How Norman Angell Reveals the Significance of Marxism and Socialism in Early IR and a Debate before the “First Great Debate”1

Abstract

Abstract A widespread belief in the field of international relations (IR) is that the first years of the discipline were characterized by a liberal “idealist” theoretical dominance followed by the so-called “first great debate,” in which the “idealist” school was intellectually surpassed by a realist tradition. The purpose of this article is to join previous revisionist studies and challenge this conventional narrative. Building primarily on the international thought and work of Norman Angell on imperialism, this article reveals that there was an important intellectual contest preceding the denominated “first great debate.” It also shows that even though Angell was not a Marxist, his figure discloses Marxism as an important theoretical force in the genesis of the discipline.