Citizens into wolves? Carl Schmitt’s fictive account of security

2011 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 502-520 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Moore
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
International Security ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Carl Schmitt ◽  
Security Regime ◽  
Security Discourse ◽  
Internal Goods ◽  
Political Communities

This article assesses the extent to which security regimes are the products of authorization in the thought of Thomas Hobbes and Carl Schmitt. The Hobbesian security regime offers a contingent construction of security in terms of processes of authorization and brings into view questions about the epistemic construction of security within security discourse today. The Schmittian concept of security involves the naturalization of security through the state, meaning that security is understood as condition rather than regime. Rather than look to Carl Schmitt’s concept of security as the paradigm of international security today, there are clear benefits in returning to the contractual account of security evident in the Hobbesian emphasis on authorization. Security is not the primary value of political community, but the means by which political communities realize their internal goods. Schmitt’s security regime is fictive, driven by colourful metaphor and political theology. By returning to classic questions of authorization—how a security regime authorizes itself—International Relations theory can examine the legitimation of security beyond an exclusively state-centric model.

Constructivism

2018 ◽  
pp. 85-99
Author(s):  
Michael L. Barnett
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Security ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
International Community ◽  
Conceptual Overview

This chapter provides a brief overview of constructivist international relations theory and explores how it can help explain two of the most important transformations in international security over the last century: the growing belief that the “human” should be an object of security, and the expanding metropolis of different kinds of actors whose goal is to produce security for all individuals in the name of “humanity” and the “international community.” The introduction to the chapter provides a quick background to the sociological context that gave birth to constructivism. Section 7.2 provides a brief conceptual overview of constructivism, with particular attention paid to those attributes that might be useful for students of international security and that will be relevant for the historical analysis in Section 7.3, which concerns the expansion of international security from a state-centric exercise to a growing role for the “international community” to defend “humanity.”

scholarly journals Making Process, Not Progress: ASEAN and the Evolving East Asian Regional Order

2007 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 148-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Martin Jones ◽  
Michael L.R. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
International Relations ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Regional Identity ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Asian Financial Crisis ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Security Community ◽  
Regional Order

Since the Asian financial crisis of 1998, regional scholars and diplomats have maintained that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) represents an evolving economic and security community. In addition, many contend that what is known as the ASEAN process not only has transformed Southeast Asia's international relations, but has started to build a shared East Asian regional identity. ASEAN's deeper integration into a security, economic, and political community, as well as its extension into the ASEAN Plus Three processes that were begun after the 1997 financial crisis, offers a test case of the dominant assumptions in both ASEAN scholarship and liberal and idealist accounts of international relations theory. Three case studies of ASEAN operating as an economic and security community demonstrate, however, that the norms and practices that ASEAN promotes, rather than creating an integrated community, can only sustain a pattern of limited intergovernmental and bureaucratically rigid interaction.

Normative Transformation and the War on Terrorism

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Frankel Pratt
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Security ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Relational Sociology ◽  
War On Terrorism ◽  
Defence Policy ◽  
History Of ◽  
Norm Change

Pratt investigates the potential erosion of prohibiting assassination, torture, and mercenarism during the US's War on Terrorism. In examining the emergence and history of the US's targeted killing programme, detention and interrogation programme, and employment of armed contractors in warzones, he proposes that a 'normative transformation' has occurred, which has changed the meaning and content of these prohibitions, even though they still exist. Drawing on pragmatist philosophy, practice theory, and relational sociology, this book develops a new theory of normativity and institutional change, and offers new data about the decisions and activities of security practitioners. It is both a critical and constructive addition to the current literature on norm change, and addresses enduring debates about the role of culture and ethical judgement in the use of force. It will appeal to students and scholars of foreign and defence policy, international relations theory, international security, social theory, and American politics.

Forum: The view from everywhere

1999 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
NORMAN GERAS
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Discourse Ethics ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Political Community ◽  
The Other ◽  
Individual Response ◽  
Social Oppression ◽  
Theoretical Assumptions ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The One

In The Transformation of Political Community Andrew Linklater has given us a most impressive synthesis of critical normative thinking about international relations theory, and I might as well begin by emphasizing that I will not be able to do justice to the rich detail of its content in the space here allotted to me, and so I shall not try. I offer just an individual response to Linklater's book, addressed to its core theoretical assumptions. I shall propose a critique of it in two particulars. These relate to a central ambiguity in its underwriting of discourse ethics on the one hand, and to a certain too ready levelling, so to say, vis-à-vis modes of social oppression and exclusion on the other.

Peculiarities and main directions of neorealism in international relations theory

2017 ◽  
pp. 57-63
Author(s):  
Halyna Ivasyuk
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Security ◽  
International System ◽  
National Interest ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Security Strategy ◽  
International Policy ◽  
Systematic Explanation

As it is known, nowadays neorealism is one of the most influential trends in international relations’ theory, which proposes a systematic explanation of the development of international relations and pragmatic understanding of national and international security. Using achievements of neorealistic school, it is possible to create relevant foreign policy and security strategy for the Ukrainian state, which makes the research in this area particularly topical. Keywords: International relations, international relations theory, international system, neorealism, structure of international policy, the evolution of international relations, national interest, power

scholarly journals Liberal International Relations Theory and the Military

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Scott A. Silverstone
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Security ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Mass Violence ◽  
Policy Ideas ◽  
Alternative Means ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Military

AbstractWhile much of the study and practice of international relations is anchored in the centuries-old tradition of realism, this chapter explores the important contributions that another theoretical tradition, liberalism, has made to the study of international security and the role of military power. Emerging from Enlightenment beliefs about the rationality of individuals and the potential for progress in human affairs, liberal theories and policy ideas have focused on offering alternative means for states seeking security, alternatives that might break the endless competition and warfare that realists see as inevitable in an anarchic world. Liberal theories emphasize how rules and institutions can help self-interested states achieve mutual interests, they see economic interdependence as a potent incentive for states to avoid war, and they argue that democracies enjoy more peaceful relations with other democracies. The chapter traces the history of liberal international relations theory as it matured in response to the mass violence and chaos of the twentieth century, and it examines a number of examples – like European integration, the post-World War II global economic order, and the control of nuclear weapons – to showcase how liberal ideas in practice might reduce the dangers of war and enhance the prospects for global cooperation.

Theoretical Review: Neo-Liberal Institutionalism and the Co-Operative Security Regime in Northeast Asia

2005 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-127
Author(s):  
Sang-Gab Lee
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Northeast Asia ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Opportunity Costs ◽  
Traditional Notion ◽  
Military Threat ◽  
Security Regime ◽  
Research Outcome ◽  
Definition Of

This article examines several theoretical ideas on security regime applicable to Northeast Asia. Different from realists or idealists, two schools of international relations theory, neo-liberal institutionalists have seen that anarchy and mixed interests occasionally cause states to suffer the opportunity costs of not achieving an outcome that is more mutually beneficial. In this context, the concept of co-operative security regime has important connotations for the concept of neo-liberal institutionalism. Based on the research outcome, the co-operative security concept appears to be the most applicable to Northeast Asia in that the idea is among the more widely used terms, complementing more traditional views, acknowledges a more inclusive definition of security, and challenges to security, encompassing, but moving beyond, the traditional notion of military threat and response. Beside of this reason, there are four more logics validating the application of the co-operative security regime notion to Northeast Asia.

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