Prof Hidemi Suganami

BA University of Tokyo, MSc(Econ) University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, PhD University of London

Prof Hidemi Suganami

Emeritus Professor

Department of International Politics

Contact Details

Profile

Professor Suganami is a graduate of Tokyo University & holds an MSc(Econ) by research in International Politics from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, & a PhD in International Relations from the University of London. In 1975 he took up a Lectureship in International Relations in the newly established Department of International Relations at Keele University where he was awarded a personal chair in the Philosophy of International Relations in 1997. In 2004 he moved to Aberystwyth University as Professor of International Politics. His major publications include: The Domestic Analogy & World Order Proposals (Cambridge University Press, 1989; Japanese edition, 1994); On the Causes of War (Clarendon Press, 1996); & The English School of International Relations (Cambridge University Press, 2004), with Andrew Linklater.

Beginning with an early article published in Japanese in the Journal of International Law & Diplomacy (1979) , Professor Suganami has written extensively on the English School of International Relations & some of its central figures (C.A.W. Manning & Hedley Bull in particular); he also contributed to one of the key texts of the English School, Hedley Bull & Adam Watson (eds), The Expansion of International Society (Clarendon Press, 1989; Italian edition, 1994), based on the work of the British Committee on the Theory of International Politics. With Madeline Carr and Adam Humphreys, he has co-edited a collection of essays celebrating the 40th anniversary of the publication of Bull's The Anarchical Society, to which leading scholars from the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, & the UK have contributed (forthcoming 2017). He is also a co-editor, with Richard Ned Lebow & Peer Schouten, of The Return of the Theorists: Dialogues with Great Thinkers in International Relations (Palgrave, 2016) in which he engages in an imaginary comic dialogue with David Hume as well as Kenneth Waltz (the latter co-authored with Adam Humphreys).

Additional Information

Professor Suganami's long-standing interest in the philosophy of law has led to the publication of 'Understanding Sovereignty through Kelsen/Schmitt', Review of International Studies Vol. 33, No. 3, which won BISA's best-article-of-the-year award in 2007. For a number of years, he has also been studying philosophical issues surrounding causation and explanation in science, social science, and history, with a view to clearing the ground where International Relations meets philosophical analysis. With Adam Humphreys, he has co-edited a special issue of Journal of International Relations and Development on 'Problems of Causation in World Politics' (forthcoming) and is currently working (with Humphreys) on a book-length project, Causation and Explanation in International Relations.

Research

Professor Suganami has published extensively on the following subjects: history of ideas regarding international law and institutions; debates concerning the causes and origins of wars; debates concerning sovereignty in world politics; and the history and key contentions of the English School of International Relations. His approach to research is increasingly philosophical (meta-theoretical/meta-historical) and covers philosophical aspects of the study of international relations, especially the application of the philosophy of history and philosophy of law to IR; concepts of causation and explanation in the study of world politics; the relationship between politics, philosophy, and social scientific/historical knowledge claims made in IR.

Publications

Suganami, H 2017, Hedley Bull and The Anarchical Society Now at 40. in H Suganami, M Carr & A Humphreys (eds), The Anarchical Society at 40: Contemporary Challenges and Prospects. Oxford University Press, London, pp. 3-22.
Suganami, H 2017, 'On the Hume/Bhaskar Contrast in Philosophical Metatheory of International Relations', Journal of International Relations and Development. 10.1057/jird.2016.9
Suganami, H 2017, The Argument of The Anarchical Society. in H Suganami, M Carr & A Humphreys (eds), The Anarchical Society at 40: Contemporary Challenges and Prospects. Oxford University Press, pp. 23-40.
Humphreys, A & Suganami, H 2016, Questioning Kenneth N. Waltz (1924-2013). in R Lebow, P Schouten & H Suganami (eds), The Return of the Theorists: Dialogues with Great Thinkers in International Relations. Springer Nature, Houndmills, pp. 313-321.
Suganami, H 2016, Two Days in the Life of 'Dave' Hume (1711-1776). in R Lebow, PS & H Suganami (eds), The Return of the Theorists: Dialogues with Great Thinkers in International Relations. Springer Nature, London, pp. 82-90.
More publications on the Research Portal