Forum on Social Theory of International Politics

2000 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-124 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Scientific Realism ◽  
International Politics ◽  
International System ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Social Kinds ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Way

It is fitting that one of the last major statements of International Relations theory in the 1990s should be a response to Kenneth Waltz's path-breaking book, Theory of International Politics. Unlike many other critically inclined scholars, Wendt believes that Waltz asked the right questions but supplied the wrong answers. Putting it simply, Waltz incorrectly conceptualized the structure of the international system. The first half of Wendt's book sets out to offer an alternative social theory of international politics to the ‘materialism’ and ‘individualism’ found in Waltz's work (specifically, chapters on ‘Scientific realism and social kinds’, ‘Ideas all the way down? On the constitution of power and interest’, and ‘Structure, agency, and culture’).

Ideas part-way down

2000 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
ROBERT O. KEOHANE
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Scientific Realism ◽  
International Politics ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
International Studies ◽  
Major Work ◽  
Classic Work

Social Theory of International Politics is in my view a major work in our field, fully deserving of this symposium in the Review of International Studies. Indeed, I think that Alexander Wendt's book is virtually certain to become a classic work on international relations theory, standard on graduate reading lists. Wendt's distinctive combination of scientific realism, holism, and what he calls ‘idealism’, will certainly spark much conversation and, it is to be hoped, a great deal of thought.

The assumption of anarchy in international relations theory: a critique

1991 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Milner
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Politics ◽  
International System ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Fundamental Assumption ◽  
Ambiguous Words

‘Anarchy is one of the most vague and ambiguous words in language.’ George Coreewall Lewis, 1832.In much current theorizing, anarchy has once again been declared to be the fundamental assumption about international politics. Over the last decade, numerous scholars, especially those in the neo-realist tradition, have posited anarchy as the single most important characteristic underlying international relations. This article explores implications of such an assumption. In doing so, it reopens older debates about the nature of international politics. First, I examine various concepts of ‘anarchy’ employed in the international relations literature. Second, I probe the sharp dichotomy between domestic and international politics that is associated with this assumption. As others have, I question the validity and utility of such a dichotomy. Finally, this article suggests that a more fruitful way to understand the international system is one that combines anarchy and interdependence.

Desire all the way down

2000 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
ROXANNE LYNN DOTY
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
First Principles ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
The Other ◽  
Ir Theory ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Metaphysical Foundation ◽  
The One ◽  
The Way

Alex Wendt's Social Theory of International Politics demonstrates perhaps more long and hard thought about social theory and its implications for international relations theory than most international relations scholars have dared to venture into. He admirably attempts to do in an explicit manner what most scholars in the discipline do only implicitly and often accidentally: suggest a social theory to serve as the foundation for theorizing about international relations. However, there are problems with his approach, a hint of which can be found in the epigraph he has chosen: ‘No science can be more secure than the unconscious metaphysics, which tacitly it presupposes’. Because metaphysics cannot ultimately be proven or disproved, it is inherently insecure. The insecurity and instability of the metaphysical presuppositions present in Social Theory are not difficult to find, and what Wendt ends up demonstrating, despite his objective not to, is the absence of any secure, stable, and unambiguous metaphysical foundation upon which IR theory could be firmly anchored. Indeed, what Social Theory does illustrate is that there is no such ultimate centre within the discipline except the powerful desire to maintain the illusion of first principles and the essential nature of things. If I may paraphrase Wendt, this is a ‘desire all the way down’ in that it permeates his relentless quest for the essence of international relations. Two goals characterize this desire: on the one hand, to take a critical stance toward more conventional international relations theory such as neorealism and neoliberalism; on the other, to maintain unity, stability, and order within the discipline. Social Theory oscillates between these two goals and in doing so deconstructs the very foundations it seeks to lay.

The Good State: in praise of ‘classical’ internationalism

2005 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 427-449 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER LAWLER
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Politics ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Good State ◽  
Political Spectrum ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Cold War

The end of the Cold War has seen Western internationalism migrate from the margins to the centre of International Relations theory and practice. As a consequence the modest ambitions of what we might now call ‘classical internationalism’ have come under challenge from more thoroughly cosmopolitan varieties from both the right and left of the mainstream Western political spectrum whose commonalities, moreover, are arguably becoming as prominent as their differences. This article attempts to recover the classical internationalist project and, more specifically, the understanding of statehood that underpins it. Some observations on the distinctions and tensions between varieties of contemporary internationalist and cosmopolitan thinking about international politics are followed by a critique of a pervasive scholarly disinterest in the varieties of Western internationalist states. These two exercises form the backdrop to advocacy of the idea of ‘the Good State’ as a response to dominant forms of contemporary Western cosmopolitanism and their critics.

scholarly journals RIPSMAN, Norrin; TALIAFERRO, Jeffrey; LOBELL, Steven. Neoclassical Realist Theory of International Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. 208 p. ISBN: 9780199899234

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Álvaro Vicente Costa Silva
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Politics ◽  
International System ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Realist Theory ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
Intervening Variables ◽  
Realist Model ◽  
Oxford University Press

