The balance of power revisited

1989 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inis L. Claude
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Critical Appraisal ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Collective Security ◽  
Political Realism ◽  
World Government ◽  
American Scholar ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Global Arena

In 1962 I published Power and International Relations, a book in which I undertook to analyse, criticize, and compare balance of power, collective security, and world government, treating these as the three leading theoretical approaches to the management of power in the global arena. Each of these approaches had its band of adulators and advocates who doubtless found my efforts at critical appraisal offensive. For a young American scholar of that era the adoption of an irreverent attitude toward balance of power was particularly problematic, because that approach figured prominently in the prevailing orthodoxy of Political Realism. It would have been safer to assume, rather than to examine, the merits of balance of power. I gave balance of power, like its two competitors, a mixed review.

Frieden durch Recht und Öffentlichkeit: Die Hoffnungen und Verwirrungen der ersten Utilitaristen

2020 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 228-252
Author(s):  
Frédéric Rimoux
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
International Relations ◽  
World Peace ◽  
Individual Freedom ◽  
Jeremy Bentham ◽  
Collective Security ◽  
War And Peace ◽  
Political Realism ◽  
International Thought

The international thought of the early utilitarian thinkers Jeremy Bentham and James Mill remains little known and largely misunderstood. Most commentators give them a superficial appreciation or criticize their supposed naivety, in both cases mostly assuming that Mill borrowed his thoughts from Bentham's writings alone. This questionable reception overlooks some essential aspects of Bentham's and Mill's extensive reflections on war and peace, in particular their constant effort to overcome the tension between individual freedom and collective security. In reality, the fertile dialogue between the two thinkers gradually crystallized into an independent utilitarian peace theory centered on law and public opinion as instruments of an ambitious reform of international relations according to the principle of utility. They managed to elaborate a fragile synthesis between liberal principles and considerations of political realism, which grants their utilitarian peace theory a singular place in the historical efforts to systematically define the conditions of world peace.

La sécurité collective : chimère, éphémère ou mutante ?

Res Publica ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-84
Author(s):  
Huri Türsan
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
International Agreements ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
Foreseeable Future ◽  
Collective Security ◽  
The Cold War

The joint international action against Iraq and the search for a new security doctrine following the end of the Cold War, led, in the early '90s, to a revival of the notion of collective security embodied in several international agreements. This notion is based on the assumption of responding collectively to international aggression. However, the international guagmires of recent years and especially the case of former Yugoslavia where international organizations have played the role of alibi to agression, has once more, dealt a major blow to the illusion of the implementation of the principles of collective security. In a way similar to the 1930s and the bipolar balance of power of the Cold War, collective security seems ephemeral today. We can therefore safelypredict that in the foreseeable future, international relations wilt continue to be shaped by the balance of specific state interests and not by universally applied principles of collective security.

Kant’s republican theory of justice and international relations

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 357-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry Nardin
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Global Justice ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
International Justice ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Primary Concern ◽  
Political Realism ◽  
World Government ◽  
Theory Of Justice ◽  
Republican Theory

Kant’s primary concern in writing on international relations is how to achieve ‘justice’ ( Recht) between states. This means that instead of reading Kant as a theorist of peace or world government, as IR theorists have usually done, he is better read as a theorist international justice. His view of justice, which identifies it with a legal order that respects freedom as independence or nondomination, is broadly republican. But he equivocates on the possibility of justice at the international level, and this narrows what is usually seen as a wide gap between Kant’s thought and political realism. The paradox his uncertainty reveals is that it is wrong for states to remain in a lawless condition yet impossible for them to escape it so long as they remain independent. An international order cannot generate genuine law because there are no institutions to make, interpret, or enforce it. This means that states are entitled to determine their own foreign affairs. The gap between sovereignty and justice cannot be closed so long as these ideas are defined as they are within the state. The problem is not that a full, secure, and nonvoluntary system of justice that preserves the sovereignty of states is contingently unlikely. It is conceptually impossible. This conclusion poses a challenge to current theories of global justice.

