Visualisation and knowledge production in international relations: The role of emotions and identity

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 246-260
Author(s):  
Sybille Reinke de Buitrago

Emotions, and linked national identity, play a significant role in how we make sense of the world and in knowledge production in international relations. How we understand international relations is also shaped by our emotions and identity through their role in sense and meaning making of visual representation, such as political cartoons. This article analyses how political cartoons with portrayals of interstate relations are interpreted, and which emotions and elements of national identity are evoked and give meaning to interpretations. Cartoons from US media were shown to US and German viewers. In a two-stage process, viewers addressed evoked emotions and then critically discussed emotions, identity and representations. Focusing on commonalities and differences in how viewers read and felt visual content, the article enables insights on how emotions and identity add to knowledge production in international relations and how they do so differently with viewers of different identity backgrounds.

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (01) ◽  
pp. 130-155
Author(s):  
Kárita de Fátima Araújo

Este trabalho, fruto da dissertação de Mestrado, tem como objetivo resgatar e compreender o modo pelo qual se processou a construção da identidade nacional e a formação territorial brasileira no contexto das Minas Gerais do século XVIII, buscou-se, desta feita, fazê-lo à luz das obras literárias dos poetas inconfidentes. Nesse sentido, a obra Vila Rica de Cláudio Manuel da Costa cumpre o papel de aliar Geografia e Literatura ao possibilitar o diálogo entre as manifestações artísticas do poeta e os componentes espaciais e temporais que compuseram a sociedade mineira do século XVIII. Para alcançar o objetivo proposto, foi fundamental analisar alguns elementos, tais como, o conceito de sertão e sua condição de ocupação e isolamento para o período, diretamente relacionado ao desenvolvimento e decadência do chamado “ciclo do ouro”, além da formação daquela sociedade e do estabelecimento de uma “identidade nacional”, responsáveis por delinear para as Minas Gerais a possibilidade de compor uma nação independente de Portugal. Desta forma, o enredo literário permitiu observar qual compreensão do intelectual Cláudio Manuel da Costa acerca daquele aquele espaço e tempo. Sua visão do mundo refletiu-se nas entrelinhas do texto literário, revelando percepções, opiniões e posições diferenciadas acerca daquela realidade, aspectos fundamentais do processo de construção da nacionalidade e da territorialidade brasileiras. Palavras-chave: Geografia; Literatura; Vila Rica.   THE MINAS GERAIS OF THE XVIII CENTURY: NATIONAL IDENTITY AND TERRITORIAL TRAINING UNDER THE LOOK OF CLÁUDIO MANUEL DA COSTA Abstract This work, the result of the dissertation of Master, aims to rescue and understand the way in which the construction of the national identity and the Brazilian territorial formation in the context of the Minas Gerais of the XVIII century was processed, this time it was sought to do so in the light of the literary works of the poets of the Inconfidência Mineira. In this sense, the book Vila Rica by Cláudio Manuel da Costa fulfills the role of allying Geography and Literature by enabling the dialogue between the artistic manifestations of the poet and the spatial and temporal components that composed the mining society of the eighteenth century. To reach the proposed objective, it was fundamental to analyze some elements, such as the concept of sertão and its condition of occupation and isolation for the period, directly related to the development and decay of the so-called "gold cycle", besides the formation of that society and of the establishment of a "national identity", responsible for outlining for Minas Gerais the possibility of composing an independent nation of Portugal. In this way, the literary plot allowed to observe what understanding of the intellectual Cláudio Manuel da Costa about that space and time. His vision of the world was reflected in the lines of the literary text, revealing different perceptions, opinions and positions about that reality, fundamental aspects of the process of construction of Brazilian nationality and territoriality. Keywords: Geography; Literature; Vila Rica.   LAS MINAS GERAIS DEL SIGLO XVIII: IDENTIDAD NACIONAL Y FORMACIÓN TERRITORIAL BAJO LA MIRADA DE CLÁUDIO MANUEL DA COSTA Resumen Este trabajo, el resultado de la tesis de Maestría, pretende rescatar y entender la forma en la que demandó la construcción de la identidad nacional y la formación territorial de Brasil en el contexto de las Minas Gerais del siglo XVIII, se buscó, esta vez, lo hacen a la luz de las obras literarias de poetas de la Inconfidência Mineira. En este sentido, el trabajo de Vila Rica de Cláudio Manuel da Costa desempeña el papel de la combinación de Geografía y Literatura para facilitar el diálogo entre las expresiones artísticas del poeta y los componentes espaciales y temporales que componían la sociedad minera del siglo XVIII. Para lograr el objetivo propuesto, que era esencial para analizar algunos elementos, tales como el concepto de zona de influencia y su condición de ocupación y aislamiento para el período, directamente relacionada con el desarrollo y la decadencia de la "fiebre del oro", además de la formación de que la sociedad y el establecimiento de una "identidad nacional", responsable del diseño de Minas Gerais, la posibilidad de componer una nación independiente de Portugal. De este modo, la trama literaria ha observado que la comprensión intelectual de Cláudio Manuel da Costa acerca de aquél espacio y el tiempo. Su visión del mundo se refleja en las líneas del texto literario, que revela las percepciones, opiniones y posiciones diferentes sobre esa realidad, los aspectos fundamentales del proceso de construcción de la nacionalidad y territorialidad brasileñas. Palabras clave: Geografía; Literatura; Vila Rica.


