Is There Still a German IR Discourse? Investigations in the Semi-Periphery of an Academic Discipline

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Steffek ◽  
Yannick Lasshof
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
German Language ◽  
Policy Theory ◽  
Funding Agencies ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Internationale Beziehungen ◽  
Disciplinary Affiliation ◽  
Considerable Pressure ◽  
Language Literature

Abstract In non-English-speaking countries, international relations (IR) scholars often face considerable pressure to publish in international journals and address international debates. At the same time, they are expected to cater to national publics, politicians, and funding agencies. In this article, we investigate how German IR scholars navigate this terrain and whether a national IR discourse still exists in Germany. To answer this question, we analyze citation patterns and the formulation of the puzzle in twenty-five volumes of the Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen, the German flagship journal of IR. We find that two-thirds of scholarly works cited in those articles are written in English. References to German-language literature cluster in articles written by authors without disciplinary affiliation in IR. The majority of research puzzles are also situated firmly in international discourses, while only a minority really target German debates. We conclude that not much of a distinctively German conversation over matters of IR is left, at least in academia. What is still there revolves around German foreign policy, theory issues, and, to some extent, European studies. On most other issues, authors link up directly to international debates even when addressing their German colleagues in German.

scholarly journals Platonic metaphysics and the ontology of international relations: a sketch

2021 ◽  
pp. 004711782110214
Author(s):  
King-Ho Leung
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
World Order ◽  
Social World ◽  
Levels Of Analysis ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ir Theory ◽  
The Social ◽  
Human Individual

This article offers a reading of Plato in light of the recent debates concerning the unique ‘ontology’ of International Relations (IR) as an academic discipline. In particular, this article suggests that Plato’s metaphysical account of the integral connection between human individual, the domestic state and world order can offer IR an alternative outlook to the ‘political scientific’ schema of ‘levels of analysis’. This article argues that Plato’s metaphysical conception of world order can not only provide IR theory with a way to re-imagine the relation between the human, the state and world order. Moreover, Plato’s outlook can highlight or even call into question the post-metaphysical presuppositions of contemporary IR theory in its ‘borrowed ontology’ from modern social science, which can in turn facilitate IR’s re-interpretation of its own ‘ontology’ as well as its distinct contributions to the understanding of the various aspects of the social world and human life.

International Relations Studies in China

2002 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianwei Wang
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
Political Control ◽  
Degree Programs ◽  
Teaching And Research ◽  
Intellectual Community ◽  
Ir Studies ◽  
Western Intellectual

This article traces the evolution of international relations studies as an academic discipline in China in the last two decades or so. Almost non-existent before the 1980s, IR studies has become an increasingly dynamic, sophisticated, and popular field of social science in both teaching and research. This is reflected in the growth of institutions, degree programs, scholarship and paradigmatic debate as well as interaction with the Western intellectual community in both theory and personnel. Nevertheless, the development of IR studies in China is still in its primitive stage and it must contend with various problems such as political control, a lack of well-trained scholars, inadequate funding, and ideational uncertainty.

The Ambivalent Relationship of Japan's Soft Power Diplomacy andPrincess Mononoke: Tosaka Jun's philosophy of culture as moral reflection

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 683-698 ◽  
Author(s):  
KOSUKE SHIMIZU
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Moral Reflection ◽  
The West ◽  
Soft Power Diplomacy

AbstractCulture is a demanding word, particularly when it is used in the context of the contemporary academic discipline of international relations (IR). It is often employed in order to distinguish one identity from another, allegedly illuminating idiosyncrasies embedded in a particular society or group of people. The essentialized understanding of culture is also detectable in the case of the current debate on the non-Western international relations theories (IRT). Non-Western politicians and scholars often employ the term culture in order to distinguish their values from alleged Western values. However, culture has another important function mainly advanced by a left-wing Kyoto School philosopher Tosaka Jun, that is, culture as a mirror for critical reflection for morality (Tosaka, 1966). This article is based on Tosaka's argument that culture has an important function for moral reflection beyond that of a mere means to identify one's distinctiveness from the West, and it criticizes Japan's soft power diplomacy or the total absence of it from that point of view. It also argues that this absence is the result of the soft power discourse's over-simplified interpretation of culture that results in confrontation between the West and the rest, particularly when it is employed in non-Western IRT discourses. Towards the end, I examine Miyazaki Hayao's films,Princes Mononokein particular, as examples of cultural works facilitating a moment of critical reflection, and I extract embedded messages of relevance to critical reflection on contemporary IR literature, particularly non-Western literature.

German Language & Literature

PMLA ◽  
1950 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-239
Keyword(s):  
German Language ◽  
Language Literature

[5302–5404: 5303 compl; 5314 ch add Belfast; 5316 no inf; 5316afor “M.” read “A.L.”; 5319 present add unknown; 5320 no inf; 5322 compl; 5323 ch add Westfield C, London; 5324 compl; 5326 discont, emigration; 5327, 5329 compl; 5336 discont r.n.g.; 5337 name now Brown, Mrs. Faith, ch add Wayne STC, Nebraska; 5340, 5342, 5344–5347 no inf; 5348, 5348a compl; 5352 for “aeke” read “aesse”; 5353 compl; 5354 no inf; 5355 discont, ch of interest; 5358 compl; 5359 discont, emigration; 5360 compl; 5366 ch add California; 5272 present add unknown; 5373b, 5373c compl; 5374, 5375 compl; 5376 now subject of a pupil's diss; 5378, 5381, 5394 compl; 5395a for “M.” read “J.”; 5396 compl; 5397, 5398 no inf; 5399 delete “D”; 5400 compl; 5402, 5403 no inf].

Individuals in International Relations

2020 ◽  
pp. 15-45
Author(s):  
Peter Hägel
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Levels Of Analysis ◽  
Foreign Policy Analysis ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Transnational Relations ◽  
Individual Agency ◽  
Discipline Formation

Chapter 2 reviews how International Relations (IR) scholarship has been treating individual agency, especially within the dominant theoretical frameworks, Realism, Liberalism, and Constructivism. Various analytical perspectives, such as the “levels-of-analysis,” foreign policy analysis, and the transnational relations approach, have reserved room for the analysis of individuals in world politics. But concerns about academic discipline formation and real-world relevance have led to a widespread neglect of individual actors. While James Rosenau’s research and the integration of social theory into IR offer fruitful ways of thinking about individual agency, they often overemphasize the structural situatedness of actors fulfilling social roles. Revisiting the structure–agency debate, the chapter takes inspiration from Margaret Archer’s sociological insights in order to propose that agency should be analyzed as a variable with an intrasubjective and an intersubjective dimension, which always requires contextual specification. Power, it is argued, should be seen as a disposition, and its exercise vis-à-vis other actors as an intentional project.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document