IR 100 years: a Nordic perspective

ABSTRACT

IR’s centenary celebrations have catalyzed a debate concerning the roots and subsequent developments of the discipline. The year 1919 is important as it spurred the institutional development of IR as an academic field of study, particularly in the Anglo-Saxon world. Yet, from an ideational perspective, IR can be seen to have a much longer and more global history. Ideationally, the roots of Nordic IR also extends back well before 1919, although its institutionalization only began from the 1930s onwards. This commentary looks briefly at the development of Nordic IR both from institutional and ideational perspectives. It argues that Nordic IR has made valuable contributions to IR theory that would merit a comprehensive historiography of its own; something which it still currently lacks.

KEYWORDS:

• History of IR
• IR centenary
• IR theory
• Nordic IR

Disclosure statement

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

Notes on contributors

Mikael Wigell is the Director of the Global Security research programme at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. He is also an Adjunct Professor in International Political Economy at the University of Tampere and a Non-Resident Associate at the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats (Hybrid CoE). He earned his PhD at the London School of Economics and he has been a Visiting Fellow at the Changing Character of War Centre, Oxford University. He is a former President of the Finnish International Studies Association and editor of Geo-economics and Power Politics in the 21st Century (Routledge, 2019).

Tuomas Forsberg is a Director of the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies at the University of Helsinki and Professor of International Relations at Tampere University (on a leave of absence 2018–2023). His publications include The European Union and Russia (co-authored with Hiski Haukkala, Palgrave 2016) and articles in journals such as International Affairs, Journal of Peace Research, International Studies Review, Europe-Asia Studies, Security Dialogue and Journal of Common Market Studies.