ABSTRACT
Starting in the late 1980s, the traditional concerns and approaches of mainstream international relations (IR) were attacked by critics over impressed by the power of globalization and the ideas of recently discovered social theorists. International relations/IR certainly had to take account of globalization: relations across borders are always affected by powerful developments in world politics, whether these are influential ideas or substantial material changes. The makers of modern IR were multiple, culturally diverse, geographically disparate, and stretch back through the centuries. They provided a complex intellectual DNA, determining that at the moment of institutionalization, when IR became a disciplinary project, it was not a virgin birth. To play a stronger role in academia, the IR profession needs a more self-confident self-image, transcending theory wars in the interests of engaging with the problems in and of the status quo. Greater self-confidence would surely come by spending more time with our classic texts in the original.
