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Robert James Martin Wight (26 November 1913 - 1972), also known as Martin Wight, was one of the foremost British scholars of International Relations in the twentieth century. Events 43 BC - The Second Triumvirate alliance of Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus ("Octavian" later "Caesar Augustus" Year 1913 ( MCMXIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Year 1972 ( MCMLXXII) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located He was the author of Power Politics (1946; revised and expanded edition 1978), as well as the seminal essay "Why is there no International Theory?" (first published in the journal International Relations in 1960 and republished in the edited collection Diplomatic Investigations in 1966). He was a teacher of some renown at both the London School of Economics and the University of Sussex, where he served as the founding Dean of European Studies. The London School of Economics and Political Science, more commonly referred to as The London School of Economics or LSE, is a specialist college of the The University of Sussex is a British Campus university which is situated next to the East Sussex village of Falmer, and is from Brighton

Wight is often associated with the English school of international relations theory. The ' English School' of International relations theory, also known as Liberal Realism, Rationalism or the British institutionalists, maintains His work, along with that of the Australian philosopher John Anderson, was a lasting influence upon the thought of Hedley Bull, author of one of the most widely-read texts on the nature of international politics, The Anarchical Society (1977). John Anderson ( November 1, 1893 &ndash July 6, 1962) was a Scottish -born Australian Philosopher who occupied Hedley Bull ( June 10, 1932 &ndash May 18, 1985) was Professor of International Relations at the Australian National University

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Early life

Martin Wight was born in Brighton, Sussex. Brighton ( is a town on the south coast of England and with its neighbour Hove, forms the city of Brighton and Hove. Sussex is a historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. He attended Bradfield College and in 1931 went to Hertford College, Oxford, to read Modern History. Bradfield College is a coeducational Public school located in the small village of Bradfield in the English He took a First Class degree and stayed at Oxford for a short period afterwards engaged in postgraduate research. The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading scheme for Undergraduate degrees ( Bachelor's degrees and some Master's degrees While at Oxford he became a pacifist, and in 1936 he published a passionate and erudite defence of 'Christian Pacifism' in the journal Theology. Year 1936 ( MCMXXXVI) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. At about this time he also became involved with the work of the Revd. Dick Sheppard and his Peace Pledge Union. Dick Sheppard may refer to Hugh Richard Lawrie Sheppard (1880&ndash1937 English clergyman and pacifist Dick Sheppard (footballer, English The Peace Pledge Union is a British Non-governmental organization which emerged from an initiative by Dick Sheppard, canon of St Paul's Cathedral, in 1934

In 1937 Wight joined the staff of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House). Chatham House, formally known as the Royal Institute of International Affairs, is a Non-profit, Non-governmental organization based in London Chatham House, formally known as the Royal Institute of International Affairs, is a Non-profit, Non-governmental organization based in London There he worked alongside the Institute's Director of Studies, the historian Arnold J. Toynbee. This page is about the universal historian Arnold Joseph Toynbee for the economic historian Arnold Toynbee see this article. In 1938, Wight left Chatham House and took a job as a History Master at Haileybury. Two years later, however, his position at the school became untenable: having been called up for military service, Wight chose to register as a conscientious objector, and one condition of the tribunal's acceptance of his application was that he ceased to teach. A conscientious objector (CO is an individual who on religious moral or ethical grounds refuses to participate as a combatant in war or in some cases to take any role that would support At the behest of Margary Perham, he returned to Oxford to work, for the remainder of the Second World War, on an extended research project on colonial constitutions. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Wight published three books on this topic: The Development of the Legislative Council (1946), The Gold Coast Legislative Council (1947) and British Colonial Constitutions (1952).

Post-war years

In 1946, Wight was recruited by David Astor, then editor of The Observer to act as the newspaper's correspondent at the inaugural sessions of the United Nations at Lake Success. Francis David Langhorne Astor CH ( March 5, 1912, London &ndash December 7, 2001, London) was a Newspaper The Observer is a British Newspaper published on Sundays In about the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The The United Nations ( UN) is an International organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in International law, International security Lake Success is a Village in Nassau County, New York in the United States. Witnessing at first-hand the early diplomatic wrangles at the UN reinforced his scepticism about the possibility of lasting co-operation between sovereign states - a view reflected in the first edition of his Power Politics.

