scholarly journals Hannah Arendt and International Relations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shinkyu Lee
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Hannah Arendt ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Careful Analysis ◽  
State Agency ◽  
Critical Studies ◽  
Institutional Stability ◽  
Careful Treatment

International relations (IR) scholars have increasingly integrated Hannah Arendt into their works. Her fierce critique of the conventional ideas of politics driven by rulership, enforcement, and violence has a particular resonance for theorists seeking to critically revisit the basic assumptions of IR scholarship. Arendt’s thinking, however, contains complexity and nuance that need careful treatment when extended beyond domestic politics. In particular, Arendt’s vision of free politics—characterized by the dualistic emphasis on agonistic action and institutional stability—raises two crucial issues that need further elaboration for IR research that appropriates her thinking. One involves the orientation of her international thoughts. Although Arendt showed “idealistic” aspirations for authentic politics practiced by diverse equals in an institutionally articulated space of freedom, she never lost interest in the extant situation of “non-idealistic” politics. Engaging with Arendt’s theory orientation requires a careful analysis of difficult topics, such as her distinctive conception of the political and her critiques of the nation-state and international law. The other topic that needs clarification when Arendt’s thoughts are applied to IR involves specific ways of associating different sites of power. A close examination of Arendt’s council-based federalism reveals her distinctive idea of international politics, based on her acute awareness of the fundamental complexity that lies in power association and state agency. Bringing IR topics like state agency into conversation with her works generates illuminating questions for Arendt scholarship. Likewise, the ongoing debate on agonistic and institutional features of Arendt’s thoughts can provide crucial insights into critical studies of international politics.

Tipping the Balance: International Courts and the Construction of International and Domestic Politics

2011 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Karen J Alter
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Tipping Point ◽  
Legal Institutions ◽  
International Courts ◽  
State Compliance ◽  
Point Argument

Abstract The proponents of international courts (ICs) expect that creating formal legal institutions will help to increase respect for international law. International relations scholars question such claims, since ICs have no tools to compel state compliance. Such views are premised on the notion that states have unique preferences that ICs must satisfy in order to be effective. The tipping point argument is premised on the notion that within each state are actors with numerous conflicting preferences. ICs can act as tipping point actors, building and giving resources to compliance constituencies—coalitions of actors within and outside of states—that favour policies that happen to also be congruent with international law.

What’s Behind the WTO Crisis? A Marxist Analysis

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rémi Bachand
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Main Function ◽  
Critical Studies ◽  
Wto Dispute Settlement ◽  
Marxist Analysis ◽  
Rate Of Profit

Abstract The main objective of this article is to explore the background of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) crisis using Marxist, neo-Marxist or, at least, Marxist-influenced theories of political economy and international relations. Its purpose is twofold. First, to propose an interpretation of the actual WTO crisis that will address alternative interpretations’ gaps. Second, to advance theoretical inputs founded on Marxist or Marxist-influenced writing in political economy, inputs which could be useful elsewhere in critical studies in international law. At the root of the crisis lies the functioning of neoliberalism (understood as the regime of accumulation promoted by US-dominant classes) and the institutions it uses to regulate itself, to deal with contradictions that hurt its capacity to produce profit, and to allow capital accumulation. One of the most important of these institutions, at the international level, is the WTO. We argue that neoliberalism’s incapacity to continuously provide, since the Asian crisis in 1997, a satisfying rate of profit to US capitalists (and to Western capitalists in general, even if our argument focuses on the former) lured it into a crisis. Since the WTO’s main function is to prevent neoliberalism from being hurt by contradictions that would limit its capacity to provide profits allowing capital accumulation, it was inevitable that one day or another, the struggle faced by the latter would also drag the former down in an institutional crisis.

Prevalence of Soft Law in the Arctic

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 285-307
Author(s):  
Hema Nadarajah
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Soft Law ◽  
Dynamic Changes ◽  
Binding Forms ◽  
National Jurisdiction ◽  
Definition Of

Soft law has been observed to be increasing within the frontiers – regions and issue-areas that extend beyond national jurisdiction, and where governance substantively integrates scientific and technological knowledge. The often-used assumption for the prevalence of such instruments has been the uncertainty of scientific knowledge. This paper takes this facile analysis further by examining the dynamic changes to the number and diversity of state and non-state actors as well as their relative influence. Using a revised definition of soft law which encompasses both binding and non-binding forms, this article shows that this has not been the case. Through analysis of the legal framework within which the region is governed and a mixed methodology drawing from the fields of international relations and international law, this research confirms that soft law is prevalent within the Arctic and that it is an outcome of domestic politics, as well as geopolitical tensions among the relevant states.

