God vs. Westphalia: radical Islamist movements and the battle for organising the World

2012 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 589-613 ◽  
Author(s):  
BARAK MENDELSOHN
Keyword(s):  
International System ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
World Politics ◽  
The State ◽  
Al Qaeda ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
Domestic Affairs ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Religious Actors ◽  
Islamist Movements

AbstractThis article presents the operation of al-Qaeda and Hizb ut-Tahrir, two of the most radical Islamist movements, through the lens of the relationship between religion as an organising principle for world politics and the state-based logic. It examines these groups in the context of repeated attempts by religious actors throughout history to render religion the dominant and constitutive element in world politics. Prior to the Peace of Westphalia, religion had a critical role in shaping the political landscape, but Westphalia relegated religion to a secondary position. While it accepted religion's role in the domestic affairs of the units in the international system, the Westphalian order kept religion subordinated to the logic of the state system. But religion maintained its ability to provide an alternative organisation for world politics. While al-Qaeda and Hizb ut-Tahrir are highly unlikely to bring about systemic change, their ascendance should remind scholars that the existing order is not inevitable and that the resurgence of religion in international politics also involves the resurrection of interpretations of religion that compete with and challenge the logic of the state-based system.

War and international theory: a commentary on the state of the art

1984 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuen Foong Khong
Keyword(s):  
International Politics ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
International System ◽  
World Politics ◽  
The State ◽  
International Theory

The systematic critique of scientific approaches to international politics began with Stanley Hoffmann's provocative 1960 essay, climaxed with Hedley Bull's popular piece in World Politics six years later and breathed its last gasp with Oran Young's attack on Russett's International Regions and The International System in 1969, Since then, the traditionalists have chosen to ignore the behavioralists.

Through a Missile Tube Darkly: ‘New Thinking’ about Nuclear Strategy

1993 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 661-671 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin S. Gray
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
International System ◽  
Arms Control ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Strategic Culture ◽  
Global Security ◽  
Nuclear Strategy ◽  
New Thinking ◽  
The Relationship

Just as the ideas of arms control comprise a picnic basket for sunny international weather, so much of the allegedly ‘new thinking‘ on strategy and security claims to have ‘matched us with His hour’.1 The challenge, purportedly is between realist and ‘transformationist‘ approaches to security,2 between national security and common (or global) security,3 and – of course – between old and new thinking. We are told that ‘[t]here is scope to change the strategic culture of world politics’.4 Some of us old thinkers are a little puzzled by the content of a quotation such as that, since the same authors have written breezily and optimistically, albeit contingently, to be fair, that ‘[t]he “nature” of the [international] system would be changed because of the changed conceptions – strategic cultures – of the units‘.5 The relationship between strategic culture and cultures would stand some careful discussion, while the merit in the claim that there is scope to change ‘the strategic culture of world politics’, whatever that very big idea may mean, remains to be seen.6

scholarly journals Iran’s Nuclear Decision Making and the Issue of Nuclear Non-Proliferation in the International System

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-65
Author(s):  
Ibrahim Suleiman ◽  
Hamza Shehu Mohammed ◽  
Haruna Mohammed Haruna
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
International Politics ◽  
International System ◽  
National Interest ◽  
World Politics ◽  
The State ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Military Diplomacy

This paper studies the reason for Iran’s nuclear decisions making by using the realist approach in the international politics, also the issue of nuclear non-proliferation in the international system and why the international system is totally against the Iran’s nuclear program? The study employs both primary and secondary sources as a method of data collection. The study reveals that that national interest should come first before any collective ones. The process which decisions are made is only determined by self-serving interests of those who possess power in the international system. The realist school of thought provides the critical opinions propounded by various political science scholars on power politics and national interest in the international system. According to Hans Morgenthau a classical realist scholar, society has to be governed generally by objective laws which are rooted in human nature. To him theory is necessary so that to bring order in the international politics, he rejected the idea of liberalism and idealism. Theory has to reflect the objective laws like power, military, diplomacy and norms of the society. First of all we have to look at the human nature which is seen as a rational, we have to examine through individual, group, and societal level because naturally human nature is selfish. Morgenthau defined the state as a collection of human beings who are self-interested, thus the state will have to deal with order interested states in the world politics. The aim of state in the international politics is pursuing national interest which is basically about power. He viewed international politics as a struggle for power.Thus, the realist scholars maintained that in the international politics, states happened to be the key actors and that politics is a conflictual, a struggle for anarchical environment in which nation-states defend on their own capabilities to survive.

