Edmund Burke And International Relations

The mind of Edmund Burke has attracted the attention of countless political theorists, historians, and biographers. Nonetheless, one aspect of Burke's thinking has been neglected: his perspective on international relations. This book seeks to address that gap, by analysing Burke's reaction to the international events of his century. The book argues that the tension between Burke's constitutionalism and crusading is ultimately reconciled by his broader conception of international legitimacy and order. It is only by widening the definition of international theory to include domestic as well as international politics that one can resolve this tension in Burke's theory and arrive at a richer understanding of the nature of international order, both historically and today.

The mind of Edmund Burke has attracted the attention of countless political theorists, historians and biographers. Yet, one aspect of Burke's thinking has so far been neglected: his perspective on international relations. This book addresses that gap by analysing Burke's reaction to the major international events of his time. The book argues that the apparent tension between Burke's constitutionalism and crusading is ultimately reconciled by his broader conception of international order and legitimacy. It is only by widening the definition of international theory to include domestic as well as international politics that one can resolve the tension in Burke's theory and arrive at a richer understanding of the nature of international order, both historically and today.

Empire and Community provides the first comprehensive presentation of Edmund Burke’s thinking on international relations. Although Burke’s writings and speeches have been the subject of much analysis and controversy, his perspective on international relations has not been fully addressed by the scholarly community. David P. Fidler and Jennifer M. Welsh establish Burke as a “classical thinker” on international relations and help to situate his thinking within current international relations theory. Their detailed introduction is followed by edited selections from Burke’s writings and speeches on Ireland, America, India, and the French Revolution.

This insightful and wide-ranging volume traces the genesis of international intellectual thought, connecting international and global history with intellectual history.

In this, the liveliest and most accessible one-volume life of Edmund Burke, Russell Kirk ingeniously combines into a living whole the private and the public Burke. He gives us a fresh assessment of the great statesman, who enjoys even greater influence today than in his own time. Russell Kirk was a leading figure in the post-World War II revival of American interest in Edmund Burke. Today, no one who takes seriously the problems of society dares remain indifferent to “the first conservative of our time of troubles.” In Russell Kirk’s words: “Burke’s ideas interest anyone nowadays, including men bitterly dissenting from his conclusions. If conservatives would know what they defend, Burke is their touchstone; and if radicals wish to test the temper of their opposition, they should turn to Burke.” Kirk lucidly unfolds Burke’s philosophy, showing how it revealed itself in concrete historical situations during the eighteenth century and how Burke, through his philosophy, “speaks to our age.” This volume makes vivid the four great struggles in the life of Burke: his efforts to reconcile England with the American colonies; his involvements in cutting down the domestic power of George III; his prosecution of Warren Hastings, the Governor General of India; and his resistance to Jacobinism, the French Revolution’s “armed doctrine.” In each of these great phases of his public life, Burke fought with passionate eloquence and relentless logic for justice and for the proper balance of order and freedom. With sure instinct born of his sympathy and understanding, Kirk gives us the incisive quotation, the illuminating highlight, the moving, all-too-human elements that bring Burke and his age to vivid life. Thanks to Russell Kirk’s skillful evocations, Edmund Burke in these pages becomes our contemporary. “Because corruption and fanaticism assail our era as sorely as they did Burke’s time, the resonance of Burke’s voice still is heard amidst the howl of our winds of abstract doctrine.”

Edmund Burke’s iconic stance against the French Revolution and its supposed Enlightenment inspiration, has ensured his central role in debates about the nature of modernity and freedom. It has now been rendered even more complex by post-modern radicalism’s repudiation of the Enlightenment as repressive and its reason as illusionary. Not only did Burke’s own work cover a huge range - from aesthetics through history to constitutional politics and political theory - it has generated an enormous literature drawing on many disciplines, as well as continuing to be recruited in a range of contemporary polemics. In Edmund Burke, Iain Hampsher Monk presents a representative selection of articles and essays from the last 50 years of this scholarship. His introduction provides a brief biography and seeks to guide the reader through the chosen pieces as well as indicating its relationship to other and more substantial studies that form the critical heritage of this major figure.