Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Aron is amongst the best known thinkers of the twentieth century. He is also one of the few front rank political thinkers to have devoted a good deal of his work explicitly to the problem of international relations. Yet whereas the work of French theorists trip of the tongues of contemporary IR theorists without a second thought, Aron has been surprisingly neglected - some honorable exceptions (like Stanley Hoffmann) excepted. This paper seeks to offer a reinterpretation of Aron's international thought, linking it to his philosophical ideas more generally and to his historical, political and polemical writings as well. It will also argue against the interpretations of Aron's international thought contained in excellent studies such as Mahoney's Liberal Political Science of Raymond Aron, and Andersons equally excellent Aron: The Recovery of the Political. Instead it will offer an account of Aron's international thought as what I term a 'Cartesian Realism' a particular blend of liberal and realist thought that still has much to offer contemporary students of world politics. The paper will close, finally, with a critique and assessment of Aron's 'Carteisan realism'.