ABSTRACT
Raymond Aron's sociology of international relations (IR) follows other trends and inspirations from the dominant school in France, founded by Marcel Merle just after World War II. This chapter examines the intellectual roots of the French school of sociological liberalism created by Aron after World War II, on the conceptual framework he designed during his three-year academic sojourn in Germany. It explores the sociological liberalism in the French historical sociology tradition, loyal to its Aronian origins and able to catch up and converse with a thriving and influential Anglo-Saxon school. The chapter intends to show, by way of three items of food for thought, how sociological liberalism can be renewed in a research program and the usefulness of this approach to the IR discipline to understand the contemporary international reality. Aron's IR sociological liberalism is one fundamental source for the elaboration of a comprehensive theory of contemporary relations.
