A Reply to My Critics: War and Historical Ontology
| Published date | 01 September 2019 |
| Author | Jens Bartelson |
| Date | 01 September 2019 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0305829819873951 |
| Subject Matter | Book Forum |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0305829819873951
Millennium: Journal of
International Studies
2019, Vol. 48(1) 105 –114
© The Author(s) 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/0305829819873951
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A Reply to My Critics: War
and Historical Ontology
Jens Bartelson
Lund University, Sweden
Keywords
war, historical ontology, Bartelson, ISA Theory Section
The War, the Empire, will expedite such barriers between our lives. The War needs to
divide this way, and to subdivide, though its propaganda will always stress unity,
alliance, pulling together.
Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow
I am very honoured having received the International Studies Association Theory Section
Best Book Award for my War in International Thought, and deeply grateful to my col-
leagues Tarak Barkawi, Marta Bashovski, Antoine Bousquet, Shane Brighton, Aslı
Çalkıvik, Aida Hozić, and Emma Hutchison for their sustained and thoughtful engage-
ment with my book. I have benefited enormously from their insightful comments, to
which I will respond in some detail below. Before doing this, however, I would like to
thank the editors of this volume of Millennium – Kelly-Jo Bluen, Johanna Rodehau-
Noack, and Emma Saint – for their diligent work in putting this exciting symposium
together.
I
When I started to write War in International Thought almost a decade ago, my intention
was to shift focus away from the traditional concern with the causes and justifications of
war within academic international relations to the meaning of war. However, as I was
soon to discover, underneath the usages and functions of this concept entire worlds were
Corresponding author:
Jens Bartelson, Lund University, Box 52, 221 00 Lund, Sweden.
Email: jens.bartelson@svet.lu.se
873951MIL0010.1177/0305829819873951Millennium: Journal of International StudiesBartelson
research-article2019
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