The place of Africa in international relations: the centrality of the margins in Global IR

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Luca Raineri ◽  
Edoardo Baldaro
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
International System ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
The West ◽  
General Validity ◽  
Realist Approach ◽  
The Core ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Way

Abstract The Global IR research agenda lays emphasis on the marginalised, non-Western forms of power and knowledge that underpin today's international system. Focusing on Africa, this article questions two fundamental assumptions of this approach, arguing that they err by excess of realism – in two different ways. First, the claim that Africa is marginal to international relations (IR) thinking holds true only as long as one makes the whole of IR discipline coincide with the Realist school. Second, the Global IR commitment to better appreciate ‘non-Western’ contributions is ontologically realist, because it fails to recognise that the West and the non-West are dialectically constitutive of one another. To demonstrate this, the article first shows that Africa has moved from the periphery to the core of IR scholarship: in the post-paradigmatic phase, Africa is no longer a mere provider of deviant cases, but a laboratory for theory-building of general validity. In the second part, the Sahel provides a case for unsettling reified conceptions of Africa's conceptual and geographical boundaries through the dialectical articulation of the inside/outside dichotomy. Questioning the ‘place’ of Africa in IR – both as identity and function – thus paves the way to a ‘less realist’ approach to Global IR.

scholarly journals Crimea as Saguntum?

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (86) ◽  
pp. 42-70
Author(s):  
Yunus Emre Özigci
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International System ◽  
A Posteriori ◽  
The West ◽  
The Core ◽  
Temporal Phase ◽  
Ukrainian Crisis ◽  
Core Questions ◽  
State Territory

The developments in Ukraine in 2014, namely the annexation of Crimea and the secessionist upheaval in Donetsk and Lugansk areas caused — or appeared as the content of — a rift between the “West” and Russia. The core questions of this article explore the nature of this rift and its significance on the shape of the international system in their relatedness to the Ukrainian crisis. The concepts employed in the study belong to phenomenology as adapted to the field of international relations, in order to answer to the apparent need to develop a tool that would enable us to ground the study on its subjective/intersubjective infrastructure that is adequate to the nature of the concepts of state, territory, international system and relations. Within this framework, the Ukrainian crisis and Crimean annexation appear as a positional and systemic content that marks a new temporal phase of the post-bipolar intersubjectivity. An existential framework shall thus be provided to policy contents, as a posteriori yet “real” elements of the phenomena which may be extended, on subjective/intersubjective grounds of international relations, towards positional and systemic horizons as defining and restraining fundamentals of causal interactions.

scholarly journals Systemic pressures and domestic ideas: a neoclassical realist model of grand strategy formation

2010 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
NICHOLAS KITCHEN
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
International System ◽  
Grand Strategy ◽  
Strategy Formation ◽  
Realist Approach ◽  
Distribution Of Power ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Realist Model

AbstractScholars in international relations have long known that ideas matter in matters of international politics, yet theories of the discipline have failed to capture their impact either in the making of foreign policy or the nature of the international system. Recent reengagement with the insights of classical realists has pointed to the possibility of a neoclassical realist approach that can take into account the impact of ideas. This article will suggest that the study of grand strategy can enlighten the intervening ideational variables between the distribution of power in the international system and the foreign policy behaviour of states, and thus constitute the key element in a neoclassical realist research agenda.

2. Speaking of God in the Post-Human Era: An Examination of Radical Life Extension in Relation to Key Theological Concepts and Narratives

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaitlyn Barton
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Life Extension ◽  
The Core ◽  
Psychological Suffering ◽  
The Cross ◽  
And Function ◽  
Radical Life Extension ◽  
The Way ◽  
Changing World