scholarly journals Revisitando os Eixos Fundamentais do Direito Internacional e das Relações Internacionais por meio do Realismo Clássico: Novas Epistemologias e Categorizações

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thales Cavalcanti Castro
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
University Of Pennsylvania ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Realism ◽  
Indiana University ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Classical Realism ◽  
Indiana University Of Pennsylvania

REVISITANDO OS EIXOS FUNDAMENTAIS DO DIREITO INTERNACIONAL E DAS RELAÇÕES INTERNACIONAIS POR MEIO DO REALISMO CLÁSSICO: NOVAS EPISTEMOLOGIAS E CATEGORIZAÇÕES REVISITING THE FUNDAMENTAL AXES OF THE INTERNATIONAL LAW AND THE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS THROUGH CLASSICAL REALISM: NEW EPISTEMOLOGIES AND CATEGORIZATIONS Thales Cavalcanti Castro* RESUMO: O presente artigo visa a fornecer reflexões críticas e atualizadas sobre a intersecção teórica entre os eixos do Direito Internacional com o realismo político (maquiavélico-hobbesiano) presente nas epistemologias e práxis das Relações Internacionais contemporâneas. Trata-se de um debate interdisciplinar, cuja premissa maior é revelar as possibilidades de encontrar um caminho de síntese (Aufhebung hegeliano) entre ambas as molduras teóricas da visão deôntica do Direito Internacional com a perspectiva ôntica do realismo clássico presente nas Relações Internacionais. A obra clássica do Testamento Política do Cardeal Richelieu foi utilizada como moldura para reforço das reflexões do corte epistêmico realista clássico em Maquiavel. Foram aqui apresentadas linhas gerais para uma revisita histórica e conceitual do realismo político das Relações Internacionais com eixos de comunicabilidade com o Direito Internacional, gerando conclusões, à luz do clássico, O Princípe, de Maquiavel, como formas de aproximação da estrutura legal-normativa internacional mais porosa às dinâmicas da interação entre os povos atualmente. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Fundamentos do Direito Internacional. Realismo Político. Filosofia Política Internacionalista. Interdisciplinaridade. Teoria das Relações Internacionais. ABSTRACT: This article has the purpose to provide critical and updated analysis on the theoretical intersection of the pillars of international law with political realism (within the Machiavellian-Hobbesian perspective) present in current epistemology and practices of contemporary international relations. It is an interdisciplinary debate presented here, whose major premise is to reveal the possibilities of finding a way of synthesis (Hegelian Aufhebung) from both theoretical framework of the deontic view of international law with the ontic perspective of classical realism present in International Relations. The classical opus Political Testament of Cardinal Richelieu was used herein as a theoretical framework to reinforce the epistemological breakthrough of classical realism in Machiavelli. This article moreover presented the guidelines for a historical and conceptual revisit of the political realism enshrined in International Relations theoretical approaches with communicability with international law, thus generating conclusions in the light of Machiavelli’s classic opus, The Prince, as a way of approach to an international legal-normative framework more porous to the dynamics of the peoples’ interaction today.  KEYWORDS: International law foundations. Political realism. Political philosophy of International Relations. Interdisciplinarity. International Relations Theory. *  Coordenador da graduação e pós-graduação em Relações Internacionais da FADIC (Faculdade Damas da Instrução Cristã). Doutor em Ciência Política pela Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE). Bacharel e Mestre em Relações Internacionais pela Indiana University of Pennsylvania, EUA. Assessor Internacional da Reitoria da UNICAP (Universidade Católica de Pernambuco).

