Professor Bain's research interests fall broadly in the areas of international political theory and IR Theory. At present he is working on an interdisciplinary project, grounded in history, philosophy, law, and theology, which is provisionally entitled The Political Theology of International Society: God, Man, and the Ways of Order. An important aspect of this project seeks to recover and to interrogate the medieval inheritance of modern international relations. The project takes as its point of departure a thirteenth century theological dispute about the nature and consequences of divine omnipotence. It traces how these ideas were assimilated to political and legal thought, and inform some of the cardinal concepts of international relations, including the anarchy, the balance of power, legal positivism, and the states-system. A principal contention of this project is that significant parts of international thought are premised on unacknowledged theological presuppositionis. In making this claim, I want to challenge what is widely assumed to be the secular character of contemporary international society. In doing so, I raises questions about the extent to which contemporary international society is grounded in a common culture and the extent to which common norms and values can accommodate cultural difference.
