Ignatian-inspired scientific paper: "Towards a Catholic Paradigm of International Relations"

The Jesuit journal“Razón y Fe” has published an article entitled “Towards a Catholic Paradigm of International Relations (CPIR)” in the April 2017 issue. The article, written by Prof. Alberto Priego (Pontifical Comillas University) seeks, on the one hand, to receive feedback for future works and on the other to encourage other colleagues to apply this“Catholic perspective”to their International Relations scientific contributions.
In two years (2019) academics and practitioners will commemorate the centenary of the first chair on International Relations (University of Aberystwyth, Wales, UK). However, despite the millions of theoretical articles published by the academic community ever since, there is not a clearly dominant Theory or Paradigm in International Relations. In this interesting context of scientific pluralism, scholars usually discuss about the emergence of new ideas, like Non-Western theories, or the resilience of more classical approaches such as Realism, Liberalism or Constructivism. For this reason, perhaps it might be the right moment to explore and promote ideas coming from the Christian Tradition which could revolutionize the discipline of the International Relations.
Thus, combining classical authors such as St. Augustine or St. Thomas, with modern ones, such as Martin Wight or George Weigel, a coherent theoretical corpus can be built as a modest and tentative guide for Catholic scholars belonging to the discipline of International Relations (IR). The CPIR should follow the postulates of “Christian Pacifism” and stem from the ideas of “Christian Realism” since Catholic authors would be expected to assume a commitment towards a more peaceful world. Thus, the topics in which Catholic authors could work on are very diverse, they should understandibly highlight economic inequalities and slum conditions, social injustice, forgiveness and reconciliation, etc.
Those interested in the article “Towards a Catholic Paradigm of International Relations (IR)” can find the full paper here (in Spanish).
 
About the author: Alberto Priego holds a Ph.D. from Complutense University (International Relations). He currently is a Senior Lecturer at the Universidad Pontificia de Comillas in Madrid, where he has been a faculty member since 2010. His research interests lie in the areas of Middle East Studies, Islam, and Diplomacy. He has collaborated actively with researchers in several other disciplines of history, economy, and political science. During 2007–2009 he was postdoctoral fellow at SOAS (The University of London).