International Affairs (journal)

International Affairs is a peer-reviewed academic journal of international relations. Since its founding in 1922 the journal has been based at Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs.[1] With an impact factor of 3.748 and a ranking of 5th in the world in the 2018 ISI Journal Citation Reports, it is a highly regarded publication in the academic community for its combination of academic rigour and policy-relevance. It is published six times per year in print and online by Oxford University Press on behalf of Chatham House.[2] In its long history International Affairs has featured work by some of the leading figures in global politics and academia; from Mahatma Gandhi and Che Guevara to Joseph S. Nye and Susan Strange

International Affairs
DisciplineInternational relations
LanguageEnglish
Edited byAndrew Dorman
Publication details
Former name(s)
Journal of the British Institute of International Affairs
History1922-present
Publisher
Oxford University Press on behalf of Chatham House (United Kingdom)
FrequencyBimonthly
Gold and Green
3.748 (2018)
Standard abbreviations
ISO 4Int. Aff.
Indexing
ISSN0020-5850 (print)
1468-2346 (web)
JSTORinteaffaroyainst
Links

History

1922-45

In the wake of the First World War, the British (later Royal) Institute of International Affairs was established in 1920. It was based at Chatham House in London. Two years later the first issue of its journal was published. The founding editor, Geoffrey Malcolm Gathorne-Hardy wrote in the first editorial that ‘the journal will, it is hoped… become a source of information and a guide to judgment in international affairs.’[3]

The historian Arnold J. Toynbee was a regular contributor in the early years of International Affairs

For much of its early life the journal consisted of transcriptions of the major addresses and speeches given at Chatham House.

In 1931 the journal was renamed International Affairs. During that decade a number of highly regarded authors were featured including Mahatma Gandhi, who visited Chatham House in 1931 to give a speech titled ‘The Future of India.’[4] The historian Arnold J. Toynbee also appeared several times in the journal. The onset of the Second World War in 1939 saw the journal suspended ‘until further notice.’[5] Activity did not completely cease during the war, however, as a comprehensive book review supplement – often consisting of as many as 60 or more reviews – was published three times per year for four years. Taken together these supplements formed the 19th volume of International Affairs when publication resumed in 1944.[6]

1945-1970

In the aftermath of the Second World War International Affairs positioned itself as an authority on the major political issues of the times. Through the 1950s many articles focused on the development of international institutions as well as analysis of Soviet foreign policy and the ongoing Cold War. The journal also maintained its global scope by covering the seismic events of the period for the African continent. As the wave of independence struggles gained momentum, articles for a special issue on Africa were commissioned and published in October 1960. Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere, as well as the heads of states of Tunisia and Mali were published in the journal around this period.[7] Continuing to transcribe the major speeches given at Chatham House, in 1964 the journal published an article by Ernesto Che Guevara on the economic transformation of Cuba under Fidel Castro.[8] Domestic political figures also cut their teeth in International Affairs, including Vince Cable.[9][10]

1970-1991

By the 1970s International Affairs had transitioned from acting solely as a record of Chatham House speeches to also publishing high-calibre scholarly articles, for which the journal gained increasing renown. Works by the likes of Hedley Bull,[11] Joseph Nye [12] and Susan Strange exemplified this new approach, including Strange's influential article ‘International economics and international relations: a case of mutual neglect.’[13] Indeed, Strange was a prolific regular contributor to the journal due to her links with Chatham House – publishing 81 articles and book reviews between 1950 and 1996 . During the 1980s this new reputation for academic research was combined with a focus on current affairs.

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger contributed an article in 1982.

Articles on Afghanistan, Iran and the Falklands War appeared alongside more theoretical contributions to the field of International Relations. International security, nuclear weapons and the continuing instability in the Middle East were recurring themes. In 1982 the former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s Chatham House speech appeared in the journal, titled ‘Reflections on a partnership: British and American attitudes to postwar foreign policy.’[14]

1991-Present

The fall of the Soviet Union created a new geopolitical landscape, and in 1991 International Affairs published its first in a long line of articles seeking to understand the new reality: future Estonian president Lennart Meri’s ‘Estonia’s role in the new Europe’.[15] In 1995, the 75th anniversary of Chatham House was commemorated with a special issue featuring reflections by Sir Michael Howard, Fred Halliday, Paul Krugman, Malcolm Bradbury and others.[16] The 75th anniversary of the journal itself was celebrated in 1999.

