Challenge and response: the lasting engagement of Arnold J Toynbee and Martin Wight, international relations.

Abstract

The friendship between Arnold J. Toynbee and Martin Wight is often noted but rarely fully explored. This article examines their personal and intellectual relationship and assesses the influence of Toynbee's work on Wight's thought, with particular concentration on their views of the past and historical method. It argues that Toynbee offered a `challenge' to which much of Wight's work may be considered a `response', some of it critical, and some of it sympathetic. It suggests that Toynbee's influence on Wight was greater and more lasting than is often recognized in International Relations, and concludes by addressing the nature of that legacy in Wight's international thought.