Domestic conflict and foreign policy: the contribution of some undeservedly neglected historical studies

Abstract

How to conceptualize the relationship between domestic political conflict and foreign policy has been a perennial problem of international relations. Quantitative studies of the internal and external conflict behaviors of nations have proposed and rejected correlations between these two phenomena on a regular basis. But the theoretical linkages that are presented in these studies between the domestic and external political arenas are generally made in such a rudimentary fashion that they appear fuzzy if not actually contradictory when subjected to close analysis. At the same time, most historical treatments of domestic conflict and foreign policy are too impressionistic to provide clear concepts for comparative research. As Michael Fry and Arthur Gilbert have demonstrated with regard to the writings of one especially prolific and influential contemporary historian—Arno Mayer—a substantial amount of pruning and interpolation is required to put such notions as ‘the Forces of Order and the Forces of Movement’ or ‘organic’ and ‘inorganic’ societal crises into usable form.