MAPPING A LATENT CONTROVERSY ON THE STANDARD OF CIVILIZATION FOR THE COLD WAR PERIOD

The study of the Cold War period from the viewpoint of the global international society brings to the fore the standard of civilization, a concept formulated in the 19th century which fell into disrepute after 1945 but which made a comeback in academia since the 1990s. Jack Donnelly, Yannis A. Stivachtis and Barry Buzan contributed to the return of the standard of civilization as a research topic in the field of international relations and, more specific, as an analytic category for the study of the Cold War. Each of them differently conceives the interplay between the Cold War global international society and the standard of civilization but, despite holding clearly incompatible perspectives and, in some cases, even despite citing the opinions of the other one(s), they seem to ignore what obviously separates their points of view and thus they are not aware of being engaged in a potential controversy over this issue. This paper marks out what differentiates their points of view in order to chart this controversy and thus to stimulate a real debate on its object.