Survival of the Disciplines: Is International Relations Fit for the New Millennium?
| Author | Dominic D.P. Johnson |
| Published date | 01 January 2015 |
| Date | 01 January 2015 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0305829814540846 |
| Subject Matter | Responses to Iver Neumann’s Inaugural |
Millennium: Journal of
International Studies
2015, Vol. 43(2) 749 –763
© The Author(s) 2014
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DOI: 10.1177/0305829814540846
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MILLENNIUM
Journal of International Studies
Survival of the Disciplines: Is
International Relations Fit for
the New Millennium?
Dominic D.P. Johnson
University of Oxford, UK
Abstract
Iver Neumann argues that International Relations (IR) is going to have to engage with a broader set
of empirical data and wider inter-disciplinary insights, especially from evolutionary biology. I endorse
the debate and extend the challenge, making four key points: (1) our empirical data must extend to
the deep origins of human societies, and look more at policy successes rather than failures; (2) our
scientific toolkit must integrate rather than differentiate psychology and biology, because the former
is in large part a product of the latter; (3) evolution continues to be misinterpreted, especially in the
condemnation of functionalism, the myth of biological determinism, the perceived lack of relevance
to IR theory, and the idea that social facts cannot have biological roots; and (4) there are other
issues of more genuine importance, including the levels of analysis problem (getting from the biology
of individuals to the behaviour of states), and the levels of selection problem (the predictions of
group selection and individual selection for human nature). I conclude that, despite big challenges of
communication and collaboration, the benefits of integration with the natural sciences far outweigh
the benefits of disciplinary isolation, offering new knowledge, methods, consilience, and parsimony
that will help IR to flourish rather than flounder in the Age of Biology.
Keywords
International relations, evolution, biology, psychology, human nature, Iver Neumann
Iver Neumann’s inaugural lecture at the LSE1 is a breath of fresh air. In nature, innova-
tion requires genetic recombination or mutation to escape from old ways of doing things
to new ones. Often, such experiments lead to instant death. But sometimes they lead to
great advances. The installation of Iver Neumann in his new chair at the LSE seems to
have succeeded in creating a novel recombination, as well as sparking some interesting
mutations of old ideas, that open up new ways of thinking about the history, contempo-
rary challenges, and future opportunities of IR. This new approach may face
Corresponding author:
Dominic D.P. Johnson, St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, 62 Woodstock Road, Oxford OX2 6JF, UK.
Email: dominic.johnson@sant.ox.ac.uk
540846MIL0010.1177/0305829814540846MillenniumJohnson
research-article2014
Responses to Iver Neumann’s Inaugural
1. Iver Neumann, ‘International Relations as a Social Science’, Millennium 43, no. 1 (2014), 330–350.
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