Peter Wilson formidably argued for the existence of a distinct English School. He identified six characteristics of the School:

1) a perspective of the whole (holism), in other words, the view that international relations constitute a whole,

2) the idea of international society, the view that international relations can be conceptualized in terms of a society,

3) the existence of order within international relations unlike the prevalent conception of anarchy or disorder,

4) the institutional basis of international order rather than mechanical or hegemonial/hegemonic imposition,

5) rejection of utopian schemes

6) rejection of behaviourism.