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Books by George Lawson

On Revolutions, co-authored by six prominent scholars of revolutions, reinvigorates revolutionary... more On Revolutions, co-authored by six prominent scholars of revolutions, reinvigorates revolutionary studies for the twenty-first century. Integrating insights from diverse fields—including civil resistance studies, international relations, social movements, and terrorism—they offer new ways of thinking about persistent problems in the study of revolution. This book outlines an approach that reaches beyond the common categorical distinctions. As the authors argue, revolutions are not just political or social, but they feature many types of change. Structure and agency are not mutually distinct; they are mutually reinforcing processes. Contention is not just violent or nonviolent, but it is usually a mix of both. Revolutions do not just succeed or fail, but they achieve and simultaneously fall short. And causal conditions are not just domestic or international, but instead, they are dependent on the interplay of each. Demonstrating the merits of this approach through a wide range of cases, the authors explore new opportunities for conceptual thinking about revolution, provide methodological advice, and engage with the ethical issues that exist at the nexus of scholarship and activism.

Recent years have seen renewed interest in the study of revolution. Spurred by events like the 20... more Recent years have seen renewed interest in the study of revolution. Spurred by events like the 2011 uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East, the rise of Islamic State, and the emergence of populism, a new age of revolution has generated considerable interest. Yet, even as empirical studies of revolutions are thriving, there has been a stall in theories of revolution. Anatomies of Revolution offers a novel account of how revolutions begin, unfold and end. By combining insights from international relations, sociology, and global history, it outlines the benefits of a 'global historical sociology' of revolutionary change, one in which international processes take centre stage. Featuring a wide range of cases from across modern world history, this is a comprehensive account of one of the world's most important processes. It will interest students and scholars studying revolutions, political conflict and contentious politics in sociology, politics and international relations.

Bringing together historical sociologists from Sociology and International Relations, this collec... more Bringing together historical sociologists from Sociology and International Relations, this collection lays out the international, transnational, and global dimensions of social change. The volume outlines the shortcomings of existing scholarship, paying particular attention to transnational and global dynamics as they unfold in and through time. The volume combines theoretical interventions with in-depth case studies. Each chapter moves beyond binaries of “internalism” and “externalism”, offering a relational approach to a particular thematic: the rise of the West, the colonial construction of sexuality, the imperial origins of state formation, the global origins of modern economic theory, the international features of revolutionary struggles, and more. By bringing this sensibility to bear on a wide range of issue-areas, the volume lays out the promise of a truly global historical sociology.

The ‘long nineteeenth century’ (1776–1914) was a period of political, economic, military and cult... more The ‘long nineteeenth century’ (1776–1914) was a period of political, economic, military and cultural revolutions that re-forged both domestic and international societies. Neither existing international histories nor international relations texts sufficiently register the scale and impact of this ‘global transformation’, yet it is the consequences of these multiple revolutions that provide the material and ideational foundations of modern international relations. Global modernity reconstituted the mode of power that underpinned international order and opened a power gap between those who harnessed the revolutions of modernity and those who were denied access to them. This gap dominated international relations for two centuries and is only now being closed. By taking the global transformation as the starting point for international relations, this book repositions the roots of the discipline and establishes a new way of both understanding and teaching the relationship between world history and international relations.

1989 signifies the collapse of Soviet communism and the end of the Cold War, a moment generally r... more 1989 signifies the collapse of Soviet communism and the end of the Cold War, a moment generally recognized as a triumph for liberal democracy and when capitalism became global. The Global 1989 challenges these ideas. An international group of prominent scholars investigate the mixed, paradoxical and even contradictory outcomes engendered by these events, unravelling the intricacies of this important moment in world history. Although the political, economic and cultural orders generated have, for the most part, been an improvement on what was in place before, this has not always been clear cut: 1989 has many meanings, many effects and multiple trajectories. This volume leads the way in defining how 1989 can be assessed both in terms of its world historical impact and in terms of its contribution to the shape of contemporary world politics.

