International Relations and Political Philosophy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Wight
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Material Interest ◽  
International Theory ◽  
Causes Of War ◽  
History Of ◽  
Western Values ◽  
Raymond Aron ◽  
Hans Morgenthau

This book collects Martin Wight’s works on the theory and philosophy of international politics. It includes classic works, such as “Why Is There No International Theory?” and “Western Values in International Relations,” as well as previously unpublished works such as “The Communist Theory of International Relations” and “Gain, Fear and Glory: Reflections on the Nature of International Politics.” These works encompass four categories: (a) traditions of thinking about international politics since the sixteenth century, (b) the causes and functions of war, (c) international and regime legitimacy, and (d) fortune and irony in international politics. Wight identifies and analyzes three major traditions of thinking about international politics in the West since the sixteenth century: Realism, Rationalism, and Revolutionism, also known as the Machiavellian, Grotian, and Kantian approaches. Wight examines the causes of war highlighted by Thucydides and Hobbes (material interest, fear, and reputation), and considers the functions of war in international politics (such as winning and retaining national independence and upholding the balance of power). Wight reviews the history of dynastic and popular legitimacy as well as post-1945 concepts of international and domestic legitimacy. Finally, Wight considers fortune and irony, including the decision-maker’s frequent rediscovery of the recalcitrance of events. Unintended, unexpected, and ironical consequences abound in international politics. This volume also features eight book reviews by Wight, including his assessments of works by Raymond Aron, E. H. Carr, Friedrich Meinecke, and Hans Morgenthau.

Introduction: Martin Wight and the Political Philosophy of International Relations

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Martin Wight
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Politics ◽  
The Political ◽  
Wild Card ◽  
International Theory ◽  
Historical Retrospect ◽  
The Many

This volume of Wight’s collected works brings together various writings concerning the political philosophy of international relations. Wight identified three traditions of thinking about international politics since the sixteenth century—Realism, Rationalism, and Revolutionism, which have become well known thanks to his 1991 posthumous volume, International Theory: The Three Traditions. The current volume includes several works on the same ‘international theory’ theme, some previously published and some never-before-published, with ‘Is There a Philosophy of Statesmanship?’ in the latter category. This volume also includes three essays by Wight on the causes and functions of war in international politics. Wight prepared several papers on legitimacy in domestic and international politics, and this volume features five never-before-published papers on this theme. Wight qualified his orderly analyses of traditions of political philosophy, the causes and functions of war, and principles of domestic and international legitimacy by drawing attention to unpredictable ‘wild card’ factors such as fortune and irony in his paper in this collection entitled ‘Fortune’s Banter’. Unintended, unexpected, and ironical consequences abound in international politics, despite efforts to master the dynamics of history. In view of the many factors behind events, including economic and demographic developments, Wight expressed qualifications about the role of ideas. He nonetheless concluded that ‘in historical retrospect, the philosophies of statesmen do seem observably to colour their policies’.

scholarly journals Racial sovereignty

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 39-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerem Nisancioglu
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
International Politics ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
Constitutive Relationship ◽  
World Today ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

This article explores how International Relations (IR) might better conceptualise and analyse an underexplored but constitutive relationship between race and sovereignty. I begin with a critical analysis of the ‘orthodox account’ of sovereignty which, I argue, produces an analytical and historical separation of race and sovereignty by: (1) abstracting from histories of colonial dispossession; (2) treating racism as a resolved issue in IR. Against the orthodox account, I develop the idea of ‘racial sovereignty’ as a mode of analysis which can: (1) overcome the historical abstractions in the orthodox account; (2) disclose the ongoing significance of racism in international politics. I make this argument in three moves. Firstly, I present a history of the 17th century struggle between ‘settlers’ and ‘natives’ over the colonisation of Virginia. This history, I argue, discloses the centrality of dispossession and racialisation in the attendant attempts of English settlers to establish sovereignty in the Americas. Secondly, by engaging with criticisms of ‘recognition’ found in the anticolonial tradition, I argue that the Virginian experience is not simply of historical interest or localised importance but helps us better understand racism as ongoing and structural. I then demonstrate how contemporary assertions of sovereignty in the context of Brexit disclose a set of otherwise concealed colonial and racialised relations. I conclude with the claim that interrogations of racial sovereignty are not solely of historical interest but are of political significance for our understanding of the world today.