Rapid advancements in radical life extension technologies contribute to humanity’s ever-changing world. The normalization of radical life extension technologies would signify that the present era in which biology and evolution act as dictators of human life and health would come to an end, thereby ushering in the age of the post-human. The purpose of this paper is to engage in a theological analysis of how and to what degree the ways in which humanity speaks about God could be changed or influenced if radical life extension becomes normative within society. . It is likely that this powerful technology would have a significant impact on many facets of culture, including the way in which humanity engages with religion, in particular Christianity. To accomplish this, the technology that could potentially support radical life extension, namely nanotechnology and cybernetic immortality, will be explained in terms of their relevance and function. Subsequently, the affects of radical life extension for human life will be addressed. Specifically, the implications of the partial or full eradication of human biological and psychological suffering and death through the use of cybernetic immortality and nanotechnology and will be considered. From there, the core theological concepts and narratives will be analyzed in the context of the potential actualization of radical life extension technology. A focus will be placed on the ethic of loving thy neighbour, Christ’s suffering on the cross, the hope of salvation and the Christian hope of entrance into heaven after death. 

Rationalizing Politics: The Emerging Synthesis of International, American, and Comparative Politics

1998 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 759-786 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen V. Milner
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Comparative Politics ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
International System ◽  
Ir Theory ◽  
Strategic Interactions ◽  
The Past ◽  
Cross Fertilization ◽  
Separate Discipline

International relations has often been treated as a separate discipline distinct from the other major fields in political science, namely American and comparative politics. A main reason for this distinction has been the claim that politics in the international system is radically different from politics domestically. The degree of divergence between international relations (IR) and the rest of political science has waxed and waned over the years; however, in the past decade it seems to have lessened. This process has occurred mainly in the “rationalist research paradigm,” and there it has both substantive and methodological components. Scholars in this paradigm have increasingly appreciated that politics in the international realm is not so different from that internal to states, and vice versa. This rationalist institutionalist research agenda thus challenges two of the main assumptions in IR theory. Moreover, scholars across the three fields now tend to employ the same methods. The last decade has seen increasing cross-fertilization of the fields around the importance of institutional analysis. Such analysis implies a particular concern with the mechanisms of collective choice in situations of strategic interaction. Some of the new tools in American and comparative politics allow the complex, strategic interactions among domestic and international agents to be understood in a more systematic and cumulative way.

scholarly journals Self and other in critical international theory: assimilation, incommensurability and the paradox of critique

2010 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
VASSILIOS PAIPAIS
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Self And Other ◽  
International Theory ◽  
Critical Edge ◽  
Critical Approaches ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Way

AbstractThis article is principally concerned with the way some sophisticated critical approaches in International Relations (IR) tend to compromise their critical edge in their engagement with the self/other problematique. Critical approaches that understand critique as total non-violence towards, or unreflective affirmation of, alterity risk falling back into precritical paths. That is, either a particularistic, assimilative universalism with pretensions of true universality or a radical incommensurability and the impossibility of communication with the other. This is what this article understands as the paradox of the politics of critique. Instead, what is more important than seeking a final overcoming or dismissal of the self/other opposition is to gain the insight that it is the perpetual striving to preserve the tension and ambivalence between self and other that rescues both critique's authority and function.

scholarly journals Beyond dependency: the promise of Confucianism in Post-Westphalia International relations

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricky Wai-kay Yue
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
The West ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The Core ◽  
The North ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Beijing Consensus ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Confucian Values

The landscape of post-colonial development is marked by deepening dependency of the developing states on the core states consisted mainly of western developed countries. The continuous widening of the north–south divide is not surprising given that the discourse on international relations has been dominated by western ideologies of realism, liberalism and constructivism, resulting in an insufficient attempt to examine international relations from a non-Westphalian perspective. Through the implementation of the Washington Consensus, developing countries are being forced to follow the development model of liberal democracy designed by the West, for the benefit of the West. This paper attempts to investigate an alternative approach from a Chinese historical structural perspective. By highlighting the key tenets of Confucianism, this paper aims to contribute towards a non-Western international relations discourse that is based on moral values. Attempts by China to provide assistance to the “poor south” are marred by accusations of neo-colonialism. In order to fulfil its great power responsibility, China needs to incorporate these Confucian values into its Beijing Consensus so that the global south can abandon their dependency on the West and truly set the stage for south-south cooperation.