Reviews
'This volume offers a seminal and strikingly original reinterpretation of the end of the Cold War. It provides not only a refreshing and revealing look back at 1989, but also a remarkably insightful look forward to the lasting impact of 1989 on the future of global politics.' Charles A. Kupchan, Georgetown University and Council on Foreign Relations, author of How Enemies Become Friends

'Like many joyous moments, 1989 has had diverse, unexpected and not always beneficial consequences. The editors of this volume ask all the right questions about 1989 as a turning point and the contributors provide many intelligent and provocative answers.' Richard Ned Lebow, James O. Freedman Presidential Professor, Dartmouth College and Centennial Professor, London School of Economics and Political Science

'This impressive collection of essays examines the place in global history of the revolutionary events of 1989, but it will also interest anyone attempting to theorize the overall trajectory of contemporary societies.' Michael Mann, Professor of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles

'This excellent book should be widely read and pondered because it addresses one of the most important issues of our time: why the triumphalism of 1989 has given way to a growing pessimism about the future of world politics.' John J. Mearsheimer, R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago

'This book brings together a distinguished group of scholars to illuminate an important subject whose larger significance policymakers, scholars and the broader reading public think they understand but probably don't. Nearly anyone who thinks much about politics has a take on the meaning of 1989. Lawson, Armbruster, Cox and their collaborators are here to tell you that what you think you know about the implications of the Cold War's and Euro-Eurasian communism's collapse rests on tenuous conceptual or empirical foundations, or probably both.' William C. Wohlforth, Daniel Webster Professor, Dartmouth College and Editor in Chief, Security Studies

In Negotiated Revolutions, George Lawson marks a definitive departure in the study of radical cha... more In Negotiated Revolutions, George Lawson marks a definitive departure in the study of radical change, presenting a comparative analysis of three transformations from authoritarian rule to market democracy. Through the lens of international historical sociology, the book brings three apparently distinct transformations, from disparate regimes and geographies, under a common rubric.

Reviews
'…a new advance in the study of radical change…Lawson identifies a set of transitions located in three continents that accompanied the end of the cold war in the late 1980s and early 1990s. While insisting on differences of history and political culture, Lawson nonetheless shows comprehensively how the global political context combined with the maturing of internal tensions to produce a new variant of revolutionary outcomes.' Professor Fred Halliday, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK

'This is a very important book. George Lawson provides by far the best comparative and international discussion of the negotiated revolutions that took place at the end of the Cold War, and analyses these events in light of his considerable insights into the on-going debates about theories of revolution.' Professor O.A. Westad, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK

'This is a timely, important, insightful and well-written book…it produces novel insights into the conception of revolution that all scholars interested in the topic should take heed of. Perhaps most significantly, it provides an excellent bridge between the complementary, though often sealed off, disciplines of Macro-Sociology/Historical Sociology and International Relations…I strongly recommend this book.' John M. Hobson, University of Sheffield, UK

'…a valuable tool to criticize past research on revolutions for a number of shortcomings…[Lawson] provides a strong case for an "international sociology" as a conceptual framework for studying change in international relations as but a case of more comprehensive social change. His case-studies are highly readable, condensed accounts…' International Affairs

'Lawson does readers a favor by creating a model of revolution that allows one to retain what is useful from the past and combine it with what has changed in the present. Such scenarios may allow better predictions of future revolutionary activities…Recommended.' Choice

'Overall, the author succeeds in his analysis: the cases provide effective and convincing illustrations…of the importance and usefulness of the concept of negotiated revolution…this is a refreshing read…provides an excellent weaving together of theory and evidence…' Political Studies Review

'[Lawson's] case for the emergence of negotiated revolutions…is compelling and the discussion of the three cases well argued. Negotiated Revolutions thus marks a valuable contribution to the study of revolutions and social change generally in the post-Cold War era.' Political Science Quarterly

