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.

scholarly journals Interdependance, linkage et système international : de l'analyse conceptuelle aux problèmes de politique étrangère

2005 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 329-352
Author(s):  
Irnerio Seminatore
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International System ◽  
Political Context ◽  
International Policy ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The North ◽  
Interdependence Theory ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Impact

The emergence and evolution of the literature dealing with interdependence in the international System is looked into. An attempt is made to show its significance and main points as well as its implications. The debates on interdependence within the North-American political context are regarded as solutions to the preceding issues on dependence. Interesting passages are dedicated to the impact of the interdependence theory on the interpretation of the international system, as illustrated by two schools of thought in foreign policy (Kissinger-Brzezinski). Linkage of the tactical and strategic aspects to the economic and political interrelation of international relations, as put forward by policy makers, has brought to the fore the difficulties and limits of negotiation in the face of competition and in the aftermath of confrontation. This paper offers subtle, yet positive, conclusions on the use of the interdependance theory in international policy.

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

Paradiplomatie identitaire et diplomatie en Belgique fédérale: le cas de la Flandre

2003 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 621-642 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stéphane Paquin
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Central Government ◽  
International System ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Federal States ◽  
Single Voice ◽  
The One ◽  
Zero Sum ◽  
The Impact

Federal states like Belgium operate under conflicting pressures in the conduct of their international relations: centralizing pressures, on the one hand, imposed by the necessity of speaking with a single voice in order to forge a coherent international policy and decentralizing pressures, on the other, because globalization stimulates a qualitative and quantitative extension of the internal and international roles of substate players, mainly through the international deployment of substate paradiplomacy. This centralization of external affairs and the centrifugal forces introduced by globalization cause problems in this type of system, in which substate entities have numerous fields of jurisdiction. This new phenomenon is not without its risks because it leads to disorder and conflict. In many countries, the development of paradiplomacy by the substate actors creates conflict with the central government. The impression is created that the federal and the substate authorities are condemned to fight a zero-sum struggle for access to the international system, the former seeking to prevent the latter from playing a role in the development of foreign policy and to limit all international action by them. The case of Belgium is of particular interest since its substate entities are the most dynamic regions in the world in international relations. The objective of this article is to evaluate the impact of the Flemish identity paradiplomacy on the foreign policy of the federal state.

Environmental Change and Foreign Policy: A Survey of Theory

2002 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 63-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Barkdull ◽  
Paul G. Harris
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
International System ◽  
Environmental Issue ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Politics And Culture ◽  
Foreign Policies ◽  
International Environmental Politics ◽  
Distribution Of Power

Acomprehensive understanding of international environmental politics re quires attention to foreign policy. In this essay we describe a wide range of theories and approaches to foreign policy and international relations, with emphasis on how they can help us to better understand foreign policy in the environmental issue area. We organize the theories into three categories: systemic theories, which emphasize the influence of the international system, including the distribution of power within it; societal theories, which focus our attention on domestic politics and culture; and state-centric theories, which find answers to questions about foreign policy within the structure of the state and the individuals who promulgate and implement foreign policies in the name of a given country. Within this presentation of various theories, we highlight the influence of power, interests and ideas.

scholarly journals Neo-classical Realism in International Relations

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 95
Author(s):  
Jalal Dehghani Firoozabadi ◽  
Mojtaba Zare Ashkezari
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International System ◽  
Policy Studies ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Internal Factors ◽  
Complex Interactions ◽  
Classical Realism ◽  
Distribution Of Power

<p>Neo-classical realism is result of foreign policy studies through studying both structure of international system and domestic factors and their complex interactions with each other. The main goal of neoclassical realism is to find out how distribution of power in international system, motivations and subjective structures of states toward international system shape their foreign policy. Neo-classical realists reject the idea of neo-realism in which it is argued that systemic pressures will immediately affect behaviours of units. They believe that the extend of systemic effects on states behaviour depends on relative power and also internal factors of states in anarchical system. This article is to study how neo-classical realism applies assumptions such as anarchy, effects of structure-agent, role of power in creating behaviours, national interests, survival and security in order to analyse international politics.</p>

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.

Historical Contingencies in the Evolution of States and Their Militaries

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 126-161
Author(s):  
Jonathan Bendor ◽  
Jacob N. Shapiro
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Law Of Large Numbers ◽  
International System ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Selection Environment ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Key Players ◽  
Chance Events ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Do So

AbstractHistorians and some scholars of international relations have long argued that historical contingencies play a critical role in the evolution of the international system, but have not explained whether they do so to a greater extent than in other domains or why such differences may exist. The authors address these lacunae by identifying stable differences between war and other policy domains that render the evolution of the international system more subject to chance events than those other domains. The selection environment of international politics has produced tightly integrated organizations (militaries) as the domain’s key players to a much greater degree than other policy domains. Because there are few players, no law of large numbers holds, and because militaries are tightly integrated, microshocks can reverberate up to macro-organizational levels. The anarchic character of the international system amplifies the impact of these shocks. The authors explore these phenomena in a range of historical examples.

scholarly journals The Role of the UN Security Council in COVID-19 Crisis Management

2020 ◽  
pp. 105-122
Author(s):  
Svetlana Cebotari ◽  
Selena Stejaru
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Crisis Management ◽  
Interpersonal Relations ◽  
International System ◽  
Dynamic Evolution ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Over Time

Currently, we experience a conditional reality imposed by the COVID19 pandemic, with both immediate and long-lasting repercussions on the international system and the behavior of each state. For this reason and because the new virus has a dynamic evolution in time and space, research of the impact of the new virus is needed not only from a biogenetic perspective but also in the context of other fields, including the international relations realm. The events we are witnessing at the present challenge to keep up with transformations taking place in the international arena, especially those in the field of virology. As epidemics over time, viruses that cause them to change and occur constantly remain only the fact that they will always influence not only interpersonal relations but impose conditions for new realities in the system of international relations. This article aims to highlight the main gaps in the work of the institution responsible for maintaining peace and security in the international arena, especially in the context of the COVID-19 crisis.

1. The history and evolution of foreign policy analysis

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerie M. Hudson
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Classical Period ◽  
Foreign Policy Analysis ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Large Groups

This chapter traces the history and evolution of foreign policy analysis (FPA) as a subfield of international relations (IR) from its beginnings in the 1950s through its classical period until 1993. It begins with a discussion of three paradigmatic works that laid the foundation of FPA: Decision Making as an Approach to the Study of International Politics (1954), by Richard C. Snyder, H. W. Bruck, and Burton Sapin; ‘Pre-theories and Theories of Foreign Policy’ (1966), by James N. Rosenau; and Man–Milieu Relationship Hypotheses in the Context of International Politics (1956), by Harold and Margaret Sprout. These three works created three main threads of research in FPA: focusing on the decision making of small/large groups, comparative foreign policy, and psychological/sociological explanations of foreign policy. The chapter also reviews classic FPA scholarship during the period 1954–1993 and concludes with an assessment of contemporary FPA’s research agenda.

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.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document