Commissioned Book Review: Richard Devetak, Critical International Theory: An Intellectual History
| Author | Thomas Furse |
| DOI | 10.1177/1478929919888604 |
| Published date | 01 May 2021 |
| Date | 01 May 2021 |
| Subject Matter | Commissioned Book Reviews |
Political Studies Review
2021, Vol. 19(2) NP7 –NP8
journals.sagepub.com/home/psrev
Commissioned Book Review
888604PSW0010.1177/1478929919888604Political Studies ReviewCommissioned Book Review
book-review2019
Commissioned Book Review
Critical International Theory: An Intellectual
History by Richard Devetak. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2018. 272 pp., £30.00, ISBN 978
0 198 82356 8
This book is a study on the intellectual evolu-
tion of critical international theory in the disci-
pline of international relations. Its main
argument is that humanism and the civil
Enlightenment informed a critical approach to
world politics. Richard Devetak does not dis-
count from the more usual path of identifying
critical international theory with German ideal-
ism, Kant, Hegel or Marx, or the Frankfurt
School and Antonio Gramsci. Rather, the
book’s central aim is to uncover another intel-
lectual heritage: one rooted in humanism and
scholastic tussles over interpretations of texts,
national Enlightenments and the concerns of
civil government. It is, in sum, an ‘historical
product of contingent intellectual battles and
decisions to prefer and legitimize certain
modes of theorizing and intellectual’ behav-
iours over others (p. 2). Through its five chap-
ters, Devetak takes us on a history of how
theory became ascendant in IR, its initial
encounter with the discipline, its contemporary
expressions and the importance of historicizing
theory.
Devetak sincerely states that his task is not
to discover the authentic origins of critical
international theory. More interestingly, he sets
out to locate the debates that formed an intel-
lectual persona – the critical international theo-
rist. Swimming against the conventional tide
and frequently eccentric, critical theorists rode
waves against Cartesian philosophy and, later,
neorealism. To prise this persona open,
Devetak adopts a ‘Cambridge School’ contex-
tual approach to access the intellectual struc-
ture of theorists and to unearth the social and
linguistic importance of historical texts.
Through presenting an historical approach to
critical international theory, we can see that
theory is a discursive act, and not separate from
‘practical’ knowledge.
The discussion in Chapter 3 on RBJ Walker,
Richard Ashley, Andrew Linklater and Robert
Cox shows how these critical theorists were
devoted to changing the subject of knowledge
in international relations. Robert Cox’s work is
one cornerstone of the book. Rather than exam-
ine the well-known Gramscian influence on
Cox, Devetak draws us to the eighteenth-
century Italian philosopher, Giambattista Vico.
For Devetak, Cox inherited Vico’s argument
that civil institutions were historical products,
and his rejection of Cartesian natural philoso-
phy. These ideas moulded his theoretical con-
tribution on world orders in IR. The
introduction of Vico in the book sheds light on
a thinker that many IR scholars have over-
looked. One explanation for this silence is that
the radicalism of Gramsci, the Frankfurt
School and Marx impressed critical theorists
more to explain the changes in world order.
Reviving Vico and humanism can give IR
scholars an alternative path to re-examine the
foundations of critical international theory, and
the theorists themselves.
However, for many critical theorists, eman-
cipation plays a crucial organizing role in their
scholarship. Devetak alters this role. His criti-
cal theory is less consciously political in the
ways that critical scholars may recognize.
While the book ties theory and practice
together, the process of emancipation, the
usual anchor in the relationship, is not at the
forefront of the book’s notion of critical theory.
The book leaves out Critical Security Studies
(CSS) to keep its focus. For some scholars, this
may miss a significant branch of critical theory
that broadened the meaning of security. This
limitation halts Devetak from taking his argu-
ment about the critical intellectual persona fur-
ther because he leaves out theorists from, for
instance, the ‘Welsh School’ of CSS that
emphasized emancipation and security.
Nevertheless, this study adds to a broader
vein of work which has reconsidered the history
of international relations theories, and how dis-
cursive and historical forces have shaped
To continue reading
Request your trial