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.

6. Realism

2016 ◽  
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.

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.

7. Liberalism

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Dunne
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Gulf War ◽  
World Politics ◽  
The Other ◽  
Collective Security ◽  
The Core ◽  
Global Problems

This chapter examines the core assumptions of liberalism regarding world politics. It explores why liberals believe in progress, what explains the ascendancy of liberal ideas in world politics since 1945, and whether liberal solutions to global problems are hard to achieve and difficult to sustain. The chapter also considers central ideas in liberal thinking on international relations, including internationalism, idealism, and institutionalism. It concludes with an assessment of the challenges confronting liberalism. Two case studies are presented: one dealing with imperialism and internationalism in nineteenth-century Britain, and the other with the 1990–1991 Gulf War and its implications for collective security. There is also an Opposing Opinions box that asks whether democracy is a better system of government and whether it should be promoted by peaceful and forceful means.

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.

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.

17. Gender

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Kirby
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Gender Relations ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Gender Norms ◽  
International Perspective ◽  
World Politics ◽  
The Other ◽  
Global Politics ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
And Gender

This chapter examines the power of gender in global politics. It considers the different ways in which gender shapes world politics today, whether men dominate global politics at the expense of women, and whether international — and globalized — gender norms should be radically changed, and if so, how. The chapter also discusses sex and gender in international perspective, along with global gender relations and the gendering of global politics, global security, and the global economy. Two case studies are presented, one dealing with the participation of female guerrillas in El Salvador's civil war, and the other with neo-slavery and care labour in Asia. There is also an Opposing Opinions box that asks whether war is inherently masculine.

What makes terrorism modern? Terrorism, legitimacy, and the international system

2011 ◽  
Vol 37 (5) ◽  
pp. 2311-2336 ◽  
Author(s):  
AYŞE ZARAKOL
Keyword(s):  
Local Authority ◽  
International System ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
International Terrorism ◽  
Historical Evolution ◽  
Religious Authority ◽  
Spread Pattern ◽  
The One

AbstractThis article aims to understand the phenomenon of international terrorism by wedding a constructivist understanding of terrorism with an overview of the historical evolution of the state. The Westphalian state has replaced three types of authority: religious, personal and local. Political challenges to the modern international system inevitably derive their claim to legitimacy from one of these other forms of authority. I argue that there is a correlation between the kind of legitimacy claim a ‘terrorist’ cause is based on and how threatening we find the activities based on that claim. The less the distance between the unrecognised legitimacy claim on the one hand and the principles conferring legitimacy in the modern states system on the other, the less ontologically threatening we find the claimants to be. All historical variants of modern ‘terrorism’ fall into one of two categories of disruptive activity. They are either based in claims to local authority and target only particular states, or in claims to personal and/or religious authority and reject the modern states system altogether. Groups labelled as terrorist can therefore be classified as system-affirming or system-threatening. The former is a contained problem, but the latter has followed geographically broadening spread pattern throughout the international system.

Forum Introduction: Is the state a person? Why should we care?

2004 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Thaddeus Jackson
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Empirical Analysis ◽  
International Society ◽  
World Politics ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Ir Theory ◽  
Precise Role

In 1959, Arnold Wolfers published an essay entitled ‘The Actors In World Politics’ in which he suggested that the importance of the state as an actor, although undeniable, needed to be submitted to ‘empirical analysis’ and clearer theorisation if its precise role was to be ascertained. Unfortunately, almost no one seems to have heeded his advice, and the question about what we might call the person-hood of the state virtually vanished from the agenda of mainstream International Relations (IR) theory. Realists, neorealists, neoliberal institutionalists, theorists of international society, and even many Marxists were content to treat states as, in effect, big people, endowed with perceptions, desires, emotions, and the other attributes of person-hood. Significantly, they persisted in these practices even though they often admitted that – in Robert Gilpin's words – ‘strictly speaking . . . only individuals and individuals joined together into various types of coalitions can be said to have interests’ and therefore really be actors.

1. Globalization and global politics

2019 ◽  
pp. 19-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony McGrew
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
World Politics ◽  
The Other ◽  
Global Politics ◽  
Production Networks ◽  
Global Production Networks ◽  
The West ◽  
Recycling System ◽  
World Power ◽  
National Economic

This chapter examines the characteristics of contemporary globalization and how they are reshaping world politics. It explains why globalization challenges some of our traditional ways of thinking and theorizing about world politics. It asks whether there are limits to globalization or whether it is inevitable. It also considers the extent to which globalization is responsible for the emerging shift in the structure of world power, namely the ‘decline of the West’ and the ‘rise of the rest’. Two case studies are presented: one is about the iPhone and the iPad, and illustrates the implications of global production networks for national economic sovereignty; the other is about the global recycling system. There is also an Opposing Opinions box that tackles the question of whether globalization is eroding the power of the state.

scholarly journals PPP – kein relevanter Beitrag zur Lösung der Infrastrukturprobleme in Deutschland

2017 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Eisenkopf
Keyword(s):  
Private Sector ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Cost Savings ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Public Private Partnerships ◽  
Road Infrastructure ◽  
Financing Costs ◽  
Procurement Cost

Abstract:Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) are the cooperation between the state and the private sector in the planning, realization, financing and operation of traditionally public services. In the area of road infrastructure, they are implemented as F-, A- or V-models. Statements on the profitability of PPP projects are always subject to case studies. As a rule, financing costs for PPPs will be higher than for conventional procurement. Cost savings in PPP, on the other hand, are empirically relatively low, since independent and transparent studies hardly exist. Finally, there are considerable doubts as to whether PPP projects contribute to an increase in efficiency from a macroeconomic perspective and deliver a relevant contribution to the solution of infrastructure problems in Germany. This seems especially to be true with respect to the intended establishment of a federal infrastructure company for motorways.

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