The new millennium brought new challenges, not least after the 9/11 terror attacks on the United States. The journal's response to this tragedy took shape in April 2002 with a special issue titled ‘New orders, new norms,’[17] which included a major article by Joseph Nye.[18] Through commissioning targeted special issues, International Affairs has diversified its coverage of disciplines to reflect the changing times; including topics such as bio-diversity, global health crises such as HIV/AIDS and Ebola, and UK-EU relations.

The 85th volume of International Affairs was published in 2009. That year the first issue featured an article by longstanding editor Caroline Soper on the journal's history as well as one by former US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, which looked ahead to the major challenges for the newly inaugurated President Obama.[19][20] 2014 saw the commemoration of the journal's 90th issue and also the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War. Special issues marking both were published in January and March respectively.[21][22] The latter was accompanied by a series of events including an exhibition of battlefield photography and a recital of Ivor Gurney’s To His Love at the nearby St. James’s Church in Piccadilly.

2015 saw the transition to the current editorial team, which coincided with a move to broaden the geographical coverage of the journal and its contributors. In recent years this has been realized with special issues on China and India, featuring authors from those countries alongside western contributors.[23][24] A larger emphasis was also placed on online outreach, with the journal developing social media and blog presences to help bring their content to new readers. This increased accessibility was supported by the adoption of an Open Access policy, following the 'Gold' model.

List of Editors

Since 1922, 93 volumes of International Affairs have been published by 14 editors, totalling 429 issues. Below is a summary of the tenures of the respective editors.

EditorTenure
G.M. Gathorne-Hardy1922-1931
Margaret Cleeve1932-1957
Muriel Grindrod1957-1963
N.P. Macdonald1963-1971
Thomas Barman1971 (January–April)
Wendy Hinde1971-1979
Robert Jackson1980
David Stephen1981-1983
John Roper1984-1989
Lucy Seton-Watson1989-1992
J. E. Spence1992-1996
Caroline Soper1996-2014
Andrew Dorman2015–Present

Book Reviews

International Affairs is well known among academics for its comprehensive book reviews section. Each issue includes 30 or more reviews in a range of disciplines including the following:

  • International Relations theory
  • International history
  • Governance, law and ethics
  • Conflict, security and defence
  • Political economy, economics and development
  • Energy, environment and global health
  • Europe
  • Russia and Eurasia
  • Middle East and North Africa
  • Sub-Saharan Africa
  • South Asia
  • East Asia and Pacific
  • North America
  • Latin America and Caribbean

Virtual Issues

In recent years the International Affairs editors have curated a series of online-only ‘Virtual Issues’, in which a collection of articles from the archive demonstrate the journal's engagement with specific critical themes. All Virtual Issues are provided free to access by Oxford University Press, and are accompanied by introductions from noted specialists in the given disciplines. Current Virtual Issues include:

Early Career Prize

In 2017 International Affairs launched their Early Career Prize, aimed at celebrating the work of journal contributors with less than seven years of academic experience. The Prize is awarded each year to an author (or authors if multi-authored article) whose International Affairs article is deemed by a committee comprising members of the journal's editorial board to fulfil the following criteria:

  • An outstanding article that shows innovative thinking on an issue in international affairs/studies
  • Offers a valuable contribution to the field/literature
  • Demonstrates excellent research methods, analytical abilities and a clear presentation of argument
  • Is well written in an accessible style
  • Overall stands out as the best article by an early career author in the given calendar year, observing International Affairs remit to be an academically rigorous and policy-relevant journal.

The inaugural prize, for the best article published in Volume 93 (2017), will be awarded at the 2018 International Studies Association Convention in San Francisco.

