E.H. Carr and the quest for moral revolution in international relations

Abstract

E.H. Carr has generally been viewed by analysts of International Relations to be a pioneer of the ‘scientific’ study of the discipline as well as an important theorist of state-centric ‘realism’. His book The Twenty Years’ Crisis has traditionally been considered one of the major texts that helped shape post-war realism, especially in the United States.1 However, the significance of this text in the broader development of Carr’s thinking on International Relations has been seriously neglected by analysts, who have tended to conclude that Carr was an advocate of raison d’état in which ethics was largely a product of power.2 This view has also been reinforced by the sharp distinction Carr made in The Twenty Years’ Crisis between the school of state-centric realism and that of Utopian idealism, which was accused of having little understanding of the role of power in international politics and of confusing prescription with description.3.