Antichthon ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 1-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurt A. Raaflaub

This essay is part of a larger project concerned with determining how historians today can use the evidence of the Homeric epics in order to gain a better understanding of the evolution of early Greek society—but do so responsibly, that is, in ways that are adequate to the epics' nature as poetic and cultural documents surviving from a specific time and social context. Elsewhere I have discussed Homer and history, the role of thepolis, warfare and military organisation, and political thought in Homer, as well as ‘Homeric society’ in general and the problem of its historicity. Here I want to take a close look at interstate relations (sections I and III) and the political sphere (section II). I choose as my point of departure some of the views which M.I. Finley expressed inThe World of Odysseus—a book that is now more than forty years old, still illuminating and indispensable but partly outdated.


2014 ◽  
Vol VIII (2) ◽  
pp. 124-126
Author(s):  
Nataliia Dzhyma

This contribution aims to introduce SCENARIO readers to my pedagogical practice at the Institute of International Relations, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kiev, which specializes in the training of future Ukrainian diplomats. In order to do so I have opted for the medium of film to give interested colleagues a vivid impression of how I propose to put empathy at the centre of diplomacy-related training programmes. Since prehistoric times empathy has been understood to be a pillar of diplomacy. For Fliess (1942: 212), empathy is the ability "to step into another's shoes", for Etchefoyen (1996: 271) "to feel and understand what another feels", for Stover (2005: 209) "to take the role of the other and to view the world from different perspectives participating in the values, feelings and perceptions of another”. Drama Pedagogy, within the protective space of the imagination, offers many ways of “living through” the lives of others. It therefore seems ideally suited to play a key role in empathy-focused training programmes. Sharing the well-known idea that being in public position is like being on stage but without a script, I developed a teaching concept which blends the diplomatic with the theatrical by using selected film clips in ...


Author(s):  
Keith Krause

This article evaluates the achievements and limitations of the world organization in the field of disarmament. It stresses the role of the UN as part of the efforts to control arms as a way to achieve international peace and security. It also notes specific cases where progress was achieved or not, as well as the more recent efforts to handle the problems of anti-personnel land mines and small arms and light weapons. The article also tries to draw out some of the broader implications for international relations of the UN experience with formal multilateral arms control, among others.


2012 ◽  
Vol 55 (spe) ◽  
pp. 9-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eduardo Viola ◽  
Matías Franchini ◽  
Thaís Lemos Ribeiro

In the last five years, climate change has been established as a central civilizational driver of our time. As a result of this development, the most diversified social processes - as well as the fields of science which study them - have had their dynamics altered. In International Relations, this double challenge could be explained as follows: 1) in empirical terms, climate change imposes a deepening of cooperation levels on the international community, considering the global common character of the atmosphere; and 2) to International Relations as a discipline, climate change demands from the scientific community a conceptual review of the categories designed to approach the development of global climate governance. The goal of this article is to discuss in both conceptual and empirical terms the structure of global climate change governance, through an exploratory research, aiming at identifying the key elements that allow understanding its dynamics. To do so, we rely on the concept of climate powers. This discussion is grounded in the following framework: we now live in an international system under conservative hegemony that is unable to properly respond to the problems of interdependence, among which - and mainly -, the climate issue.


