Abstract

In the so-called English school of international relations, the British historian Martin Wight (1913-1972) is often regarded only for the «three traditions» of Grotian, Kantian and Machiavellian international theory which he conceived in his lectures at University of Chicago and the London School of Economics. This article argues that this interpretation is very reductive. It argues instead that Wight dismissed the «three traditions» in his thinking about foreign policy and world politics very quickly. Indeed, in his later works, he was deeply concerned with a stronger attempt to provide a more accurate study of Western political thought.