International Relations in Spain: School or Faculty

Abstract

International Relations in Spain have more than six decades of existence as a scientific discipline. This has given rise to a historiography that fundamentally includes the periods in which its development can be divided and the most significant historical milestones. From the analysis of the most representative literature on international relations in Spain, we have extracted three fundamental ideas that are reproduced and that have been assumed by many of the scholars as part of the narrative of the discipline: the existence of a Spanish School of International Relations, the importance of degrees in International Relations for the scientific progress of this area of knowledge and the dependence of international relations on public international law as a handicap for the autonomy and development of the discipline in Spain. This paper offers a critical analysis of these three ideas that are part of the historical narrative of international relations with the aim of reviewing their validity and rethinking their foundations.