Why International Relations should be more optimistic

ABSTRACT

The field of international relations has been described as a discipline rooted in pessimism. This stems from misunderstanding optimism and from downplaying the negative consequences of pessimism. Insights from the psychological literature on optimism challenge these assumptions. In particular, the optimism-pessimism binary needs to be broken down and optimism seen as a healthy middle state between overconfident risk-taking and debilitating pessimism. There are proven techniques that could be used by those working in international relations to promote an optimistic outlook to help avoid falling into despondency. The field will limit the ability of its scholars, practitioners and students to contribute to solving problems if it ties itself to pessimism.

KEYWORDS:

• Optimism
• pessimism
• International Relations
• positive psychology

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The Commission for the Human Future report identifies 10 risks of the ‘end of civilisation and human extinction’: ecological collapse and extinction; global warming; weapons of mass destruction; resource scarcity; global poisoning; food insecurity; pandemic disease; population; uncontrolled technology; self-delusion (2020).

2 Ord (2020) identifies three types of existential risks: natural risks (asteroids and comets, supervolcanic eruptions, stellar explosions and other); anthropogenic risks (nuclear weapons, climate change, environmental damage); and future risks (pandemics, unaligned artificial intelligence, dystopian scenarios and other).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Melissa Conley Tyler

Melissa Conley Tyler FAIIA is a Fellow and Presidential Associate of the Australian Institute of International Affairs. She was National Executive Director of the AIIA from 2006 to 2019. She is currently Research Fellow at the Asia Institute at the University of Melbourne. An early version of this research was presented to AIIA Victoria in April 2020 when Melissa was honoured as a Fellow of the AIIA. A recording is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66XHFF8EJpw.