International Affairs Blog

In 2016 International Affairs launched a blog on the social publishing platform Medium. It was designed to bring key insights from the journal to a wider audience, and raise the profile of the contributing academics. In 2017 the blog also featured a series of professional development posts aimed at early career researchers, providing advice on creating and promoting policy-relevant research.

Endorsements

Fred Halliday - ‘In the depth of its analysis, as much as in the range of its policy discussion, there is no journal to match International Affairs.'

Fionnuala Ní Aoláin - ‘As a feminist and critical scholar I found that my perspective was valued and supported in the editing and publishing process. The editorial team did a great job of advance publicity and dissemination of the Journal. Many more scholars and policy-makers read my work because it was published with International Affairs.’

T. V. Paul - ‘A journal that consistently delivers excellent articles on key topics in world affairs.’

Thomas G. Weiss - ‘International Affairs consistently provides compelling insights from history and policy. There is no more readable or relevant journal for scholars and analysts.’

Chester A. Crocker, ‘Teaching at a leading, professionally-oriented American IR school, I assign a variety of journal articles. International Affairs is the one I use most often.’

Abstracting and indexing

The journal is abstracted and indexed in:

According to the Journal Citation Reports, the journal has a 2015 impact factor of 1.532, ranking it 18th out of 86 journals in the category "International Relations".[25]

gollark: More mining power basically just means you try random (sequential maybe, but hash functions are meant to be such that it's irrelevant) hashes faster. But which one turns out to work is random.
gollark: No, it's somewhat randomized.
gollark: Guess I'll just deploy a universal network of nanomachine "improvement" stations.
gollark: Oh no. I can't use tablets for my nanomachines now?!
gollark: The correct solution is to wear two neural interfaces and wirelessly network them.

References
  1. "History of Publishing". britannica.com. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
  2. Chatham House (11 March 2016). "Press Release: Oxford University Press to publish International Affairs". Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  3. Gathorne-Hardy, G. M. (1 January 1922). "Editorial". International Affairs. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
  4. Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand (1 November 1931). "The future of India". International Affairs. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  5. "Foreword". International Affairs. 18 (4). 1 November 1939.
  6. "Volume 19". International Affairs. 1940–1943. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  7. Nyerere, Julius (1 January 1960). "Tanganyika Today: II. The Nationalist View". International Affairs. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  8. Guevara, Ernesto Che (1 October 1964). "The Cuban economy: its past, and its present importance". International Affairs. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  9. Howard, Michael (1 October 1958). "Disengagement And Western Security". International Affairs. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  10. Cable, Vincent (1 October 1969). "The 'Football War' and the Central American Common Market". International Affairs. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  11. Bull, Hedley (1 April 1975). "Rethinking Non-Proliferation". International Affairs. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  12. Nye Jr., Joseph S. (1 July 1990). "American strategy after bipolarity". International Affairs. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  13. Strange, Susan (1 April 1970). "International economics and international relations: a case of mutual neglect". International Affairs. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  14. Kissinger, Henry A. (1 October 1982). "Reflections on a partnership: British and American attitudes to postwar foreign policy". International Affairs. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  15. Meri, Lennart (1 January 1991). "Estonia's role in the new Europe". International Affairs. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  16. "Special RIIA 75th anniversary issue". International Affairs. 1 October 1995. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  17. "Special issue: New orders, new norms". International Affairs. April 2002. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  18. Nye Jr., Joseph S. (April 2002). "The American national interest and global public goods". International Affairs. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  19. Soper, Caroline (13 January 2009). "85 years of International Affairs". International Affairs. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  20. Brzezinski, Zbigniew (13 January 2009). "Major foreign policy challenges for the next US President". International Affairs. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  21. "Special issue: 90 volumes of International Affairs". International Affairs. January 2014. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  22. "Special issue: The Great War". International Affairs. March 2014. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  23. "Special issue: Chinese foreign policy on trial". International Affairs. July 2016. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  24. Manjari Chatterjee Miller & Kate Sullivan de Estrada, ed. (January 2017). "Special issue: India's rise at 70". International Affairs. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  25. "Journals Ranked by Impact: International Relations". 2014 Journal Citation Reports. Web of Science (Social Sciences ed.). Thomson Reuters. 2015.
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