Papers by George Lawson

Australian Journal of International Affairs, 2025

This introduction to the forum marking the 75th anniversary of the Department of International Re... more This introduction to the forum marking the 75th anniversary of the Department of International Relations (IR) at the Australian National University (ANU) is organised in three parts. First, it 'looks back' at the origins and evolution of the department, highlighting the opportunities and tensions that have arisen from the housing of the department within administrative units concerned with area studies, particularly the Asia-Pacific region. 'Looking around' at the department today, the paper notes the prevalence of work on issue-areas previously unexplored (such as gender, justice and security) or being re-explored (particularly diplomacy), as well as the close relationship between theory and practice that emerges from the department's base in Canberra at Australia's national university. Finally, the introduction 'looks forward', using themes developed in the papers that make up this forum around ethical silences and openings to examine the public responsibilities of scholars, both in ANU's Department of IR and further afield, around research, teaching and engagement.

International Studies Quarterly 57(3): 620–634, 2013

Unlike many other social sciences, international relations (IR) spend relatively little time asse... more Unlike many other social sciences, international relations (IR) spend relatively little time assessing the impact of the nineteenth century on its principal subject matter. As a result, the discipline fails to understand the ways in which a dramatic reconfiguration of power during the ''long nineteenth century'' served to recast core features of international order. This article examines the extent of this lacuna and establishes the ways in which processes of industrialization, rational state-building, and ideologies of progress served to destabilize existing forms of order and promote novel institutional formations. The changing character of organized violence is used to illustrate these changes. The article concludes by examining how IR could be rearticulated around a more pronounced engagement with ''the global transformation.

International Theory 15(3): 499-515, 2023

The project to establish a Global International Relations (IR) generates space for theoretical ex... more The project to establish a Global International Relations (IR) generates space for theoretical expressions drawn from outside the experiences of the modern West. Alongside these demands for theoretical pluralism can be found a concern for widening IR’s historical frames of reference. Yet, to date, the relationship between Global IR and history is the least developed part of the project’s agenda. This article suggests two ways in which this relationship can be strengthened. The first, drawn from Global History, shows how transboundary connections and relational dynamics forge the units used by advocates of Global IR in their analysis: West and non-West, core and periphery, metropole and colony. Second, we argue that a concern for transboundary connections and relational dynamics should be supplemented by analysis of power asymmetries in order to show which connections matter for which processes. This attention to patterns of connections, in other words the structural entanglements, premised on asymmetrical power relations, which can be used to explain processes of historical development, is the terrain of Global Historical Sociology. This double move, from Global IR to Global History, and then from Global History to Global Historical Sociology, sustains an agenda concerned with the interactive connections and asymmetrical entanglements between peoples, places, ideas, and institutions that drive historical development. We illustrate the potential of this approach through a brief analysis of the rise of the West. This, in turn, demonstrates the ways in which three visions of the global – Global IR, Global History, and Global Historical Sociology – can be mutually beneficial.

International Affairs International Affairs 98(6): 2119–2139. , 2022

What is the relationship between revolution and terrorism? Much of the time, terrorism and revolu... more What is the relationship between revolution and terrorism? Much of the time, terrorism and revolution are taken to be distinct forms of political contention. This article argues that, to the contrary, their relationship is much closer than is often imagined. We show that a range of contemporary terrorist groups contain revolutionary elements: they seek to capture and hold territory, and see themselves as part of movements where the goal is to transform international as well as domestic orders. This provides two points of distinction, first between ‘order-maintaining’ and ‘order-transforming’ goals, and second between ‘minimalist’ and ‘maximalist’ tactics. The result is a taxonomy of different types of ‘revolutionary terrorism’. This analytic is used to dig deeper into the parameters of revolutionary terrorism, using militant Salafism as exemplary of a maximalist, order-transforming movement. A focus on transnational, order-transforming revolutionary terrorism generates a range of insights into the violent strategies, international dynamics and organizational forms used by Islamic State, al-Qaeda, and related groups. The resulting research agenda, the paper concludes, is rich in possibilities.

