The Modern International Imaginary: Sketching Horizons and Enriching the Picture
The Modern International Imaginary: Sketching Horizons and Enriching the Picture

Summary/Abstract: This article aims to bridge the literature of modern social imaginaries with the growing study of modernity in International Relations. Employing a Taylorian conceptual framework and account, the case is made for understanding modern international relations and enabled and constrained by a “modern inter­national imaginary”, which forms a significant part of the modern social imagi­nary more generally. It is argued that a modern social imaginaries approach offers a means to deepen and enlarge the growing studies of the international implica­tions of modernity, by illuminating overlooked cultural preconditions and forms of modern international relations. First, a social imaginaries approach reveals the international to be coeval with the emergence of modern social imaginaries in general, and that it has come to form their “highest” and most consistently and severely problematic realm. Second, its insight into the enabling and constraining effects of social imaginaries offers a basis for studying the horizons of the interna­tional towards a “global imaginary”. Third, unpacking the modern international imaginary offers qualitative benefits for international theory as practice.

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