Nicholas Rengger - Selected Publications (last five years)#

Just War and International Order: The Uncivil Condition in World Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2013)

Reviewed in International Affairs 89, 6, January 2013, pp 1479-1480:

"Harnessing an impressive array of literatures across the fields of political theory, international relations and international legal theories, political theology and the history of warfare, Nicholas Rengger has written a subtle set of arguments against recent and contemporary practices of moral interventionism … this book stands out for its philosophical sophistication, its singular use of intellectual history and the measured consistency of its own argument."

Reviewed in Foreign Affairs, Jan/Feb 2014:

"In this work of political theory, Rengger notes what he considers a disturbing shift in Western discourse on the use of force. Liberal internationalists and “just war” theorists see themselves as trying to prevent and circumscribe acts of violence and war. But Rengger argues that, ironically, these liberal political traditions are instead creating new legal and moral justifications for the use of force around the world....Rengger sees their embrace of such ideas as “the responsibility to protect” as a sign that long-standing restraints on the use of force will soon begin to disappear. Rengger wants the world to think of international law and justice not as tools for a progressive agenda but as frameworks that allow people to pursue their own ends"

Reviews known to be forthcoming in History of Political Thought, Journal of International Political Theory, Political Theory, Millennium Journal of International Studies, INternational STudies Perspectives.

'Tragedy or Scepticism' in Toni Erskine and Richard Ned Lebow (ed) Tragedy and International Relations (Palgrave, 2012)

Reviewed in International Affairs, 88, 6, 2013, 1342-1343, Cambridge Review of International Affairs

'A Global Ethics and The Hybrid Character of the Moral World: A Response to Michael Ignatieff' in Ethics and International Affairs, 26,1, Sprinbg 2012, Symposium : In Search of a Global Ethic.

'The World Turned Upside Down: Human Rights and International Relations After 25 Years' in International Affairs, 87, 5, September 2011.

a leading paper in the journal of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) Journal - in an issue I guest edited with a colleague


'Realism's Hidden Dialogue: Leo Strauss, War and Politics' in Duncan Bell (ed) Political Thought and International Relations: Variations on a Realist Theme (Oxford University Press, 2008)

Reviewed in Perspectives on Politics, 8, 3, August 2010, 981-982.

"Nicholas Rengger considers the “hidden dialogue” between Leo Strauss and Carl Schmitt on the relationship between war and politics. Whereas Schmitt felt that the friend/enemy distinction was decisive for the political, Strauss argued that the character of political regimes accounts for the permanent possibility of war in the world. While Rengger dissents from Strauss's view that war is a fundamental feature of world politics, he does think that Strauss's analysis of the liberal regime is useful for contemporary analysis of how states will behave in war. Rengger's chapter offers an important intervention into recent debates over the influence of Strauss's political philosophy on neoconservative foreign policy, and makes the surprising (yet compelling case) that Strauss's work contributes to current debates over the democratic peace"

PREVIOUS PUBLICATIONS WHICH HELPED ESTABLISH INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION

Political Theory, Modernity and Post-Modernity: Beyond Enlightenment and Critique (London: Blackwell, 1995)

Reviewed in American Political Science Review, American Journal of Sociology, Canadian Political Sceince Review, Political Studies.

Political Studies review (45, 1, March 1997):

'Perhaps the most incisive and novel feature of this wide-ranging survey of the history and practice
of political theory is the claim that the arrival of the postmodern sense and sensibility has in no way
rendered redundant ancient and modern modes and models of thinking the political...Rengger's
appreciation of the modernity/postmodernity debate is a highly nuanced one...(and).. he is able to show the extent to which both modernity and postmodernity are richer, more complex, and variegated `traditions' of thought than both advocates and detractors of either would have us believe. Rengger has written an admirably lucid and sensibly intelligent book'

International Relations, Political Theory and the Problem of Order: Beyond International Relations Theory (London: Routledge, 2000)

Reviews in British Journal of Politics and International Relations, Political Studies, Millennium:Journal of International STudies