The English School

The ‘English School’ is a term that was coined in the 1970s to describe a group of predominantly British, or British-inspired, writers for whom ‘international society’ is the primary object of analysis (Jones 1981; Linklater and Suganami 2006). Its most influential early members include Hedley Bull, Martin Wight, John Vincent and Adam Watson whose main publications appeared between the mid-1960s and the late 1980s (see Bull 1977; Wight 1977; 1991; Watson 1982; Bull and Watson 1984; Vincent 1986). Robert Jackson, Tim Dunne and Nicholas Wheeler have been among the most influential members of the English School in more recent years (Dunne 1998; Jackson 2000; Wheeler 2000). Since the late 1990s, the English School has enjoyed a renaissance in large part because of the efforts of Barry Buzan, Richard Little, Andrew Hurrell and other UK-based scholars (Little 2000; Buzan 2001; 2003; Hurrell 2007). The English School remains one of the most important approaches to international politics although its influence is probably greater in Britain than in most other societies where International Relations is taught.