Quincy Wright
Quincy Wright | |
|---|---|
Political scientist | |
| Genre | War, International law |
Philip Quincy Wright (December 28, 1890 – October 17, 1970) was an American
Biography
Born in
Throughout his career Wright served as president of several scholarly bodies, including the
Wright's father was the economist Philip Green Wright and his brothers were the geneticist Sewall Wright and the aeronautical engineer Theodore Paul Wright.
Academic work
During the 1920s, the horrors of
According to Karl Deutsch of Harvard University,[11]
War, to be abolished, must be understood. To be understood, it must be studied. No one man worked with more sustained care, compassion, and level-headedness on the study of war, its causes, and its possible prevention than Quincy Wright. He did so for nearly half a century, not only as a defender of man's survival, but as a scientist. He valued accuracy, facts, and truth more than any more appealing or preferred conclusions; and in his great book, A Study of War, he gathered, together with his collaborators, a larger body of relevant facts, insights, and far-ranging questions about war than anyone else has done.
Wright's study of warfare inspired many
Other than A Study of War, Wright published a further 20 books and nearly 400 journal articles during his career. Several of his books became standard texts, including Mandates Under the League of Nations (1930) and The Study of International Relations (1955). In The Study of International Relations, Wright distinguished between eight root disciplines of international relations: "international law, diplomatic history, military science, international politics, international organization, international trade, colonial government, and the conduct of foreign relations."[12] These disciplines were supplemented by the following specialties: "world history, world geography, pacifism, the psychology and sociology of international relations; humanistic, social, and biological disciplines; and the recent development of regional studies, operational research, and group dynamics."[12] In a review of the book, Harold Lasswell wrote that Wright sought to provide a common frame for the study of world politics and to halt an emerging trend towards increased specialization.[12]
Wright was a prominent legal expert on the mandates system.[13] While conducting research for Mandates Under the League of Nations (1930), which was funded by a Guggenheim Foundation grant,[14] Wright visited Damascus less than two weeks after it had been shelled during the Great Syrian Revolt.[13] His experiences in Damascus shaped his views on the mandates system and colonialism. Wright rebutted notions that Syrians were barbarians who could not govern themselves. He argued that the Syrian rebels were a state in the making and that French actions to repress the Syrians were a "policy of terrorism" and war crimes.[13] Wright rebutted notions that Syrians were not protected by international law.[15]
Selected publications
- The Control of American Foreign Relations. 1922. Macmillan.
- The Palestine Problem, Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 41, No. 3 (Sept. 1926), pp. 384–412, via JSTOR
- Mandates Under the League of Nations. 1930. University of Chicago Press.
- Research in International Law Since the War. 1930. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
- Public Opinion and World Politics. 1933. University of Chicago Press.[16]
- A Study of War. 1942. University of Chicago Press.[17][18][19][20][21][22]
- The Study of International Relations. 1955. Appleton-Century-Crofts.
- The Strengthening of International Law. 1960. Academic of International Law.
- International Law and the United States. 1960. Asia Publishing House.
- The Role of International Law in the Elimination of War. 1961. Oceana.
See also
- War cycles
References
- ISSN 0145-2096.
- S2CID 154382276.
- JSTOR 2008846.
- JSTOR 2946012.
- S2CID 145055233.
- ^ "Quincy Wright | American political scientist | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved January 16, 2022.
- ^ "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter W" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved April 16, 2011.
- S2CID 155507844.
- JSTOR 45083901.
- ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved April 12, 2023.
- S2CID 154676850.
- ^ S2CID 154404416.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-957048-5.
- ISSN 0002-9300.
- JSTOR 2188917.
- JSTOR 2768467.
- JSTOR 2988798.
- JSTOR 44567032.
- JSTOR 2770020.
- JSTOR 2988797.
- JSTOR 20663818.
- ISSN 0003-1224.
Further reading
- "Dr. Quincy Wright, 79, Is Dead; Authority on International Law; Proponent of Understanding". New York Times. October 18, 1970.
- Falk, Richard A. (July 1972). "Quincy Wright: On Legal Tests of Aggressive War". American Journal of International Law. 66 (3): 560–571. S2CID 147443852.
- Gorman, Daniel (April 2017). "International Law and the International Thought of Quincy Wright, 1918–1945". Diplomatic History. 41 (2): 336–361. .
- Lepawsky, Albert, Edward H. Buehrig & Harold D. Lasswell (eds.) (1971), The search for world order: Studies by students and colleagues of Quincy Wright. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. ISBN 0-3905-5513-4
- Thompson, Kenneth (2002). "Quincy Wright". In Utter, Glenn H.; Lockhart, Charles (eds.). American Political Scientists: A Dictionary. ABC-CLIO. pp. 448–449. ISBN 978-0-313-31957-0.
- Whiting, Allen S. (December 1970). "In Memoriam: Quincy Wright, 1890–1970—A Symposium". Journal of Conflict Resolution. 14 (4): 443–448. S2CID 145577257.