Este trabalho resenha a obra Neoclassical Realist Theory of International Politics, de Norrin Ripsman, Jeffrey Taliaferro e Steven Lobell, publicado em 2016. O intuito dos autores é construir um modelo teórico realista neoclássico, indo além do ideário neorrealista focado apenas em fatores sistêmicos enquanto determinantes da política exterior de um Estado. Assim, alguns fatores domésticos são elencados enquanto variáveis intervenientes capazes de influenciar a resposta de um Estado aos estímulos vindos do sistema internacional.ABSTRACTThis paper aims to review Neoclassical Realist Theory of International Politics, a book written by Norrin Ripsman, Jeffrey Taliaferro e Steven Lobell and published in 2016. The authors goal is to construct a neoclassical realist model, as a further advance in comparison to neorealist appraisal of International Politics, whose claim that systemical restraints and dictates the foreign policy of states. Hence, some domestical factors are placed as intervening variables that can influence a state’s reaction to the stimulus emanated from the international system. Palavras-chave: Realismo, Teoria das Relações Internacionais, análise de política externa.Keywords: Realism, International Relations theory, Foreign policy analysis.Recebido em 13 de Maio de 2018 | Aceito em 22 de Maio de 2018.Received May 13, 2018 | Accepted on May 22, 2018. DOI

Theorizing Agency in Hobbes's Wake: The Rational Actor, the Self, or the Speaking Subject?

2013 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Epstein
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
International Politics ◽  
The Self ◽  
Rational Actor ◽  
The Way

AbstractThe rationalist-constructivist divide that runs through the discipline of International Relations (IR) revolves around two figures of agency, the rational actor and the constructivist “self.” In this article I examine the models of agency that implicitly or explicitly underpin the study of international politics. I show how both notions of the rational actor and the constructivist self have remained wedded to individualist understandings of agency that were first incarnated in the discipline's self-understandings by Hobbes's natural individual. Despite its turn to social theory, this persistent individualism has hampered constructivism's ability to appraise the ways in which the actors and structures of international politics mutually constitute one another “all the way down.” My purpose is to lay the foundations for a nonindividualist, adequately relational, social theory of international politics. To this end I propose a third model of agency, Lacan's split speaking subject. Through a Lacanian reading of the Leviathan, I show how the speaking subject has in fact laid buried away in the discipline's Hobbesian legacy all along.

scholarly journals What Is a Supranational Constitution? An Essay in International Relations Theory

1994 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 441-474 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alec Stone
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Lower Order ◽  
International Politics ◽  
International System ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
International Regimes ◽  
Regime Theory ◽  
Form Part ◽  
Central Claim

Under the banner of “regime theory,” the study of international relations has experienced a massive if largely unacknowledged return to law, the study of the nature, scope, and relevance of norms international politics. Regime is shorthand for forms of institutionalized cooperation in the international system. The article provides one way to assess this movement. In part I, I develop an abstract conception of constitutions as bodies of metanorms, those higher order norms that govern how lower order norms are to be produced, applied, and interpreted. I then examine the extent to which international relations theory is equipped to recognize that some international regimes are constitutional in form (part II). In part III, I propose a means of situating all regime forms, from the most primitive to the full blown constitutional, along a continuum. The central claim is that the distinction made between international and domestic society, for the most part a matter of dogma in mainstream theory, is relative not absolute.

2. International law and international relations theory

2021 ◽  
pp. 27-47
Author(s):  
Nicole Scicluna
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Legal Theory ◽  
International System ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Ir Theory ◽  
Critical Approaches ◽  
Domestic Law

This chapter discusses international law (IL) and international relations (IR) theory. It studies legal theory in order to better understand what law is, and how IL compares with domestic law. The chapter then introduces the major schools of IR theory, with a focus on how they conceptualize IL and its role in enabling and constraining the conduct of international politics. The disciplinary estrangement between IR and IL began to ease at the end of the 1980s. By that time there were already important strands within IR, including the English School, that were seeking to explain the prevalence of cooperation in an anarchical international system. New generations of IR scholars began theorizing the role of IL in structuring international politics, particularly from the perspectives of liberalism and constructivism, as well as from a range of critical approaches.

A world of their making: an evaluation of the constructivist critique in International Relations

2000 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 575-598 ◽  
Author(s):  
RONEN PALAN
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Ir Theory ◽  
Proper Understanding ◽  
The World ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

IR constructivism maintain that a proper understanding of the way subjects interact with the world and with each other alerts us to the fallacy of conventional IR theory. And yet, for a theory that is so obviously dependent upon a rigorous working of the relationship between social theory and its IR variant, it is curious that, with one or two exceptions, IR constructivists often advance incompatible theories. I argue that the confused manner by which, in particular, ‘soft’ constructivism relates to social theory is not accidental but a necessary component of a theory that asserts, but never proves, the primacy of norms and laws over material considerations, in domestic and international politics.

Fear Without Rationality: Emotions in Lithuanian Foreign Policy

2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-55
Author(s):  
Benas Brunalas
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
International Politics ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Collective Emotions ◽  
Emotional Aspects ◽  
The Way

Abstract The paper reflects on the conception of the phenomenon of fear employed in the international relations theory. A critique of understanding of fear as a rational incentive of conventional international relations theories paves the way for the notion of fear as an emotion. It is argued that the behaviour of states in international politics should be explained via their psychological and emotional aspects. The paper proposes to connect the arising of and experiencing fear with collective memory and the imagery entrenched in nations’ subconscious. It also proposes to distinguish the two levels of arising of and experiencing the emotion of fear, namely the attempt to consciously arouse fear and its nonconscious experience. On the first level, mnemonic-emotive agents consciously activate collective emotions via the nation’s collective memory. On the second, once the contents/imagery of the society’s subconscious are activated, the aroused emotions are nonconsciously experienced by the society. The paper offers a case study from the Lithuanian foreign policy: its relations with Russia. Discourse analysis of Lithuania-Russia relations, where President Dalia Grybauskaitė plays an active and important role in discourse formation, suggests that the formation of Lithuanian foreign policy, with regard to Russia, is affected by the emotion of fear.

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