scholarly journals Role and relation in Confucian IR: Relating to strangers in the states of nature

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Chih-yu Shih
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
International Relations ◽  
North Korea ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Role Theory ◽  
Relational Theory ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Rule Based ◽  
Different Types ◽  
States Of Nature

Abstract The literature on International Relations theory has yet to align relational theory with role theory, despite the fact that these two theories share so much epistemological common ground. This article uses role theory to bridge the gap between the Confucian and Western conceptions of relationality, whose practitioners regard each other as strangers. With the support of role theory, the comparative analysis of relationality in this article has mainly focused on two different types of relations: prior rule-based relations and improvised relations. The differences in the cultural preparation for these two relations partially explain the plurality of the relational universe and the perception of stranger. Role theory is one way to reconnect the seemingly irreconcilable relational universes. To illustrate the value of a composite agenda of relational theory and role theory, the article will use Kim Jong-un of North Korea as its case. Confucian relations propose that, for all nations, the necessity of having a certain role relation is a more important agenda than insisting on exactly what role to take.

The end of International Relations theory?

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 405-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Dunne ◽  
Lene Hansen ◽  
Colin Wight
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
The Third ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Status ◽  
Theoretical Pluralism

With a view to providing contextual background for the Special Issue, this opening article analyses several dimensions of ‘The end of International Relations theory?’ It opens with a consideration of the status of different types of theory. Thereafter, we look at the proliferation of theories that has taken place since the emergence of the third/fourth debate. The coexistence and competition between an ever-greater number of theories begs the question: what kind of theoretical pluralism should IR scholars embrace? We offer a particular account of theoretical engagement that is preferable to the alternatives currently being practised: integrative pluralism. The article ends on a cautiously optimistic note: given the disciplinary competition that now exists in relation to explaining and understanding global social forces, International Relations may find resilience because it has become theory-led, theory-literate and theory-concerned.

It takes all types: social psychology, trust, and the international relations paradigm in our minds

2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 345-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian C. Rathbun
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Structural Realism ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Levels Of Analysis ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Multiple Levels ◽  
Neoliberal Institutionalism

The insights of social psychology are not thoroughly integrated into international relations theory, yet social psychology has much to offer. Social psychology provides a conceptualization of a number of varieties of trust – moralistic, strategic, and generalized – and their opposites that implicitly drive the logic of major works of international relations. It also reveals the empirical presence of a number of different types of trusters who make different assumptions about the trustworthiness of others and consequently show markedly different propensities towards cooperation. The rough correspondence between these different ‘social orientations’ and the logics of the three approaches of structural realism, neoliberal institutionalism, and constructivism suggest that individuals carry a crude paradigm in their minds. Metatheoretically, the implication for international relations theory is that scholars capture a part but not the totality of world politics, the behavior of those who trust (or do not trust) in a particular way that matches the logic of their paradigms. Theoretically it suggests a research agenda at multiple levels of analysis, utilizing all of the types of trust and trusters. I review the work of others that offers some preliminary evidence for its plausibility, suggest some hypotheses of my own, and address potential theoretical objections.

13. Normative International Relations Theory

2020 ◽  
pp. 236-262
Author(s):  
Toni Erskine
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Iraq War ◽  
Ethical Reasoning ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Ir Theory ◽  
Different Types

This chapter deals with normative international relations theory, a field of study that relies on a variety of approaches and theories to explore moral expectations, decisions, and dilemmas in world politics. Normative IR theory has adopted—and adapted—conceptual categories such as communitarianism and cosmopolitanism from political theory. It also borrows from moral philosophy to designate different types of ethical reasoning, such as deontology and consequentialism. The chapter begins with an overview of the history, influences, and some of the categories that normative IR theory brings to the study of international relations. It then examines the ways in which normative IR theory engages with the hidden ethical assumptions of a range of IR approaches. The case study considers the ethics of war in the Iraq war.

scholarly journals Multistakeholderism: anatomy of an inchoate global institution

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 572-616 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Raymond ◽  
Laura DeNardis
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Significant Variation ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Securities Regulation ◽  
Internet Governance ◽  
Institutional Form ◽  
Central Argument ◽  
Corporate Social

Building on John Ruggie’s pioneering study of multilateralism, this paper presents an analogous study of multistakeholder governance, or multistakeholderism. Its central argument is that multistakeholderism is, as yet, a much less well-defined institutional form. Cases exhibit significant variation both in the combinations of actor classes entitled to participate and the nature of authority relations among those actors. The first section discusses multistakeholderism as an institutional form, and proposes a taxonomy of its types. This section also briefly addresses the implications of the analysis for International Relations theory. The paper then conducts a comparative analysis of multistakeholderism, applying the taxonomy to five illustrative cases. It demonstrates the degree of inter-case variation, and the range of issue-areas across which the institutional form is employed and invoked by actors. Three cases are drawn from the increasingly contentious area of Internet governance; the paper thus makes a secondary contribution to this growing literature. The paper’s most striking finding in this regard is that Internet governance often fails to live up to its multistakeholder rhetoric. Other cases include governance of securities regulation and the governance of corporate social responsibility. The paper concludes by examining the implications of our argument, and identifying areas for further research.