Although contemporary theorists of revolution usually claim to be incorporating international dyn... more Although contemporary theorists of revolution usually claim to be incorporating international dynamics in their analysis, ‘the international’ remains a residual feature of revolutionary theory. For the most part, international processes are seen either as the facilitating context for revolutions or as the dependent outcome of revolutions. The result is an analytical bifurcation between international and domestic in which the former serves as the backdrop to the latter’s causal agency. This paper demonstrates the benefits of a fuller engagement between revolutionary theory and ‘the international’. It does so in three steps: first, the paper examines the ways in which contemporary revolutionary theory apprehends ‘the international’; second, it lays out the descriptive and analytical advantages of an ‘intersocietal’ approach; and third, it traces the ways in which international dynamics help to constitute revolutionary situations, trajectories, and outcomes. In this way, revolutions are understood as ‘intersocietal’ all the way down.

This article combines insights from the literature on revolutions with that on non-violent protes... more This article combines insights from the literature on revolutions with that on non-violent protest in order to assess the causes and outcomes of the Arab Uprisings. The article makes three main arguments: first, international dynamics were the precipitant cause of the Arab Uprisings; second, because the region’s ‘neo-patrimonial’ regimes were particularly vulnerable to shifts in state-military relations, the hold of elites over state coercive apparatuses played a decisive role in determining the outcomes of the revolutions; and third, the organizational character of the protest movements, including their use of information and communication technologies, helped to raise levels of participation, but limited their capacity to engender major transformations. Of particular interest to scholarship on non-violent movements, the article demonstrates the ways in which, as the revolutionary wave spread around North Africa and the Middle East, protestors in states outside the original onset of the crisis overstated the possibilities of revolutionary success. At the same time, regimes learned quickly how to demobilize their opponents. The lesson is clear: the timing of when movements emerged was just as important as their organizational coherence and levels of participation.

Recent years have seen renewed interest in the study of revolutions. Yet the burgeoning interest ... more Recent years have seen renewed interest in the study of revolutions. Yet the burgeoning interest in revolutionary events has not been matched by a comparable interest in the development of revolutionary theory. For the most part, empirical studies of revolutions remain contained within the parameters established by the ‘fourth generation’ of revolutionary theory. This body of work sees revolutions as conjunctural amalgams of systemic crisis, structural opening, and collective action, which arise from the intersection of international, economic, political, and symbolic factors. Despite the promise of this approach, this article argues that fourth generation scholarship remains an unfulfilled agenda. The aim of this article is to work within – and beyond – fourth generation theory in order to establish the theoretical foundations that can underpin contemporary work on revolutions. It does so in three ways: first, by promoting a shift from an attributional to a processual ontology; second, by advocating a relational rather than substantialist account of social action; and third, by fostering an approach that sees revolutions as inter-societal ‘all the way down’.

Fred Halliday saw revolution and war as the dual motors of modern international order. However, w... more Fred Halliday saw revolution and war as the dual motors of modern international order. However, while war occupies a prominent place in the IR, revolutions inhabit a more residual location. For Halliday, this is out of keeping with their impact - in particular, revolutions offer a systemic challenge to existing patterns of international order in their capacity to generate alternative orders founded on novel forms of political rule, economic organisation and symbolic authority. In this way, dynamics of revolution and counter-revolution are closely associated with processes of international conflict, intervention and war. It may be that one of the reasons for Halliday's failure to make apparent the importance of revolutions to IR audiences was that, for all his empirical illustrations of how revolutions affected the international realm, he did not formulate a coherent theoretical scheme which spoke systematically to the discipline. This article assesses Halliday's contribution to the study of revolutions, and sets out an approach which both recognises and extends his work. By formulating ideal-typical 'anatomies of revolution', it is possible to generate insights that clarify the ways in which revolutions shape international order.

Alejandro Colas and George Lawson, ‘Fred Halliday: Achievements, Ambivalences, Openings’, Millennium 39(2) 2010: 235-258.

Fred Halliday was one of the most important scholars of his generation. This article examines Hal... more Fred Halliday was one of the most important scholars of his generation. This article examines Halliday’s intellectual influences, assesses his contribution to International Relations (IR) and probes the broader challenges which his work evokes. Halliday had a direct impact on IR through his interventions in historical sociology, revolutions and gender studies, and through his capacity to intertwine analytical, normative and political registers. More indirectly, Halliday promoted a form of critical, engaged scholarship which stands a model for the idea of academic life as a vocation. As such, his example has much to offer current students and scholars of International Relations.