Institutional Cosmopolitanism

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Current System ◽  
Political Repression ◽  
Moral View ◽  
Political Justice ◽  
Global System ◽  
World Government ◽  
Emerging Issues ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
Institutional Order

Is a global institutional order composed of sovereign states fit for cosmopolitan moral purpose? Cosmopolitan political theorists challenge claims that states, nations, and other collectives have ultimate moral significance. They focus instead on individuals: on what they share and on what each may owe to all others. They see principles of distributive justice—and increasingly political justice—applying with force in a global system in which billions continue to suffer from severe poverty and deprivation, political repression, interstate violence, and other ills. Cosmopolitans diverge, however, on the institutional implications of their shared moral view. Some argue that the current system of competing sovereign states tends to promote unjust outcomes and stands in need of deep structural reform. Others reject such claims and contend that justice can be pursued through transforming the orientations and conduct of individual and collective agents, especially states. This volume brings together prominent political theorists and international relations scholars—including some skeptics of cosmopolitanism—in a far-ranging dialogue about the institutional implications of the approach. The contributors offer penetrating analyses of both continuing and emerging issues around state sovereignty, democratic autonomy and accountability, and the promotion and protection of human rights. They also debate potential reforms of the current global system, from the transformation of cities and states to the creation of some encompassing world government capable of effectively promoting cosmopolitan aims.

E. H. Carr: a ‘historical realist’ approach for the globalisation era

2002 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 697-717 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Goldfischer
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
International Relations ◽  
National Interest ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Primary Concern ◽  
Economic Instruments ◽  
New Era ◽  
Realist Approach ◽  
Considerable Cost

Realist international relations scholars have approached the connection between economics and security in two ways. Cold War-era realists derived the national interest from the international balance of power, and assessed the utility of both military and economic instruments of statecraft. A second realist approach, advanced by E. H. Carr in his 1939 The Twenty Years' Crisis, places interstate competition in the context of another struggle over wealth and power in which no-one's primary concern is the national interest. That is the realm of capitalism (and resistance to capitalism). That deeper set of connections between economics and security was overlooked in Cold War IR literature, at considerable cost to our understanding of world politics. Understanding why Carr's ‘historical realism’ was bypassed can help pave the way for a more fruitful realist approach to comprehending a new era in world politics.

Rethinking State-Non-state Alliances: A Theoretical Analysis of the U.S. Kurdish Relationship

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-204
Author(s):  
Ozum Yesiltas
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Theoretical Analysis ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Archival Data ◽  
World War ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Syrian Crisis ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
The U.S

