International relations: the "higher bullshit": a reply to the globalization theory debate

This article replies to an earlier forum (International Politics (42.3) on 'Globalization Theory: a Post Mortem'. Whereas the 'Post Mortem' had criticized Globalization Theory largely for its neglect of Classical Social Theory's achievements, the current paper emphasizes its reproduction of one of Classical Social Theory's greatest limitations: the failure to incorporate 'the international' into its theorization of historical development. This limitation, it is argued, may be overcome using the idea of 'uneven and combined development', an idea which is first reformulated (in order to re-connect the premises of social and international theory), and then used as a vantage point from which to respond to criticisms of the 'Post Mortem'. 'The international', it turns out, is not the fading reality postulated by Globalization Theory but rather a fundamental dimension of social existence that IR, uniquely among the social sciences, encounters as its core subject matter.