The Changing Conceptual Foundations of the Debate on War and Peace: Morality and Rationality in the International Political Thought of Mahan, Angell, and Carr

The goal of this paper is to investigate the change in the narratives about war and peace brought with the professionalization of the discipline of International Relations (IR). It deals with three prominent figures of thought who wrote very impacting books to this debate over the decades: the Admiral Alfred T. Mahan, Norman Angell, and Edward H.Carr. The way these authors understood notions like morality and rationality led each of them to different conclusions about statecraft, the meaning, utility, and legitimacy of bellicose activities engaged by countries against each other, progress and civilization that clearly set a pre- and a post-IR conceptual frame for the debates of world politics.