Visions of Peace in International Relations

Over the years, a number of scholars have noted that ethnic groups in violent conflict act much like states in the international system; James O'Connell describes the dynamics as ‘international relations without safeguards’. Brief observations aside, however, few works actually apply International Relations theory to explain large-scale ethnic violence. While the oversight ought to be surprising, it is easily explained in terms of what International Relations theory calls the ‘level of analysis problem’.

An Indomitable Will: Hannibal Barca & the Start of a World War

10.31124/advance.12827237.v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Michael Shammas

Keyword(s):

International Relations ◽

Large Scale ◽

Second World War ◽

World War ◽

Historical Events ◽

Second Punic War ◽

Average Person ◽

Theory Of History ◽

The Individual ◽

Second World

For many historians, the "Great Man" theory--emphasizing the centrality of powerful leaders in changing history--has (rightly) fallen out of fashion. Less credit is given to leaders; more attention is paid to the average person. Concurrently, for many international relations theorists, the demands of realpolitik and geopolitics are emphasized while the individual personalities of leaders and the collective personalities of cultures are de-emphasized. Yet, while the "Great Man" theory of history is limiting, certain historical events simply cannot be explained without reference to the passions, motives, and personalities of individual leaders. Relatedly, though the competitive desire for resources can explain some wars, the fiercest conflicts are fought not over tangible goods but over abstract ideals. The Second Punic War proves both points: Almost entirely on his own, for reasons related more to culture and ideals than resources, one remarkable man--Hannibal Barca--triggered the ancient world's deadliest world war. The next time resentment over an unfair treaty, bitterness, one driven leader, and clashing ideals would trigger such large-scale conflict would not occur until the Second World War.

Ethnic Identities and Boundaries: Anthropological, Psychological, and Sociological Approaches

10.1093/acrefore/9780190846626.013.171 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Landon E. Hancock

Keyword(s):

International Relations ◽

Common Factor ◽

The Self ◽

Group Level ◽

Middle Ground ◽

Individual Level ◽

Self And Other ◽

Sociological Approaches ◽

The Individual ◽

Level Of Analysis

Ethnicity and identity are largely about boundaries; in fact, there is no way to determine one’s identity—ethnic or otherwise—without reference to some sort of boundary. In approaching the study of ethnicity and identity, sociology, anthropology, and to a lesser extent political science and international relations tend to focus on the group level and define ethnicity and ethnic identity as group phenomena. Psychology, by contrast, focuses on the individual level. These two disciplinary areas represent the opposite ends of a conceptual focus in examining both ethnicity as a group phenomenon and identity as an individual phenomenon, with a “middle ground” outlined by symbolic interactionism focusing on the processes of formation and reformation through the interaction of individuals and groups. The thread that runs through each of these ordinarily disparate disciplines is that, when examining ethnicity or identity, there is a common factor of dialectic between the sameness of the self or in-group and differentiation with the other or out-group. Moreover, an examination of the manner in which the generation of identity at one level has an explicit connection to the germination of identity at other levels of analysis shows that they combine together in a process of identification and categorization, with explicit links between the self and other at each level of analysis.

Trusting Enemies

10.1093/oso/9780199696475.001.0001 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 29

Author(s):

Nicholas J. Wheeler

Keyword(s):

Cold War ◽

International Relations ◽

Prime Minister ◽

Ronald Reagan ◽

Mikhail Gorbachev ◽

The Us ◽

The Individual ◽

The Cold War ◽

Wrong Place ◽

Level Of Analysis

How can two enemies, locked into a spiral of fear and insecurity, transform their relationship into a trusting one? Trusting Enemies argues that the field of International Relations has not done a good job of answering this question. This is because it has been looking in the wrong place. Where trust-building has been theorized by the discipline of International Relations, the focus has been on the state and the individual. This book argues that there is a need to appreciate the importance of a new level of analysis in trust research—the interpersonal. In its development of a theory of interpersonal trust between state leaders in adversarial relationships, this book argues that the obstacles to leaders sincerely signalling their peaceful intent can be overcome and that trust-based relationships provide the greatest assurance of accurate signal interpretation. This book examines three cases: the interaction between US and Soviet leaders Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev and its role in ending the cold war; the interaction between Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and its role in the Lahore peace process of 1998–9; and the interactions across 2009–10 between Barack Obama and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that did not lead to a breakthrough in the US–Iranian nuclear relationship.

An Indomitable Will: Hannibal Barca & the Start of a World War

10.31124/advance.12827237 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Michael Shammas

Keyword(s):

International Relations ◽

Large Scale ◽

Second World War ◽

World War ◽

Historical Events ◽

Second Punic War ◽

Average Person ◽

Theory Of History ◽

The Individual ◽

Second World

For many historians, the "Great Man" theory--emphasizing the centrality of powerful leaders in changing history--has (rightly) fallen out of fashion. Less credit is given to leaders; more attention is paid to the average person. Concurrently, for many international relations theorists, the demands of realpolitik and geopolitics are emphasized while the individual personalities of leaders and the collective personalities of cultures are de-emphasized. Yet, while the "Great Man" theory of history is limiting, certain historical events simply cannot be explained without reference to the passions, motives, and personalities of individual leaders. Relatedly, though the competitive desire for resources can explain some wars, the fiercest conflicts are fought not over tangible goods but over abstract ideals. The Second Punic War proves both points: Almost entirely on his own, for reasons related more to culture and ideals than resources, one remarkable man--Hannibal Barca--triggered the ancient world's deadliest world war. The next time resentment over an unfair treaty, bitterness, one driven leader, and clashing ideals would trigger such large-scale conflict would not occur until the Second World War.

