenomenon for study by Martin Wight
(1991, 2005), and then more fully examined by Hedley Bull (1977). According to Wight,
the central question of any theoretical approach to the study of international relations is
“what is the nature of international society?” Wight (1991, 1966: 92, 94, 105) identified
three thinkers with three answers: Niccolo Machiavelli, Hugo Grotius, and Immanuel
Kant.2
Kant and Machiavelli reject international society as an ordering principle in interna-
tional politics: for Machiavelli, international society was the pretense of morality in
world governed by power and self-regard, and for Kant international society was an
immoral construction that violated the sacred rights of man (Bull, 1976: 104–105).3 For
Grotius, international society was both a reality of international relations, and a frame-
work for the moral evaluation of foreign policy.
It is striking that Kant and Machiavelli are both modern theorists and both reject inter-
national society as an ordering principle of international relations. The third thinker,
Grotius, defends international society and is only ambiguously a modern thinker. Grotius
does emphasize rights and the social contract—hallmarks of modern political theory—
but remains heavily indebted to ancient and medieval political theory (Geddert, 2014;
Pangle and Ahrensdorf, 1999: 162). While Grotius does not rely on any particular source
exclusively, Cicero is a consistent presence throughout The Rights of War and Peace.4
Hence, there is reason to think that the concept of international society is ultimately of
classical origin, and that Cicero provides a particularly clear articulation of the idea in
classical political theory. I argue below that Cicero does in fact articulate elements of a
theory of international society, which in turn might offer new insights into the character
of that society.5
According to Bull (1977: 13), international society
exists when a group of states, conscious of certain common interests and common values, form
a society in the sense that they conceive themselves to be bound by a common set of rules in
their relations with one another, and share in the working of common institutions.
Not every international system is an international society, but where it exists, interna-
tional politics appears to be more social in character, oriented toward common ends by
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