Field:
    Political Theory

Dissertation Title:
    Another Internationalism: Security and Cooperation in Early Modern International Thought

Committee:
    Anthony Pagden (Chair), David Armitage (Harvard), Perry Anderson, and Andrew Sabl

Date of Completion:
    Spring 2008

Contact Information:
    Theodore Christov
    UCLA Political Science Department
    4289 Bunche Hall
    Los Angeles, California 90095-1472
    Phone: 310-825-4331
    Fax: 310-825-0778

Curriculum Vitae:
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Dissertation Summary:
    My dissertation is an engagement with Hobbes’ central but least examined claim that the international order provides the most compelling example of the natural life of men and shows its conceptual and historical implications in the formation of modern liberal political theory. In contrast to the canonical appropriation of Hobbes’ theory within a discourse of international anarchy, I argue instead that his political thought fathered a distinctive and recognizably modern strand of political theorizing about international relations. This strand, based in inter-state cooperation, coalition building and alliance politics, developed during an age often regarded as affirming power domination and imperial expansion. I show how thinkers as diverse as Samuel Pufendorf, Emmerich Vattel and Immanuel Kant all shared not only Hobbes’ understanding of the modern state system as a laboratory for testing the effectiveness of liberal political principles, but also positioned international cooperation as the cornerstone of their political philosophies. In today’s world, where the sovereignty of the modern state remains uncertain- if not outdated- amidst security globalization, I conclude that a proper reconstruction of the formative period of political theories of international relations exposes simultaneously the assumptions and limitations of liberal political ideas deeply rooted in the inviolability of the autonomous state.

Research Interests:
    History of Political Thought, Early Modern Political Theory, International Political Thought, International Relations Theory

Teaching Interests:
    As the recipient of two teaching fellowships, I have taught independently two upper-division political theory seminars: Modern International Thought: History and Theory (Spring 2007) and Rights of War and Peace: History and Theory of International Law from European Conquest to European Union (Winter 2006). In addition, I have served as a teaching fellow for three upper-division and two lower-division political theory courses. I am prepared to teach introductory courses on the history of political thought, including early modern political theory and its modern reception, as well as political theories of empire and European expansion, classical theories of international relations and intellectual history of international thought, both at the graduate and undergraduate level.