Remarks from the Incoming Editor

Abstract

With this issue, the editorship of the Journal of International Political Theory changes. Since its founding in 2005 as the Politics and Ethics Review, Patrick Hayden has served as the editor. I will now be serving as editor, with Natasha Saunders continuing as the Associate Editor. Natasha and I are very excited to take over the journal, which we believe is one of the most important and innovative journals in the ever-expanding field of scholarly journals in the field of politics broadly defined. In this short editorial, I wish to make three points. First, I want to thank Patrick for founding and running this journal for the past 16 years. He has, quite simply, helped to create a space for those of us working in an area which has been vaguely defined and crosses numerous disciplinary boundaries. While there exist some cognate journals, such as Ethics & International Affairs, JIPT has been a home to articles that not only explore the ethical dimensions of international politics, but also explore what Stephen White called the ‘world-revealing’ aspect of political theory; that is, articles which dig deeper into the theoretical assumptions, historical contexts, and the interconnectedness of practices at the global level (White, 1991). Patrick’s own work demonstrates how to negotiate this space between political theory and international relations. His scholarship on Hannah Arendt and Albert Camus reveal how political theorists can speak to global questions (Hayden, 2009, 2016); how cosmopolitanism and utopianism can be both ‘realist’ and critical, a perspective that those working within disciplinary boundaries often fail to achieve (Hayden, 2005; Hayden and El-Ojeili, 2009); how to use concepts such as friendship and evil to interrogate international dilemmas (Hayden, 2014, 2015); and how to expand upon and develop new insights on human rights (Hayden, 2018; Hayden and Saunders, 2019). Across these and so many other areas, Patrick’s scholarship has been an ideal example of what JIPT has tried to achieve over the years. His leadership of the journal has nurtured and supported many young (and not so young) scholars working in these and other areas, from which the fields of political theory, international relations, and politics more generally have benefitted greatly. Following this editorial, five of