Marzo de 2019.
The present work aspires to be a reflection on the theory of international relations of
the point of view of history, from the histories of world politics. To this end, it is clear
that in these histories accompanied by an ever present reason of state— central axis of
the dominant visions in international relations theory— a reason of system and reason of
civilization appears. The reason of state, like the balance of power, can only function in a
system with a high degree of homogeneity, as was the European world of the 18th century,
for example. But in the history of inter-European relations there has been moments of rupture
of that homogeneity in which a reason of system appears next to a reason of state
—the French Revolution, for instance—. Furthermore, if we consider the European expansion
and westernization of the World as something more than a simple derivative of the European
balance of power and we enter into its logic we will see how a reason of civilization is
deployed. It is maintained that to develop a theory of international relations which is
non-positivist and non-ahistorical it is necessary to take into account these three reasons
and the logics that they give rise to.