In 1947, Wight went back again at Chatham House, collaborating with Toynbee on the production of the Surveys of International Affairs covering the war-years and contributing to his A Study of History. After two years, he was taken on as a Reader in the Department of International Relations at the London School of Economics. The London School of Economics and Political Science, more commonly referred to as The London School of Economics or LSE, is a specialist college of the There Wight lectured on international organisations and later on international theory, the latter lectures becoming influential in what has become known as the 'English school of international relations'. Ironically, these lectures were first delivered in the United States, at the University of Chicago, where Wight spent a term in 1957. Reconstituted and published in 1990, International Theory: The Three Traditions seeks to make sense of the history of thought about international politics by dividing it into the categories of realism, rationalism and revolutionism, sometimes known as the Machiavellian, Grotian and Kantian traditions. Realism, also known as political realism, in the context of International relations, encompasses a variety of theories and approaches all of which share a belief In Epistemology and in its broadest sense rationalism is "any view appealing to Reason as a source of knowledge or justification" (Lacey 286 The term revolutionary socialism refers to Socialist tendencies that advocate the need for fundamental social change through Revolution, as a strategy to achieve a Machiavellianism is the term that some social and personality psychologists use to describe a person's tendency to deceive and manipulate others for personal gain Hugo Grotius or Huig de Groot, or Hugo de Groot; ( Delft, 10 April 1583 Rostock, 28 August 1645 Kantianism is the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher born in Königsberg, Germany (now Kaliningrad, Russia

In 1959, Wight was invited by the Cambridge historian Herbert Butterfield to join the British Committee on the Theory of International Politics, a group initially funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. The city of Cambridge (ˈkeɪmbrɪdʒ is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England Sir Herbert Butterfield ( October 7, 1900 &ndash July 20, 1979) was a British historian and philosopher of history who is remembered He presented to that committee his most definitive statements on international theory, notably 'Western Values in International Relations' and an essay on 'The Balance of Power', both subsequently published in Diplomatic Investigations (1966). His contributions to the Committee of the late 1960s and early 1970s were gathered together after his death by Hedley Bull, and published as Systems of States (1977).

In 1960, Wight left the LSE to become the founding Dean of European Studies and Professor of History at the new University of Sussex. There he devoted much of his time to the development of that University's distinctive curriculum, the course in European Studies reflecting his conviction that students should learn not just European history, but also the classics, literature and languages.

Legacy

Wight died, at the age of 59, in 1972. Only after his death did some of the writings for which he is best known see the light of day. Since the early 1980s - especially after Roy Jones' article "The English school - a case for closure" and Michael Nicholson's "The enigma of Martin Wight" (both in the journal Review of International Studies, 1981) - Wight has come to be seen as a central figure in the so-called "English school of international relations theory". The ' English School' of International relations theory, also known as Liberal Realism, Rationalism or the British institutionalists, maintains His teaching at the LSE in the 1950s is often seen to have been a strong influence on the direction of international studies in Britain; his posthumously published essays have clearly served as a major stimulus to the revival of the 'English school' in the 1990s.

A trust fund was set up and the many contributions generously given enabled the series of Martin Wight Memorial Lectures to be launched. The subject of the annual lecture was to relate so far as possible to humanist scholarship and to reflect the breadth of Martin Wight’s interest in history and international relations. Sir Herbert Butterfield gave the first lecture at Sussex University on 23 April 1975, and lectures have been given annually since then. They are available on the homepage of the Martin Wight Memorial Trust.

Selected works

Wight wrote many reviews, mainly for The Observer and International Affairs, but his main works are:

References

  1. Brunello Vigezzi, Il «British Committee on the Theory of International Politics» (1958-1985), in Hedley Bull & Adam Watson (eds), L’espansione della societa’ internazionale (Milan: Jaca Book, 1994), pp. xi-xcvii.
  2. Tim Dunne, Inventing International Society: A History of the English School (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1998).
  3. Brunello Vigezzi, The British Committee on the Theory of International Politics (1954-1985): The Rediscovery of History (Milan: Unicopli, 2005).
  4. Ian Hall, The International Thought of Martin Wight (New York: Palgrave, 2006).
  5. Michele Chiaruzzi, Politica di potenza nell'eta' del Leviatano: La teoria internazionale di Martin Wight (Bologna: Il Mulino, 2008).

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