‘History of international relations theory’ can begin only with the birth of ‘International Relations (IR)’. For only when international (or inter-state) relations are conceived as an independent social sphere, can ‘international relations theory’, and hence its history, exist. Historians in this area have nevertheless neglected this self-evident ontological limit, reading contemporary disciplinary frameworks back into history. Consequently, they overlook the historical context of classical thinkers and miss the opportunity to reflect on the very historicity of modern IR theories themselves.

The purpose of this essay is to bring this fault to light. I do this by challenging the traditional understanding of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) and by developing an alternative ‘contextual’ interpretation of Rousseau's reading of the peace project written by the Abbé de Saint-Pierre (1658–1743).

In the history of international relations theory, Rousseau is generally seen as a ‘realist’. There are many variations of this claim but ultimately it rests on the fact that Rousseau was pessimistic about the prospect for fundamental changes in the war-prone ‘anarchical’ inter-state system. Kenneth N. Waltz, for example, asserts that Rousseau was a typical theorist of ‘the third image’ who believed that the anarchical international system naturally perpetuates conflicts between states. Ian Clark locates Rousseau's theory within ‘a general tradition of despair’ because he, although desiring the reform of the inter-state system, eventually ‘holds out not a shred of hope that it can be attained’.