scholarly journals Empire, imperialism and the Bush doctrine

2004 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 585-608 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Cox
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
International Relations ◽  
World System ◽  
Class Struggle ◽  
International History ◽  
The Past ◽  
Bush Doctrine ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
State Survival

It is an empire without a consciousness of itself as such, constantly shocked that its good intentions arouse resentment abroad. But that does not make it any the less of an empire, with a conviction that it alone, in Herman Melville's words, bears ‘the ark of liberties of the world.If all history according to Marx has been the history of class struggle, then all international history, it could just as well be argued, has been the struggle between different kinds of Empire vying for hegemony in a world where the only measure was success and the only means of achieving this was through war. Indeed, so obvious is this fact to historians – but so fixated has the profession of International Relations been with the Westphalian settlement – that it too readily forgets that imperial conquest, rather than mere state survival, has been the principle dynamic shaping the contours of the world system from the sixteenth century onwards. Empires, however, were not just mere agents existing in static structures. They were living entities that thought, planned, and then tried to draw the appropriate lessons from the study of what had happened to others in the past.

School for Statesmen?

1953 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 242-262
Author(s):  
William W. Kaufmann
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Diplomatic History ◽  
Effective Training ◽  
The Future ◽  
Long Time ◽  
History Of ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Gaining Insight

The history of international relations has lent itself to many uses. Its narrators have employed the tangled web of intention, maneuver, alliance, and war to vindicate or besmirch men's reputations, prove the guilt or innocence of nations in conflict, enrich traditions, furnish precepts for the present, and provide guides to the future. Their activity has gone on for a very long time and the product of their research has grown enormous. Presumably such a vast and varied output reflects a number of needs and interests. But is its perusal a useful way of gaining insight into the varied problems of international politics? More, as diplomatic history customarily is written, does it constitute an effective training ground for statesmen?

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.

scholarly journals Principle of economy of language and the question of anthropomorphism of state

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (34) ◽  
pp. 125-139
Author(s):  
Mateusz Filary-Szczepanik
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Research Problem ◽  
The State ◽  
Scientific Objective ◽  
Linguistic Rule ◽  
State Present ◽  
Ontological Reality ◽  
Raymond Aron ◽  
Hans Morgenthau

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The aim of the paper is twofold: (1) polemics with Alexander Wendt’s thesis that state is a person and (2) innovative approach to the problem of anthropomorphism of state in general theories of International Relations. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: How is anthropomor‑ phism of the state present in the language of grand theories of IR? How the language as a system shapes the phenomenon of anthropomorphism of the state in those?”. Research methods: qualitative content analysis and close reading research technique. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: Using these research method and techniques, the author analyses theories of Hans Morgenthau, Raymond Aron, Headley Bull, Morton Kaplan, and Kenneth Waltz seeking the presence of anthropomorphism as a feature of their language. He summarises his find‑ ings that enable him to critically engage with Alexander Wendt’s thesis, hence fulfilling the scientific objective of the paper. RESEARCH RESULTS: On the basis of the conducted research, the anthro‑ pomorphism of state is a fact of language of the analysed theories. CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The author problematizes Alexander Wendt’s thesis that state is a person by pointing out that anthropomorphism of state is not predicated upon the ontological reality of state as person, but on the linguistic rule that language seeks the economy of utterances. Pointing out to this fact is novel, since the literature referred in the article largely omits it. It is an important contribution for all the scholars for whom the problem of the state is a major research interest.

scholarly journals Anarchy Is What Explains the History of International Relations

2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-18
Author(s):  
William C. Wohlforth
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Political Realism ◽  
World War ◽  
National Interests ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Antecedents ◽  
The Great War

The article examines the major events of the two previous centuries of international relations through main concepts of political realism. The author argues that in order to understand the present dilemmas and challenges of international politics, we need to know the past. Every current major global problem has historical antecedents. History from the late 19th century constitutes the empirical foundation of much theoretical scholarship on international politics. The breakdown of the Concert of Europe and the outbreak of the devastating global conflagration of World War I are the events that sparked the modern study of international relations. The great war of 1914 to 1918 underlined the tragic wastefulness of the institution of war. It caused scholars to confront one of the most enduring puzzles of the study of international relations, why humans continue to resort to this self-destructive method of conflict resolution? The article shows that the main explanation is the anarchical system of international relations. It produces security dilemma, incentives to free ride and uncertainty of intentions among great powers making war a rational tool to secure their national interests.

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