Adam Watson
Encyclopedia
John Hugh "Adam" Watson (August 10, 1914 – August 24, 2007) was a British
International Relations
theorist and researcher. Alongside Hedley Bull
, Martin Wight
, Herbert Butterfield
, and others, he was one of the founding members of the English school of international relations theory.
He was educated at Rugby and King's College, Cambridge. As an undergraduate at Cambridge, where he read History, Watson was taught by Herbert Butterfield
(later Sir Herbert, and Regius Professor of History). After a period of travel in central Europe, in the late 1930s, he joined the British Diplomatic Service in 1937. During the Second World War he acted as a liaison with the Free French in Cairo, played an unknown role in the Balkans, based in Bucharest, and was finally posted to Moscow, where he witnessed the victory celebrations of 1945, standing alongside the Soviet Politburo (see 'Problems of Adjustment in the Middle East' (1952), 61) and where he remained for the next four years.
In 1949, he joined the Foreign Office's new 'Information Research Department
' (IRD), which the historian Richard Aldrich has described as a 'covert political warfare section', as successor to the 'Political Warfare Executive
' (PWE) that had operated during the Second World War. A key figure in this organisation, he was first assistant to its Head, Ralph Murray, with the job of recruiting 'left-of-centre intellectuals' for the production of anti-communism
'grey' propaganda, and was later posted to Washington (Andrew Defty, 'Britain, America and Anti-Communist Propaganda' (Routledge 2004)). In the USA he served as Britain's 'psywar [psychological warfare] liaison officer' (Aldrich) in Washington between 1950 and sometime in the mid-1950s, before becoming Head of the African Department of the Foreign Office during the Suez Crisis of 1956. He served as Her Majesty's Ambassador to Mali (1960–61), Senegal, Mauritania and Togo (1960–62), and finally Cuba (1962–66). He returned to London in 1966 to spend two years as Assistant Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office before retiring early. After a period with British Leyland in the late 1960s, he entered academia, first at the Australian National University, at the invitation of Hedley Bull, and then in the United States, where he was Professor of International Studies at the University of Virginia.
In the late 1950s, it is likely that, given his extensive contacts in the United States and together with Kenneth W. Thompson, he was instrumental in facilitating the funding of the British Committee on the Theory of International Politics, chaired in its early years by his former supervisor, Butterfield, and funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. Watson became a member of Committee, attending when he was in the UK, and later becoming its third chairman, in succession to Butterfield and to Martin Wight
. He was instrumental in the production of 'The Expansion of International Society' (1984), edited with Hedley Bull, a key text of the English school of international relations. He also wrote a number of other significant works, including 'The Nature and Problems of the Third World' (1968), 'Diplomacy' (1982) and 'The Evolution of International Society' (1992), a wide-ranging comparative study of historical international systems.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
International Relations
International relations
International relations is the study of relationships between countries, including the roles of states, inter-governmental organizations , international nongovernmental organizations , non-governmental organizations and multinational corporations...
theorist and researcher. Alongside Hedley Bull
Hedley Bull
Hedley Bull, FBA was Professor of International Relations at the Australian National University, the London School of Economics and the University of Oxford until his death from cancer in 1985...
, Martin Wight
Martin Wight
Robert James Martin Wight , also known as Martin Wight, was one of the foremost British scholars of International Relations in the twentieth century...
, Herbert Butterfield
Herbert Butterfield
Sir Herbert Butterfield was a British historian and philosopher of history who is remembered chiefly for two books—a short volume early in his career entitled The Whig Interpretation of History and his Origins of Modern Science...
, and others, he was one of the founding members of the English school of international relations theory.
He was educated at Rugby and King's College, Cambridge. As an undergraduate at Cambridge, where he read History, Watson was taught by Herbert Butterfield
Herbert Butterfield
Sir Herbert Butterfield was a British historian and philosopher of history who is remembered chiefly for two books—a short volume early in his career entitled The Whig Interpretation of History and his Origins of Modern Science...
(later Sir Herbert, and Regius Professor of History). After a period of travel in central Europe, in the late 1930s, he joined the British Diplomatic Service in 1937. During the Second World War he acted as a liaison with the Free French in Cairo, played an unknown role in the Balkans, based in Bucharest, and was finally posted to Moscow, where he witnessed the victory celebrations of 1945, standing alongside the Soviet Politburo (see 'Problems of Adjustment in the Middle East' (1952), 61) and where he remained for the next four years.
In 1949, he joined the Foreign Office's new 'Information Research Department
Information Research Department
The Information Research Department, founded in 1948 by Christopher Mayhew MP, was a department of the British Foreign Office set up to counter Russian propaganda and infiltration, particularly amongst the western labour movement....
' (IRD), which the historian Richard Aldrich has described as a 'covert political warfare section', as successor to the 'Political Warfare Executive
Political Warfare Executive
During World War II, the Political Warfare Executive was a British clandestine body created to produce and disseminate both white and black propaganda, with the aim of damaging enemy morale and sustaining the morale of the Occupied countries....
' (PWE) that had operated during the Second World War. A key figure in this organisation, he was first assistant to its Head, Ralph Murray, with the job of recruiting 'left-of-centre intellectuals' for the production of anti-communism
Anti-communism
Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...
'grey' propaganda, and was later posted to Washington (Andrew Defty, 'Britain, America and Anti-Communist Propaganda' (Routledge 2004)). In the USA he served as Britain's 'psywar [psychological warfare] liaison officer' (Aldrich) in Washington between 1950 and sometime in the mid-1950s, before becoming Head of the African Department of the Foreign Office during the Suez Crisis of 1956. He served as Her Majesty's Ambassador to Mali (1960–61), Senegal, Mauritania and Togo (1960–62), and finally Cuba (1962–66). He returned to London in 1966 to spend two years as Assistant Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office before retiring early. After a period with British Leyland in the late 1960s, he entered academia, first at the Australian National University, at the invitation of Hedley Bull, and then in the United States, where he was Professor of International Studies at the University of Virginia.
In the late 1950s, it is likely that, given his extensive contacts in the United States and together with Kenneth W. Thompson, he was instrumental in facilitating the funding of the British Committee on the Theory of International Politics, chaired in its early years by his former supervisor, Butterfield, and funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. Watson became a member of Committee, attending when he was in the UK, and later becoming its third chairman, in succession to Butterfield and to Martin Wight
Martin Wight
Robert James Martin Wight , also known as Martin Wight, was one of the foremost British scholars of International Relations in the twentieth century...
. He was instrumental in the production of 'The Expansion of International Society' (1984), edited with Hedley Bull, a key text of the English school of international relations. He also wrote a number of other significant works, including 'The Nature and Problems of the Third World' (1968), 'Diplomacy' (1982) and 'The Evolution of International Society' (1992), a wide-ranging comparative study of historical international systems.
Works
- 1952 Problems of Adjustment in the Middle East.
- 1984 (ed. with H. Bull) The Expansion of International Society.
- 1992 The Evolution of International Society: A Comparative Historical Analysis.
- The Limits of Independence (Routledge, 1997)
- 1998 The British Committee for the Theory of International Politics, some historical notes.
- 2002 International Relations and the Practice of Hegemony.
- 2002 Recollection of my discussions with Hedley Bull about the place in the history of International Relations of the idea of the Anarchical Society.
- Diplomacy: The Dialogue Between States 2nd ed. (Routledge, 2004)
- Hegemony & History (Routledge, 2007)