Accent Policy and Accent Modification Enterprises as Potential Indicators of Intercultural Power Relations: A Call for an Updated Research Agenda

Perspectives on Global Issues in Communication Sciences and Related Disorders ◽

10.1044/gics3.1.22 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 22-33 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Brynne D. Ovalle ◽

Rahul Chakraborty

Keyword(s):

International Relations ◽

Identity Construction ◽

Social Theory ◽

Power Relations ◽

Linguistic Diversity ◽

Cultural Organization ◽

Using Data ◽

The Individual ◽

The Impact ◽

The Relationship

This article has two purposes: (a) to examine the relationship between intercultural power relations and the widespread practice of accent discrimination and (b) to underscore the ramifications of accent discrimination both for the individual and for global society as a whole. First, authors review social theory regarding language and group identity construction, and then go on to integrate more current studies linking accent bias to sociocultural variables. Authors discuss three examples of intercultural accent discrimination in order to illustrate how this link manifests itself in the broader context of international relations (i.e., how accent discrimination is generated in situations of unequal power) and, using a review of current research, assess the consequences of accent discrimination for the individual. Finally, the article highlights the impact that linguistic discrimination is having on linguistic diversity globally, partially using data from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and partially by offering a potential context for interpreting the emergence of practices that seek to reduce or modify speaker accents.

Models, Practices and Methods of Reading: Evolution in Time and Space

Bibliotekovedenie [Library and Information Science (Russia)] ◽

10.25281/0869-608x-2009-0-1-59-64 ◽

2009 ◽

pp. 59-64

Author(s):

Yulia P. Melentyeva

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Social Groups ◽

National Program ◽

Time And Space ◽

Lack Of Information ◽

The Individual

In recent years as public in general and specialist have been showing big interest to the matters of reading. According to discussion and launch of the “Support and Development of Reading National Program”, many Russian libraries are organizing the large-scale events like marathons, lecture cycles, bibliographic trainings etc. which should draw attention of different social groups to reading. The individual forms of attraction to reading are used much rare. To author’s mind the main reason of such an issue has to be the lack of information about forms and methods of attraction to reading.

Why Sovereignty Matters Despite Injustice

10.1093/oso/9780198812852.003.0003 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Richard W. Miller

Keyword(s):

International Relations ◽

Large Scale ◽

Political Community ◽

Violent Conflict ◽

Military Interventions ◽

Support Intervention ◽

Spheres Of Influence ◽

Base Of Support ◽

External Intervention ◽

Target Country

This chapter argues for greater reluctance to launch humanitarian military interventions, without appealing to any inherent value in sovereignty or autonomous political community. Instead, it appeals to the likely consequences of such intervention—both within the target country and for international relations. Miller considers four types of candidate for intervention: stable tyrannies, unstable tyrannies, popular secessions, and ongoing large-scale killing and displacement. Only in the last of these should we be disposed to support intervention according to Miller, since the likely consequences that plague the other three types are here less challenging. Stable tyrannies are usually maintained because the regime has engineered a wide base of support among elites. External overthrow thus risks unleashing violent conflict between divided groups. In unstable tyrannies internally-driven regime change is preferable. Finally, in popular secession external intervention can stoke Great Power worries about spheres of influence and inspire military build-up.

Hobbes among the Classic Jurists

10.1093/oso/9780198817215.003.0005 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

David Boucher

Keyword(s):

International Relations ◽

International Law ◽

The State ◽

Law Of Nature ◽

Law Of Nations ◽

Complete Identification ◽

The Law ◽

The Individual ◽

Hedley Bull ◽

Hans Morgenthau

The classic foundational status that Hobbes has been afforded by contemporary international relations theorists is largely the work of Hans Morgenthau, Martin Wight, and Hedley Bull. They were not unaware that they were to some extent creating a convenient fiction, an emblematic realist, a shorthand for all of the features encapsulated in the term. The detachment of international law from the law of nature by nineteenth-century positivists opened Hobbes up, even among international jurists, to be portrayed as almost exclusively a mechanistic theorist of absolute state sovereignty. If we are to endow him with a foundational place at all it is not because he was an uncompromising realist equating might with right, on the analogy of the state of nature, but instead to his complete identification of natural law with the law of nations. It was simply a matter of subject that distinguished them, the individual and the state.

Hobbes among International Relations Thinkers

10.1093/oso/9780198817215.003.0007 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

David Boucher

Keyword(s):

International Relations ◽

Political Thought ◽

International Relations Theory ◽

English School ◽

State Of Nature ◽

International Issues ◽

Civil Condition ◽

The Individual

Among philosophers and historians of political thought Hobbes has little or nothing to say about relations among states. For modern realists and representatives of the English School in contemporary international relations theory, however, caricatures of Hobbes abound. There is a tendency to take him too literally, referring to what is called the unmodified philosophical state of nature, ignoring what he has to say about both the modified state of nature and the historical pre-civil condition. They extrapolate from the predicament of the individual conclusions claimed to be pertinent to international relations, and on the whole find his conclusions unconvincing. It is demonstrated that there is a much more restrained and cautious Hobbes, consistent with his timid nature, in which he gives carefully weighed views on a variety of international issues, recommending moderation consistent with the duties of sovereignty.