International Relations' Last Synthesis?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Samuel Barkin ◽  
Laura Sjoberg
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
The Other ◽  
Global Politics ◽  
Knowledge Accumulation ◽  
Critical Theories ◽  
Constructivist Epistemology

Many scholars, intentionally or unintentionally, have entangled constructivisms and critical theories in problematic ways, either by assigning a critical-theoretical politics to constructivisms or by assuming the appropriateness of constructivist epistemology and methods for critical theorizing. This book makes the argument that these connections mirror the grand theoretical syntheses of International Relations (IR) in the 1980s and 1990s, and have similar constraining effects on the possibilities of International Relations theory. These connections have been made without adequate reflection, in contradiction to the base assumptions of each theoretical perspective, and to the detriment of both knowledge accumulation about global politics and theoretical rigor in disciplinary International Relations. It is not that constructivisms and critical theories have no common ground but instead that the overstatement of their common ground that has become routine among International Relations scholars is counterproductive to the discovery and utilization of their potential dialogues. To that end, this book argues that scholars using the two in conjunction should be cognizant of, rather than gloss over, the tensions between them as approaches and the different tools they have to offer. Along these lines, the book uses the concept of affordances to look at what each has to offer the other, and to argue for a modest, reflective, specified return to (constructivist and critical) International Relations theorizing that has the potential to revive International Relations theorizing by rejecting its oversimple syntheses.

Critical Theory: International Relations' Engagement With the Frankfurt School and Marxism

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Faruk Yalvaç
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Frankfurt School ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Just World ◽  
Critical Thought ◽  
The Social ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Alternative Set

Critical international relations theory (CIRT) is not only an academic approach but also an emancipatory project committed to the formation of a more equal and just world. It seeks to explain the reasons why the realization of this goal is difficult to achieve. What is crucial here is not only the social explanation, but also politically motivated action to achieve an alternative set of social relations based on justice and equality. Critical theory in international relations (IR) is part of the post-positivist turn or the so-called “fourth debate,” which followed the inter-paradigm debate of the 1970s. Post-positivism consists of a plurality of theoretical and epistemological positions that opened up wide ranging criticisms of the neo-realist “orthodoxy” that has dominated IR theorizing since the beginning of 1980s. Critical theory has challenged the mainstream understanding of IR, and has spurred the development of alternative forms of analysis and approaches. Moreover, since the beginning of the 1980s, different types of CIRT have become the main alternative to mainstream IR. The general aim of CIRT can be summed up by Marx’s eleventh thesis on Feuerbach that “philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.” A specific tradition of critical thought in IR, derived from Marx, comprises the normative Critical Theory (CT) of the Frankfurt School—termed the “structural critical theory”—since it focuses more on the sociological features and dynamics of capitalism.

The Limits of the Civilizing Mission: A Comparative Analysis of British Protestant Missionary Campaigns to End Footbinding and Female Circumcision

2008 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-227
Author(s):  
Bryony Lau
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Female Circumcision ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Civilizing Mission ◽  
Colonial Resistance

AbstractDrawing on international relations theory, this article examines why a British missionary campaign against footbinding in China at the turn of the 20 th century succeeded, while a similar campaign against female circumcision in Kenya in the 1920s failed. It argues that the diff erent outcomes can be explained by the incentives new elites had in swiftly changing political climates to adopt, adapt or reject foreign norms promoted by missionaries. Whereas Chinese reformers recast footbinding as a source of China's weakness, the emerging nationalist elite among the Kikuyu in Kenya argued for the continuation of female circumcision as part of anti-colonial resistance. Cette contribution interroge, à l'aide de la théorie de relations internationales, les raisons pour lesquelles une campagne dirigée par des missionnaires britanniques en Chine, à la veille du XXe siècle, contre les pieds bandés réussit, alors qu'une campagne similaire menée durant les années 1920 contre l'excision féminine au Kenya échoua. Ces résultats opposés s'expliquent par le choix que fi rent les nouvelles élites locales d'adopter, d'adapter ou de rejeter les normes étrangères introduites par les missionnaires. Alors que les réformateurs chinois réinterprétèrent les pieds bandés comme une source de l'impuissance de la Chine, la nouvelle élite nationaliste kikuyu au Kenya vit dans la pratique de l'excision féminine un moyen de résistance contre le colonialisme.

scholarly journals POLAND–UKRAINE RELATIONS IN THE DIGITAL POLITICAL DISCOURSE OF POLAND (ON THE MATERIAL OF POLISH PRESIDENT OFFICIAL WEBSITE IN 2004-2015)

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Formal Analysis ◽  
Favorable Attitude ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Mutual Relations ◽  
News Headlines ◽  
Radical Shift ◽  
Different Levels

In this study news policy of the polish president official website is regarded to be a mirror of Poland – Ukraine relations. It’s assumed that it’s possible to recreate the dynamics of international relations forming within both news geography analysis (comparative analysis of different countries coverage) and formal analysis of news headlines types. News from news archive of the official website of the President of the Republic of Poland were collected and content-analyzed for the dynamics of international relations recreation. With the simple qualitative comparable analysis was shown, that Ukraine was the most popular country among the post-Soviet countries (it was so even before the Euromaidan). And the change of Ukraine presidents in 2010 with radical shift of international orientations didn’t reflect the intensity of attention. With the additional analysis of headlines types was shown, that for Poland Ukraine isn’t only the most popular country, the contacts with it are more varied than mutual relations with other countries. It can be demonstrated with the different levels and different formats usage. In the result of comparison with Polish – Russia relations was demonstrated, that the similar approach towards seeking ways for maintain relations between the countries was used (especially before 2008), however, it was con the deficit of both attention intensity and headlines variety. In the cases of Georgia and Ukraine news policy is more formal for Georgia, more detailed and informal for Ukraine. Thus, comparative analysis of different types of headlines use shows a special, attentive and favorable attitude towards Ukraine, which don’t change during Ukrainian changes of priorities in international politics and during times of crises. During the latter, Poland implements more new formats of contacts with Ukrainian politicians and appeals for wide network of international community. Meanwhile, the analysis have some limitations. It may be implemented only for countries with high number of mentions and doesn’t consider the types of news and. Thus, it’s may be complicated to define the essence of international relations. So, there is a need to define other formal approaches, which will help to classify texts.

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