Author(s):  
Alexander Naumov

This article reviews the role of Anglo-German Naval Agreement of 1935 in escalation of crisis trends of the Versailles system. Leaning on the British Russian archival documents, which recently became available for the researchers, the author analyzes the reasons and consequences of conclusion of this agreement between the key European democratic power and Nazi Reich. Emphasis is placed on analyzing the moods within the political elite of the United Kingdom. It is proven that the agreement became a significant milestone in escalation of crisis trends in the Versailles model of international relations. It played a substantial role in establishment of the British appeasement policy with regards to revanchist powers in the interbellum; policy that objectively led to disintegration of the created in 1919 systemic mechanism, and thus, the beginning of the World War II. The novelty of this work is substantiated by articulation of the problem. This article is first within the Russian and foreign historiography to analyze execution of the Anglo-German Naval Agreement based on the previously unavailable archival materials. The conclusion is made that this agreement played a crucial role in the process of disintegration of interbellum system of international relations. Having officially sanctioned the violation of the articles of the Versailles Treaty of 1919 by Germany, Great Britain psychologically reconciled to the potential revenge of Germany, which found reflection in the infamous appeasement policy. This launched the mechanism for disruption of status quo that was established after the World War I in Europe. This resulted in collapse of the architecture of international security in the key region of the world, rapid deterioration of relations between the countries, and a new world conflict.


Author(s):  
Al. A. Gromyko

The research is focused on several key problems in the system of international relations influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is shown that the events caused by it and broadly identified as a coronacrisis have a direct impact on the world economic contradictions (pandenomica) and political ones, including the sphere of security. These particular aspects are chosen as the main objects of the research. The author contends that the factor of the pandemic has sharpened the competition between regional and global players and has increased the role of a nation- state. In the conditions of transregional deglobalisation, regionalism and “protectionism 2.0” get stronger under the banners of “strategic vulnerability” and “economic sovereignty”. A further weakening of multilateral international institutions continues. The EU endeavours to secure competitive advantages on the basis of relocalisation, industrial and digital policies and the Green Deal. The article highlights the deterioration in the relations among Russia, the US, the EU and China, the unfolding decoupling between Washington and its European allies, which stimulates the idea of the EU strategic autonomy. An urgent need for the deconfliction in Russia – NATO interaction is stated.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 419-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Murray

What would it mean to construct a post-imperial discipline rather than a ‘post-Western’ one? ‘Post-imperial’ means addressing the ways in which colonial empires divided the world into separate realms of human capability and thought. The binary categories of Western and Eastern, or Western and non-Western, represent one such way of dividing the world according to an imperial imaginary. Rather than merely excluding, these divisions created justifications for local universalisms and power structures. Yet, many anti-Eurocentric scholars now make use of these categories in order to argue for fixed epistemic differences between Western and non-Western populations. Accordingly, I critique the imperial division of the world by drawing on the intellectual trajectories of two thinkers who struggled against empire in the 20th century: WEB Du Bois and Frantz Fanon. Du Bois and Fanon were both aware of how ethnic and cultural foundations for politics could reproduce imperial order, and, therefore, offer potential alternatives to Western/non-Western ontologies. This includes recognising that representations of difference are processual, determined by strategic necessity, and subject to incentives to represent difference within hierarchical institutions. This article builds on recent studies in International Relations and other disciplines to think through the legacies of empire in knowledge production, and to push towards more historical and relational approaches to world political and social inquiry.


2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 721-736
Author(s):  
Alissa Boguslaw

AbstractHow, amidst a crisis of sovereignty and identity, did once-rejected national symbols become meaningful to Kosovo’s Albanians? Having declared independence in 2008, a 2014 study found that less than one-third of Kosovo’s citizens identified with their newly adopted state symbols. As meanings are always shifting, depending on the contexts in which their forms appear and the actors involved, theories of social construction have focused on the representational aspects of meaning-making: the ways in which the forms stabilize (or destabilize) the constructs they depict. Instead of focusing on the representational—the determinable, measurable, and rational aspects, this article investigates the discursive mechanisms that mobilize meanings and configure contexts, extending Robin Wagner-Pacifici’s alternative theory of events. Through discourse and semiotic analysis, it tracks Kosovo’s new flag and anthem through the construction, crisis, and transformation of three social realities: political independence, national identity, and the world of international competitive judo, illuminating how changing meanings change, shifting contexts shift, and how to interpret actors’ fleeting emotions. In the Kosovo case, the construction is the crisis, as well as the change.


Author(s):  
Lior Herman

Oil and natural gas have frequently been used as instruments of foreign policy. While scholars have given substantial attention to the economics of exports and imports, much less has been paid to theorizing how energy can be its own type of carrot or stick, influencing international relations around the world. Future scholarship should focus on developing foreign policy theories specific to energy, including renewable energy sources and drawing on constructivist theories. In addition, the role of transit states, energy firms, sovereign wealth funds, and civil society should be more carefully theorized. Future theoretical and empirical research should also focus on the use of electricity and renewable energies as foreign policy instruments and their effects on global politics.


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