Judicial Power in Domestic and International Politics

2011 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 553-587 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey K. Staton ◽  
Will H. Moore
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Political Science ◽  
International Research ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Considerable Progress ◽  
Important Research ◽  
Rigid Boundary ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Do So

AbstractAlthough scholars have made considerable progress on a number of important research questions by relaxing assumptions commonly used to divide political science into subfields, rigid boundaries remain in some contexts. In this essay, we suggest that the assumption that international politics is characterized by anarchy whereas domestic politics is characterized by hierarchy continues to divide research on the conditions under which governments are constrained by courts, international or domestic. We contend that we will learn more about the process by which courts constrain governments, and do so more quickly, if we relax the assumption and recognize the substantial similarities between domestic and international research on this topic. We review four recent books that highlight contemporary theories of the extent to which domestic and international law binds states, and discuss whether a rigid boundary between international and domestic scholarship can be sustained on either theoretical or empirical grounds.

Symposium ‘The politics of international recognition’

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans Agné ◽  
Jens Bartelson ◽  
Eva Erman ◽  
Thomas Lindemann ◽  
Benjamin Herborth ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Political Practice ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
International Recognition ◽  
International Theory ◽  
Social Theories ◽  
New States ◽  
Maximal Relevance

Recognition plays a multifaceted role in international theory. In rarely communicating literatures, the term is invoked to explain creation of new states and international structures; policy choices by state and non-state actors; and normative justifiability, or lack thereof, of foreign and international politics. The purpose of this symposium is to open new possibilities for imagining and studying recognition in international politics by drawing together different strands of research in this area. More specifically, the forum brings new attention to controversies on the creation of states, which has traditionally been a preserve for discussion in International Law, by invoking social theories of recognition that have developed as part of International Relations more recently. It is suggested that broadening imagination across legal and social approaches to recognition provides the resources needed for theories with this object to be of maximal relevance to political practice.

How to Do Things with International Law

2019 ◽  
pp. 47-57
Author(s):  
Ian Hurd
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Practice Theory ◽  
Legal Realism ◽  
Political Legitimation ◽  
International Rule

This chapter presents an account of the international rule of law that reflects the particular dynamics of international politics, drawing on legal realism and practice theory in international relations (IR). On this reading, the international rule of law is a social practice that states and others engage in when they provide legal reasons and justifications for their actions. The goal may be either political legitimation for oneself or delegitimation of adversaries. This sort of use of international law both relies on and reinforces the idea that states should act lawfully rather than unlawfully. The priority of lawfulness is taken for granted. The chapter then outlines an approach which helps to make sense of international law's contribution to contemporary disputes and crises.

Utilitarian International Order

2019 ◽  
pp. 247-266
Author(s):  
Gerald J. Postema
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
International Politics ◽  
International Order ◽  
Mutual Benefit ◽  
Global Order ◽  
Legislative Authority ◽  
The Law

International politics was integral to Bentham’s comprehensive jurisprudential project. His perspective on international law was that of a legislator, an engineer of global order, not that of expositor or theorist of the existing law. He articulated a (quasi-) cosmopolitan principle for the governance of a state-pluralist global order: the ultimate aim of international law, he argued, is the greatest common and equal utility of all nations. This principle articulates a standard of equal, mutual benefit and builds in a proviso that permits derogation from arrangements or laws that work greatly to the disadvantage of any given nation. He envisioned the global order as a loose affiliation of equal sovereign states, each of which participates on an equal basis in a common congress accorded legislative authority through their participation and is subject to judgments of a common tribunal. Bentham’s ultimate solution to the problem of war was threefold: (i) the law was to be put on a clear, authoritative, and fully public basis in a carefully drafted and systematic code; (ii) all disputes arising in international relations were to be directed to this code and a common tribunal was empowered to resolve the disputes in an impartial way; (iii) judgments of the tribunal were to be enforced by the soft power of Public Opinion Tribunal consisting of both nations and individuals.

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