This study investigates the growing influence of Middle Eastern non-state actors as agents of foreign policy and their interactions with states through an analysis of the U.S.-Kurdish relationship. Incorporating archival data and interviews with Kurdish and American policy makers, the paper analyses the factors that have affected the U.S.-Kurdish relationship from World War II to the recent Syrian crisis in the context of the mainstream theoretical approaches within the discipline of International Relations. The article concludes that the failure to formulate a coherent Kurdish policy complicates the U.S.’ Middle East strategy and contributes to outcomes unfavourable to U.S. interests in the region.  Abstract in Kurmanji Hêza ji kenaran : Pêşniyara bo siyaseteke derveyî ya hevgirtî ya Dewletên Yekbûyî yên Amerîkayê li hemberî Kurdan Ev lêkolîn tesîra her ku diçe mezin dibe ya aktorên ne-dewletî li Rojhilata Navîn wek failên siyaseta derve, digel danûstandinên wan bi dewletan re, li ser hîma tehlîla têkiliya DYA û Kurdan vedikole. Bi vehewandina daneyên arşîvî û hevdîtinên li gel siyasetmedarên kurd û amerîkî, ev nivîsar nêrînên bîrdozî yên herî berbelav di  babetaTêkiliyên Navneteweyî de bi kar tîne, ji bo ku faktorên bandor li têkiliyên DYA-Kurd ji Şerê Cîhanê yê Duyem heta qeyrana surî ya dawîn  kirine, tehlîl bike. Nivîsar bi vê encamê digihîje ku têkçûna sazkirina siyaseteke kurd a hevgirtî ji bo stratejiya DYA ya li Rojhilata Navîn zehmetiyan derdixe û netîceyên neyînî bo berjewendiyên DYA jî bi xwe re tîne. Abstract in Sorani Hêzê Sînoran: Kurdan Reyde Mesela Sîyasetê Teberî yê DYA yê ‘Pêgirewteyî’ Pê analîzê têkilîya DYA û kurdan, no cigêrayîş Rojhelato Mîyanên de tesîrê averşîyayoxî yê aktoranê bêdewletanê sey ajananê sîyasetê teberî û dewletan reyde înteraksîyonanê nê aktoran tehqîq keno. Bi dayeyanê arşîvan û roportajanê qerardaranê sîyasetî reyde, no nuşte faktoranê ke Cengê Cîhanî yê II. ra heta krîzê Sûrîye yê nikayinî têkilîya DYA û kurdan ser o tesîr kerdo, ê faktoran çarçewaya teorîyanê bingeyênan yê beşê Têkilîya Mîyanneteweyî de analîz keno. Na meqale netîce de vana ke DYA besenêkerd polîtîkayêka kurdan a pêgirewtîye virazê, na kêmanîye kî Rojhelato Mîyanên de stratejîya DYA kena têmîyan û peynîye de faydeyê xo nêreseno menfeatanê DYA yê a herême. Abstract in Zazaki Destellat le kenarewe : keysêk derbarey hawrrayî le siyasetî derewey Emerîka da beramber be Kurdekan Em nûsîne le karîgerî geşesendinî hêzwektere bê-netewekan le ser siyasetî Rojhellatî Nawerrast da dekollêtewe, legell peywendiyan legell dewlletekan da le rêgayi şirovekirdinî peywendî nêwan wîlayete yekgirtwekanî Emerîka û Kurdekan da. Be têkellkirdinî datay erşîf û çawpêketin legell siyasetmedare emerîkî û Kurdekan da, em nûsîne şirovey ew fakterane dekat ke karîgeryan le ser peywendî nêwan wîlayete yekgrtwekanî emerîka û Kurdekan da hebuh le cengî cîhanî duwemewe heta qeyranî tazey Suriya, le çwarçêwey têore berbillawekan le zanistî peywendiye nîwdewlletiyekan da. Encamî wutareke eweye ke be hoy şikesthênan le dirustkirdinî siyasetêkî yekgirtû beramber Kurdekan, astengî bo planî Wîlayete Yekgrtwekanî Emerîka le Rojhellatî Nawerrast da dirust dekat û debête hoy dirustbûnî derencamî nerênî le qazancî Wîlayete Yekgirtwekanî Emerîka le nawçeke da.

scholarly journals Powers and Limits of State during COVID-19 Pandemic: a Critical Appraisal

Yuridika ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 663
Author(s):  
Iwan Satriawan ◽  
Devi Seviyana
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
House Of Representatives ◽  
Critical Appraisal ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
The State ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
State Of Emergency ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Power Limits ◽  
The Government

The research aims to analyze the power and limit of the state and whether Indonesia has properly adopted the concept of powers and limits during state emergency of COVID-19 pandemic. The method of the research was normative legal research which used statute and case approach were employed for data analysis. The result shows that a state may apply some types of power in an emergency condition. However, in using its powers, the government must consider principle of limits in a state of emergency. In fact, Indonesia does not properly adopt the balance of power and limit in the state of emergency during COVID-19 pandemic. It is true that the government may take actions to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the State cannot exceed the limitations of using powers in accordance with state emergency principle. There was a tendency to exceed the limits by the State during the pandemic. The State has violated some state of emergency principles during COVID-19 pandemic such as temporary, the rule of law, necessity, proportionally, intangibility, constitutionalism, harmony, and supervision. The research recommends that the Government and the House of Representatives (the DPR) in the future should obey the state of emergency principles, particularly in terms of state power limits to respect constitutional principles and rule of law. In addition, individuals, groups of people, or organizations may submit judicial review of laws or regulations that violate the state of emergency principles in handling pandemic in the light of protecting the fundamental rights of citizens.

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