This article is an attempt to rescue revolution, both as concept and practice, from the triumphal... more This article is an attempt to rescue revolution, both as concept and practice, from the triumphalism of the contemporary world. To that end, the paper uses three transformations from authoritarian rule – the end of apartheid in South Africa, the collapse of communism in the Czech Republic and the transition from military dictatorship to market democracy in post-Pinochet Chile – in order to test the ways in which these contemporary manifestations of radical change compare and contrast with past examples of revolution. Although these cases share some core similarities with revolutions of the modern era, they also differ from them in five crucial ways: the particular role played by the ‘international’ and the state, the nature of violence, the use of ideology, and the process of negotiation itself. As such, they signify a novel process in world politics, that of negotiated revolution.

International Politics Reviews, 2021

It is a rare privilege to engage with such thought-provoking commentaries on Anatomies of Revolut... more It is a rare privilege to engage with such thought-provoking commentaries on Anatomies of Revolution. Each of the contributions by Adom Getachew, Siniša Malešević, Dana Moss, Alex Prichard, and Andrew Zimmerman raises major issues that have made me think hard about the book: what I was trying to say in it, what-and who-the book was written for, what it opens up and, more uncomfortably, what it closes down. It has not been easy to respond to the multiple challenges laid down by the respondents. Not only do each of them make a range of important interventions, but quite often these interventions point in different directions. I am taken, for example, as a 'political Weberian' by Malešević, as a liberal by Zimmerman, and as a Marx-ist by Prichard. Perhaps I am all three. Or, equally plausibly, none. Either way, I am aware that no author holds a monopoly over their writing. Not only is writing a dialogic process, one that often leaves me surprised at what I come up with, but its social, inter-textual character is only heightened after publication as the text circulates … if we're lucky. As with revolutions, so it is with books-their meaning is collectively, contextually forged. With that in mind, I have pooled my response into three themes: history and theory ; action and agency; and liberalism and revolution. This approach, I hope, allows me to reason with my interlocutors rather than setup a faux antagonism against them. My aim is to further cultivate the spirit of revolutionary generosity that has animated their astute readings of my book. History and theory One of the central issues raised by the interlocutors is how to foster a 'good-enough' relationship between history and theory. Most directly, Adom Getachew asks how 'the theory/history relationship is posed' in the book? Are historical narratives of the type I deploy, she asks, 'sites of theory generation or sites of theoretical explana-tion'? Getachew further queries the changing nature of key concepts mobilised in

International Affairs 95(5) (2019): 1149-1158.

Forty years after its publication, Theda Skocpol’s States and Social Revolutions remains the pre-... more Forty years after its publication, Theda Skocpol’s States and Social Revolutions remains the pre-eminent book in the study of revolutions. But how should the book be assessed from the vantage point of contemporary world politics? This essay reviews Skocpol’s contribution to three main issue-areas: theory, structural approaches, and the international. It argues that, rich as it has been, the research agenda initiated by States and Social Revolutions has run its course. It cannot respond effectively to the different contexts within which revolutions emerge and the diverse forms they take. Its bifurcation between structure and agency cannot capture the relational character of revolutionary action. And, despite its concern for the international components of revolutions, States and Social Revolutions cannot accommodate the ways in which revolutions are ‘inter-social’ all the way down. A new Skocpol is needed for a new age of revolutions.

