In Memoriam
Robert H. Jackson
Robert H. Jackson, former Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of British Columbia, passed away on March 11, 2020. Robert had a long and distinguished career at UBC, joining the Department in 1970 after obtaining his Ph.D. at the University of California at Berkeley. Professor Jackson’s ties to UBC predated his appointment, as he did his B.A. and M.A. at UBC before going on to Berkeley for his Ph.D.
Before coming back to the Department he worked in East Africa, for the Rockefeller Foundation and the University of Nairobi. That time sowed the seeds for Jackson’s first influential book (with Carl G. Rosberg), Personal Rule in Black Africa: Prince, Autocrat, Prophet, Tyrant (University of California Press, 1982). This book established his reputation in post‐colonial African states and statecraft. It had a significant impact because it challenged the theoretical approaches that were dominant in African political studies at the time. One of his most influential pieces of scholarship also came out in 1982, his article on ʺWhy Africaʹs Weak States Persist: The Empirical and the Juridical in Statehoodʺ (with Carl G. Rosberg) that appeared in the journal World Politics. This article made the case that a key reason for the persistence of what he called ‘weak’ states that did not have full political control over their territory was the international recognition of their sovereignty. Jackson staked out an important scholarly position about the role of international norms and institutions, and his position became a staple in the debates over the nature of sovereignty that has been a core concern of the academic field of international relations. This insight was given fuller exploration in his book Quasi‐States: Sovereignty, International Relations and the Third World (Cambridge University Press, 1990), whereby the term “quasi‐state” became a part of the academic vocabulary in the study of sovereign statehood.
About this time Professor Jackson spent time (1989‐90) as a Visiting Research Fellow, Centre for International Studies, at the London School of Economics (LSE) and Political Science, which was followed up in 1993‐94 with a stint as Visiting Senior Research Fellow at Jesus College, Oxford University. A major publication in this period was his edited volume with Alan James, States in a Changing World (Oxford University Press, 1993). His prodigious publication of books continued with The Global Covenant: Human Conduct in a World of States (Oxford University Press, 2000), which was featured as Oxford University Press’s international relations book of the year in 2000. He produced a study of major thinkers in Classical and Modern Thought on International Relations: From Anarchy to Cosmopolis (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), and again returned to his core concern with the release of Sovereignty: Evolution of an Idea, (Polity Press, 2007). Besides his scholarly research, Dr. Jackson was an influential teacher through his writing as well. His textbook, Introduction to International Relations: Theories and Approaches (Oxford University Press) was translated into five languages, and widely adopted as a text in university and college courses in North America, Europe, Israel, Australia, and Japan.
Among his awards were a 1975 Canada Council Fellowship, the 1986 British International Studies Association Prize, a 1988 Killam Foundation of Canada Senior Research Fellowship, and the 2000 Killam Foundation of Canada Research Prize. Professor Jackson departed UBC in 2001 to take up a position at Boston University, Department of International Relations, and Department of Political Science where he finished his scholarly career. He retired to England to be near family where his daughter is a professor at the LSE.
