Many new disciplinary histories of both Political Science and International Relations (IR) demonstrate their implications in empire and race science. At the same time, historical scholarship has recently turned its attention to the origins of liberal internationalism, fleshing out the political thought and careers of the imperial scholars and colonial administrators involved in the planning and negotiations for both the League of Nations and the UN. The liberal internationalists of this cohort were also responsible for the establishment of IR as a discipline. They were keen educationalists, with education central to their thought and politics.

Comparative Education scholars argue that education has always been integral to the building of world order. Those same IOs with their origins in liberal internationalism are now advocating for Global Citizenship Education. Protagonists of this education reform argue that it will solve problems of world order, such as development, inequality, sustainability and security. The relationship between education and world order is more salient than ever. Through a genealogy that connects Global Citizenship Education to the interwar Council for Education on World Citizenship, this paper contributes to the new disciplinary histories of IR and the histories of liberal internationalism by elucidating IR’s foundational connections with educational multilateralism and subsequently Global Citizenship Education.