Terrorism and State Sponsorship in World Politics

2019 ◽  
pp. 493-515
Author(s):  
David B. Carter ◽  
Saurabh Pant
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Work ◽  
World Politics ◽  
The State ◽  
Terrorist Group ◽  
Target State ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
State Sponsorship ◽  
Terrorist Groups ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

The state sponsorship of terrorist groups poses significant risks to international security. Accordingly, a growing body of scholarship focuses on understanding different aspects of the relationship between the patron state, the sponsored terrorist group, and the target state. This chapter first reviews the findings and arguments in this literature, exploring both the theoretical and empirical work over the strategic dynamics of and the effects of state support. Existing research contains numerous insights and provides some counterintuitive advances to our understanding of the different manifestations of sponsorship, the rationale for sponsorship, and the impact of sponsorship on both the terrorist group and the target state. Yet, there is much more work that remains to be done in this field. Specifically, we propose that further study on the connections between sponsorship and other important security issues in world politics is necessary to better understand the broader role that sponsorship plays in international relations. To promote this end, we empirically demonstrate the connection between territorial disputes, the state sponsorship of militant groups, and the onset of interstate conflict. This evidence is preliminary but opens a potentially promising new avenue for research on the effects of state sponsorship of terrorist groups.

The Islamists and International Relations: A Dialectical Relationship?

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Mohamed-Ali Adraoui
Keyword(s):  
International System ◽  
Violent Behavior ◽  
The State ◽  
Religious Movement ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
Political Borders ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Islamist Movements

Islamism now dates back a hundred years. Concern over members of this political and religious movement relates to their putative and potential radical - or even violent – behavior when confronted with cultural otherness. Such behavior takes root in their assumed wish to redesign the world in their image. From its inception in the 1920s to its more recent manifestations, the Islamist movement strove to lift Muslim societies out of their alleged civilizational lethargy. In so-doing, it has paid substantial attention to the state of international affairs, as well as to potential ways to act on it. If the State remains undeniably Islamist movements’ privileged arena for action, considerations for Muslim countries’ environment; devising strategies aiming at the completion of a “motherland of believers” (al-oumma); thoughts on an interstate order within an Islamic frame of reference - remain prominent concerns to them. From its outset, Islamism has always insisted on the duty to serve religion as a whole - and thus everyone identifying with it. Its end goal therefore overrides geographical, historical and political borders – those being perceived as divisive and weakening the face of Islam. In addition, Islamists consider the current international order as one consciously designed by non-Muslims. In such views, the latter nurse an ontological enmity towards Islam because of its revisionist potential. The Arab revolutions initiated in 2010 have been experimental fields of the oppositional – even revolutionary – dimensions of Islamist ideology. These enable interrogations to be raised on Islamism’s practice and possible evolutions. In other words, how do Islamist movements translate fundamental diplomatic and relational principles into practice with other actors of the international system? If Islamist forces are indeed maintaining special relationships with the outside world mainly driven by the wish to shower the planet with Islam-serving behavior, is it however analytically relevant to identify a specific Islamist practice of international affairs? There are two objectives tied to this presentation. First, it will attempt to shed light on how Islamist activists, leaders and theorists view the world. In so-doing, Islamist speeches and intellectual output will be scrutinized. Then, answers will be provided to the following question: when Islamist officials have had the chance to approach national decision-making arenas - this is the case in some countries that have experienced the Arab Spring – how did they manage to put up a foreign policy agenda centered around an Islamic framework? This question is central for through it one can attempt to measure the empirical outreach of the Islamist ideology.

scholarly journals Power and Ideology: Vladimir Putin and the Russian Political System

2008 ◽  
pp. 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfred B. Evans
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Political System ◽  
International System ◽  
The State ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
The Core ◽  
Vladimir Putin ◽  
The Relationship

This paper explores the ideas that have been offered by the Putin leadership in Russia to justify the concentration of power achieved since 2000. Though Vladimir Putin has said that Russia does not need a state ideology, since early 2006 some officials associated with Putin, including Vladislav Surkov, have called for an ideology for the dominant United Russia Party, and have asserted that Putin’s speeches provide the core of that ideology. This essay discusses Putin’s position on Russia’s commitment to democracy, the relationship between Russia and Europe, and the nature of the international system in which Russia fi nds itself. The author sees the concept of “sovereign democracy” that has been offered by Surkov and endorsed by United Russia as summarizing ideas that already had been articulated by Putin. Putin’s words strongly emphasize the importance of a consensus of values in Russian society and politics. That theme has important implications for the relationship between the state and civil society in Russia. Evans argues that the ideological pronouncements of the Putin leadership refl ect tension between apparently inconsistent principles resulting from a combination of inherently contradictory themes. Putin identifi es the main danger facing Russia in the contemporary period as disintegration rather than stagnation.

