John Burton versus international relations: the costs of criticism

Abstract

This article explores the intellectual legacy of John Wear Burton, who died in June 2010. Widely lauded as a pioneer in the fields of conflict resolution and peace studies, Burton's legacy in the broader study of international relations (IR) is more ambiguous. The author argues that Burton is best remembered as a critic of IR rather than as a contributor to the discipline, particularly as it evolved from the mid 1980s to the present. Burton's most trenchant criticisms of IR in the 1960s and 1970s were really directed against a superficial version of realism. Burton's work on human needs and conflict resolution, in contrast, has had a more enduring legacy.

Keywords:

• conflict resolution
• international relations theory
• John Burton

Notes

1. The author is grateful to Ian Hall, Michael Heazle and the journal's referees for helpful comments on early drafts of this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Martin Griffiths

Martin Griffiths is an Associate Professor in the School of Government and International Relations at Griffith University. His main areas of research are in international relations theory. His latest book is Rethinking International Relations Theory (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011)