This chapter examines the relationship between revolutions and International Relations (IR). This... more This chapter examines the relationship between revolutions and International Relations (IR). This relationship should be strong: revolutionaries often stress the international components of their struggles, while revolutions feature a range of international processes, from the spread of revolutionary strategies to the close relationship between revolutions and war. Yet, in practice, revolutions are not well studied in IR. This chapter explores the reasons for this neglect and suggests ways of better integrating the study of revolutions with IR. Its main contribution is the advancing of an 'inter-social' approach to revolutions, one that both describes and analyses the relationship between revolutions and the international 'all the way down'. The new age of revolution Revolutions have had a major impact on the development of modern international order. Writing in the late 1970s, Martin Wight (1978: 92) wrote that over half of the preceding 500 years had featured some kind of conflict between revolutionary and counter-revolutionary states. The period since the publication of Wight's book may well be the most revolutionary in history-we are living in a 'new age of revolution' (Goldstone 2016: ii). In the contemporary world, revolutions are everywhere: on the streets of Kobane, Minsk, and Hong Kong; in the rhetoric of groups like Extinction Rebellion and Black Lives Matter; and in the potential of technologies to reshape people's lives. Rarely do weeks go by without a revolution of one kind or another being proclaimed. If this is right, it matters a great deal for world politics. Although no revolution has ever delivered in full on its promises, revolutions have bought dramatic changes in their wake. The French Revolution introduced the notions of nationalism and popular

Few issues were more central to second-wave historical sociology than revolution. Figures such as... more Few issues were more central to second-wave historical sociology than revolution. Figures such as Theda Skocpol (1979) and Charles Tilly (1978, 1993 saw revolutions as essential to unraveling processes of state formation. Others, such as Barrington Moore Jr. (1967) and Jack Goldstone (1991), argued that revolutions were fundamental to the emergence of modernity Finally, this chapter is explicitly relational in that it sees revolutions as 'entities-in-motion'. This means shifting enquiry away from a view of revolutions as bundles of properties towards examination of the ways in which trans-boundary interactions are generative of revolutionary struggles. The constitutive role played by these trans-boundary interactions is illustrated in the first part of the chapter through a discussion of the Haitian Revolution. The second section widens this analysis into a general critique of the ways in which second-wave historical sociology and recent revolutionary theory have conceptualized the relationship between revolutions and global dynamics. The third section demonstrates the advantages of an 'intersocial' approach to revolutions. A brief conclusion lays out the promise of this approach.

Australian Journal of International Affairs, 2025

International Studies Quarterly 57(3): 620–634, 2013

International Theory 15(3): 499-515, 2023

International Affairs International Affairs 98(6): 2119–2139. , 2022

Alejandro Colas and George Lawson, ‘Fred Halliday: Achievements, Ambivalences, Openings’, Millennium 39(2) 2010: 235-258.

International Politics Reviews, 2021

International Affairs 95(5) (2019): 1149-1158.

Response to Reviewers - Global Historical Sociology

Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 2020

Response to reviewers in the book forum on Global Historical Sociology

‘The Promise of Historical Sociology in International Relations’, International Studies Review 8(3) 2006: 397–424.

This essay draws on historical sociology, in particular on historical institutionalism, to critiq... more This essay draws on historical sociology, in particular on historical institutionalism, to critique the micro-, macro- and meso-level explanations of contemporary international relations theory. Focusing on institutional development, change, and disintegration, it proposes a conjunctural, mid-range approach to capturing the processes of largescale change that are occurring in the international realm. This essay seeks to broaden the field’s scope by outlining the possibilities that historical sociology offers to international relations theory and practice.

‘Historical Sociology in International Relations: Open Society, Research Programme and Vocation’, International Politics 44(4) 2007: 343–368.

Over the last 20 years, historical sociology has become an increasingly conspicuous part of the b... more Over the last 20 years, historical sociology has become an increasingly conspicuous part of the broader field of International Relations (IR) theory, with advocates making a series of interventions in subjects as diverse as the origins and varieties of international systems over time and place, to work on the co-constitutive relationship between the international realm and state–society relations in the processes of radical change. However, even as historical sociology in IR (HSIR) has produced substantial gains, so there has also been a concomitant watering down of the underlying approach itself. As a result, it is no longer clear what exactly HSIR entails: should it be seen as operating within the existing pool of available theories or as an attempt to reconvene the discipline on new foundations? This article sets out an identifiable set of assumptions and precepts for HSIR based on deep ontological realism, epistemological relationism, a methodological free range, and an overt normative engagement with the events and processes that make up contemporary world politics. As such, HSIR can be seen as operating as an open society, a research programme and a vocation.