Mapping the State

Kropotkin ◽  
2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Kinna
Keyword(s):  
Social Transformation ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
International System ◽  
The State ◽  
Power Relationships ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Social ◽  
Explanatory Account ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
West European

This chapter outlines three parallel accounts of the state that Kropotkin developed in the 1870s and 1880s as an anarchist critic of Tsarism. The first was an explanatory account for West European audiences and it described the iniquities of the Tsarist regime, and the social, economic and political problems that Russian revolutionaries were attempting to address. The second was a general anarchist critique that probed ideas of class and slavery and set out the reasons why constitutional solutions being proposed by radicals in Russia and elsewhere would fail to bring about social transformation. The third was an examination of the dynamics of change that drew directly on Kropotkin's understanding of geography. Kropotkin applied this to distinguish between nations and states and to develop ideas of colonisation, monopoly and a politics of anti-statecraft. By looking at the dynamics of the state, Kropotkin also explored the relationship between the state and capitalism and the power relationships of the international system. This analysis led him to identify Germany as the central power in Europe.

8. Realism

2019 ◽  
pp. 130-144
Author(s):  
Tim Dunne ◽  
Brian C. Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
International System ◽  
World Politics ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Common Elements ◽  
Strategic Partnerships ◽  
Self Help ◽  
Powerful Explanation ◽  
Main Ideas

This chapter examines the claim that realism offers the most powerful explanation for the state of war that is the regular condition of life in the international system. It first provides an overview of the theory of realism before discussing whether there is one realism or a variety of realisms. It argues that despite some important differences, all realist theories share a set of core assumptions and ideas. It goes on to consider these common elements, namely self-help, statism, and survival. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the extent to which realism is relevant for understanding the globalization of world politics. To illustrate the main ideas tackled in this chapter, two case studies are presented: one relating to the Melian dialogue and the other to strategic partnerships with ‘friendly’ dictators. There is also an Opposing Opinions box that asks whether U.S. hegemony is durable or fleeting.

scholarly journals Sovereignty, a Swinging Concept Between International Law and Political Reality

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 181-185
Author(s):  
Anca Dinicu
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
International System ◽  
The State ◽  
Fundamental Unit ◽  
Legal Basis ◽  
Sovereign State ◽  
International Context ◽  
Political Reality ◽  
Political Units ◽  
Domestic Affairs

Abstract The State, as the fundamental unit of the international system, appeals to ultimate power and authority in order to control its own domestic affairs and claims equality as a legal basis regarding its relation with other legal political units. But the existence of the sovereign state in the current international context, where the multiple interdependencies generate divergence and cooperation in the same, is subject to permanent challenges. And the issue is not easy approachable in theory, nor in practice. Like other concepts, as security or democracy, the concept of sovereignty needs to be updated according to the new rules revealed by the process of globalization, rules that are defined not by the equal states, but by the powerful ones.

scholarly journals Non-state Actors, Terrorism and the New Global Reality

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aituaje Irene Pogoson
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Security ◽  
International System ◽  
World Politics ◽  
The State ◽  
Objective Knowledge ◽  
Multiplier Effect ◽  
Terrorist Groups ◽  
Global Events ◽  
State Actors

The reality that terrorists are increasingly enjoying a force-multiplier effect in both national and international realms is the preoccupation of this paper. The traditional thinking about international relations premised on the state as the primary actor in international politics is being greatly challenged as opposition to the supremacy of the state in international system by violent non state actors have become more rampant. Global events demonstrate how the influence of non-state actors and individuals is growing in world politics, assisted by an environment in which the flow of both information and disinformation enables the adoption of narratives that are not particularly based on sound facts and objective knowledge. The implication is that those involved in national and international security in the 21st century will need to formulate and re-strategize more effective, less military propelled ways and means that address the individual’s capacity to distinguish between rational and irrational in order to positively influence the forces that trigger the rise of such extremism in the first place. Until that is achieved, the threats from violent non state actors will continue to challenge some states as the terrorist groups align with others to create a convoluted and perplexing set of geopolitical and organizational networks that will prove difficult to unravel

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