Some Further Thoughts

Abstract

Abstract This afterword relates the volume to bigger issues in IR by reflecting upon the understanding of history in IR in general, and trying to steer a middle way between the Scylla of outdated teleological ideas and the Charybdis of sacrificing the idea of growth and transformative change. It argues for an understanding of social practices that is not indebted to grand theory, in either an ontological form or that espoused by the unity of science position. Instead, it takes acting in historical time seriously. Instead of just “observing” it from the famous view from nowhere, it focuses on the symbols, metaphors and speech acts which actors use in communicating with each other when (re-)producing and changing the social world. This puts Armed groups and Legitimation in the broader context of transformative historical change, from the original “just war doctrine” to the “outlawing of war” after WWI, and the subsequent changes of today when armed groups contest the legitimacy of rule of other “representatives” without challenging the legitimacy of the international game.