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Craig Murphy joins us to explore the long arc of global governance and the urgent need for institutional transformation.
In this conversation, we trace Craig’s trajectory through the intellectual landscape of the 1970s, where emerging ideas on world-systems theory, quantitative peace research, and environmental limits reshaped the study of international politics. With trademark humour, he reflects on the influence of Robert Cox and historical materialism, the critical need to challenge “relentless presentism” in global governance research, and the dual role of international institutions – as both market-builders for industrial capitalism and platforms for political resistance. We close by reflecting on a world grappling with existential threats and Craig’s salutary reminder that the task ahead is not just to critique existing governance but to fundamentally rethink and remake it.
Craig Murphy is the Betty Freyhof Johnson ’44 Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Wellesley College. A leading scholar of global governance, he has served as President of the International Studies Association (2000-2001) and co-editor of the journal Global Governance.
Craig Murphy’s Wellesley profile can be found here.
We discussed:
- ‘Every Just Peace is Something New: Translating a Difficult Finding from the Social Sciences to the Humanities and Back’, unpublished manuscript.
- International Organization and Industrial Change: Global Governance since 1850 (Oxford, 1994).
- ‘Global Governance Over the Long Haul’, International Studies Quarterly (2014).
- ‘Global governance: poorly done and poorly understood’, International Affairs (2000).
