How 'Utopian' is the Foreign Policy in Thomas More's Utopia?

MORE, Thomas, Sir, Saint, 1478-1535; INTERNATIONAL relations; INTERNATIONAL relations theory; UTOPIAS; NATIONAL interest; REALISM; REGIME change

In his foundational text The Twenty Years' Crisis: An Introduction to the Study of InternationalRelations (1939), E. H. Carr juxtaposes utopian and realist approaches to world politics. This dichotomy, while modified since, remains at the core of most studies in the field. Carr cites Thomas More's Utopia (1516) as representative of idealistic, wishful, and infantile utopian thinking. By taking Carr's analysis of Utopia literally, this article examines the foreign policies depicted in More's book. Since these policies include assassination, regime change, slavery, pre-emptive warfare, I argue that they can hardly be called utopian in any sense of the word. In light of this conclusion, I suggest that international relations theory should be founded on more accurate examples of its categories of thought, namely utopianism and realism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of European Legacy is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)