Sovereignty, survival and the Westphalian blind alley in International Relations

1999 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAREL PAUL
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International System ◽  
The State ◽  
Ontological Status ◽  
Blind Alley ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
The Core ◽  
Dead End ◽  
State Survival

That states are sovereign units interacting under conditions of anarchy has long been the core assumption of the discipline of International Relations. Operating largely with an anthropomorphic conceptualization of the state, 'statists' create a stunted ontology of the international system dominated by the concepts of state survival and an assumed state survival interest. By constituting sharp lines of demarcation between being and non-being, between 'life' and 'death', statists ignore a host of more subtle changes in the ontological status of states which are ill-treated by reference to 'survival'. This Westphalian ontology leads ultimately to a dead end, for such a definition rejects from the outset an ontology of overlapping political authorities in a single territory but at distinct scales which is characteristic not only of the present international system but of the so-called Westphalian era as well.

The Politics of Energy Regionalism

2020 ◽  
pp. 171-195
Author(s):  
Kathleen J. Hancock ◽  
Stefano Palestini ◽  
Kacper Szulecki
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Institutional Design ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
Energy Sources ◽  
Regional Energy ◽  
Electricity Grids ◽  
Fossil Fuel Energy ◽  
Comparative Regionalism

States have increasingly become linked through regional energy-related institutions, markets, infrastructure, and politics. ASEAN, EU, SADC, ECOWAS, Eurasian Union, NAFTA, and UNASUR, inter alia, have formal agreements and institutions covering energy. Renewable, nuclear, and fossil fuel energy sources, as well as pipelines and electricity grids, are all covered in the variety of regional formal and informal arrangements. In parallel, the scholarly body of literature on comparative regionalism is expanding, but generally without energy as a focus area. In a systematic review of eighty-six international relations and politics journals, this chapter finds fifty-two articles over a seventeen-year period linking regions and energy. While scholars are giving more attention to the empirics of energy regionalism, research now needs to turn to more systematic theory building along with comparisons between regions and across energy sources and infrastructure types. The chapter concludes with recommendations for a research agenda that focuses on three sets of questions about drivers, institutional design, and effects.

Peace data: Concept, measurement, patterns, and research agenda

2019 ◽  
pp. 073889421987028 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul F Diehl ◽  
Gary Goertz ◽  
Yahve Gallegos
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
International System ◽  
General Description ◽  
Security Community ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
Scale Levels ◽  
Security Communities ◽  
Over Time

This data article reviews the revised “peace data,” describing the motivations behind them and offering a general description of the different peace scale levels—severe rivalry, lesser rivalry, negative peace, warm peace, and security community respectively. A brief overview of the evolution of peace and rivalry for the 1900–2015 period is presented. Peace in the international system has increased over time, with a decline in rivalries and an increase in security communities being the most notable findings. The article concludes with a discussion of how the peace data might be used to address new questions in international relations research or reconfigure existing ones.

From Empire to Sovereignty—and Back?

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-262
Author(s):  
Jens Bartelson
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International System ◽  
Historical Contingency ◽  
European Context ◽  
The Past ◽  
And Function ◽  
Meaning And Function ◽  
Scholarly Attention

Sovereignty apparently never ceases to attract scholarly attention. Long gone are the days when its meaning was uncontested and its essential attributes could be safely taken for granted by international theorists. During the past decades international relations scholars have increasingly emphasized the historical contingency of sovereignty and the mutability of its corresponding institutions and practices, yet these accounts have been limited to the changing meaning and function of sovereignty within the international system. This focus has served to reinforce some of the most persistent myths about the origin of sovereignty, and has obscured questions about the diffusion of sovereignty outside the European context.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document