Wight, Martin (1913—1972)

Martin Wight is considered one of the most influential British scholars of international relations (IR). Interestingly, during his lifetime Wight published only a small number of studies in the field of international politics. Yet, Wight's teaching at the London School of Economics and Political Science and the University of Sussex left such an imprint on his students (among others, Hedley Bull and Michael Howard) that they preserved his intellectual legacy by expanding and publishing his lecture notes and by the annual Martin Wight Memorial Lecture.

Wight's perspective, embedded in his Christian faith, has two premises: first, our thinking about world politics is rooted in traditions of thought that ultimately can be traced to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance; second, because the state is an imperfect way to help imperfect man to live the good life, issues of power are also moral issues. Wight distinguishes four traditions. Realism (or Machiavellianism) emphasizes the anarchical nature of international relations. In such a world disputes between states occur repeatedly and are ultimately settled by war. Ethical concerns are irrelevant in such a world. An international society does not exist. Rationalism (or Grotianism) acknowledges the importance of institutions such as international law and diplomacy. These set limits on the way a state exercises its sovereign rights. Ethical concerns are possible, but remain limited to the rights of states. They testify to the existence of some form of international society. Revolutionism (or Kantianism) conceives of world politics as a society of states that pursue mankind's moral purpose. That purpose could be many things: religion, a classless society, and so on. Ethical concerns are dominant and might even justify the means. Wight's fourth tradition (inverted revolutionism) is less prominently visible in history, but refers to the rejection of the use of power altogether, such as by the Society of Friends (Quakers).

Because of his work Power Politics, Wight is often associated with realism. Yet, to him the unscrupulous struggle for power between states it describes was only a vantage point from which states could be seen as exercising power ultimately based on economic, demographic, and military resources. Different vantage points showed that states could also act from a common culture or based on ethical considerations. In Systems of States, Wight argued that, historically, all systems of state have displayed a common culture.

The impact of Wight's work and teaching can still be traced in modern IR. His detailed analysis of the concept of the balance of power and its manifold meaning is still significant to all IR scholars. His elaboration on the traditions of thought has laid the foundation for various developments in the discipline after his death by pointing out how a perspective on the nature of world politics entails a position on international ethics. In doing so, Wight helped pave the way for Michael Walzer's 1977 [Page 712]work Just and Unjust Wars and the debate it sparked; by demonstrating that states under anarchy may invent and observe rules and institutions, he gave ammunition to both neoinstitutionalism, and, later, social constructivism. Finally, because of his historical approach, rejection of social scientific methods, and his interest in the role of culture in world politics, Martin Wight ushered in the blossoming of the so-called English School of international relations. His message that in world politics power and ethics are intrinsically linked still rings true today.

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