This article examines the historical sociology that informs Andrew Linklater's Violence and Civil... more This article examines the historical sociology that informs Andrew Linklater's Violence and Civilization in the Western States-Systems. On the sociological side, it critically assesses Linklater's use of Elias and Wight, arguing that his 'higher level synthesis' is internally incompatible. On the historical side, the article argues that the occlusion of the transnational interactions that, in great measure, drive historical development means that Linklater's analysis is inadequate for its stated purpose: to chart the development of civilising processes within the Western state-systems. When asked by a reporter what he thought of Western civilisation, Mahatma Gandhi is said to have replied that 'it would be a good idea'. Apocryphal or not, Gandhi's remark speaks to the 'dark side' of Western civilisation: its histories of imperialism and colonialism, authoritarianism and racism, genocide and mass warfare. In the contemporary world, these histories are under close scrutiny, both in the academy and the wider world. The former can be seen in the array of texts, from global history to postcolonial scholarship, which examines the interrelationship between the 'rise of the West' and the 'decline of the Rest'. 1 The latter can be seen in the malaise that infuses Western international order, whether this is found in its forums of governance, deepening levels of inequality, or in increasingly polarised debates over immigration, race, and sexuality. A transnational movement of anti-establishment groups, present in much of Europe and North America, is but one barometer of a general atmosphere of discontent that permeates Western international order. It is a brave individual who marches into this landscape arguing that the contemporary Western states-system is a singularly civilised order, the inheritor of advances made over several centuries. Yet this is the path chosen by Andrew Linklater. His trilogy of interventions into the shape and trajectory of modern international order (two books published; one to come) is nothing if not 'untimely' in that it cuts against the grain of trends within contemporary world politics, while simultaneously speaking

In this review symposium, Pinar Bilgin, Ann Towns and David C. Kang discuss Barry Buzan and Georg... more In this review symposium, Pinar Bilgin, Ann Towns and David C. Kang discuss Barry Buzan and George Lawson's The Global Transformation: History, Modernity and the Making of International Relations. In the book, Buzan and Lawson set out to provide a history of how we came to think about international relations in the way we do today. They explore the roots of our contemporary conceptions of the state, revolution, the international and modernity. They identify the long nineteenth century, from 1776 to 1914, as the key period in which the modern state and international relations as we know them today were forged. This was a global transformation in that it reshaped the bases of power, thereby also reshaping the relations of power that govern the relations between states and other agents today, across the world. In carrying through this project, Buzan and Lawson show us not only how the modern world was transformed, but also the kind of object it became for the discipline of International Relations. As such, this is also a book about the assumptions that have shaped, and continue to shape, that discipline.

H-Diplo Roundtable Vol. VII, Nr. 11 (2015)

Protest (3), 2023

George Lawson is Professor in the Department of International Relations at the Coral Bell School ... more George Lawson is Professor in the Department of International Relations at the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University. His work is oriented around the relationship between history and theory, with a particular interest in global historical sociology. He applies this interest to the study of revolutions in three books: Anatomies of Revolution (2019), Negotiated Revolutions: The Czech Republic, South Africa and Chile (2005), and On Revolutions: Unruly Politics in the Contemporary World (2022), co-authored with Colin Beck, Mlada Bukavansky, Erica Chenoweth, Sharon Nepstad and Daniel Ritter. He is currently in the planning stages (emphasis on planning) of a project on the long-term relationship between liberalism and revolution.
This past summer, editors Larbi Sadiki and Layla Saleh interviewed Professor Lawson about how his interest in the study of revolutions developed, his academic contributions within the broader field of scholarship on revolutions, his advice to researchers, and his thoughts on some current protest movements around the world.

Interview - Tarak Barkawi and George Lawson, Political Power and Social Theory

Gaidar Forum, Moscow, '1917-2017: Lessons of a Bygone Century', January 2017