The ‘International’ and the ‘Global’ in International History

The chapter addresses two meaningful spatial and conceptual notions: the international and the global. While the international has often been interpreted as more limited in scope and scale than the global, both reflect domains of political knowledge and structure extending beyond the state. These domains have important political stakes grounded in issues of war and peace, the world’s growing interconnectedness, and major transformations in world order. Yet, as we argue, the global and the international remain in flux, undergoing continuous theoretical scrutiny, and embodying ever-changing interpretations. The chapter analyses the different meanings of the global and the international in three distinct periods: the years around the two world wars, 1960–1980s, and in twenty-first-century theorizations. Focusing on European and American perspectives, the chapter traces continuities and changes in international and global thinking and highlights some historical features of these locales that continue to shape our understanding of world politics today.