scholarly journals Different understanding of state power as a key notion within the realist theoretical approach

2018 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-95
Author(s):  
Milan Lipovac
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Social Constructivism ◽  
State Power ◽  
The State ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Critical Theories ◽  
Key Issues

The concept of power is not a new phenomenon, so the intellectual origin of this concept can also be found among the ancient philosophers. However, the reconsideration of this concept within the International relations and Security studies started 60-70 years ago. The representatives of the realistic theoretical approach were mostly those who dealt with the concept of power of the state, as well as representatives of other theoretical approaches (e.g. liberalism, social constructivism, critical theories, feminist approaches, etc.). But, despite the great interest in this concept, consensus exists only on two key issues related to power of the state. First, in the terms of importance everyone agrees that the power of the state is one of the key concepts, and second, in the terms of complexity. Therefore, no one should be surprised by the pluralism of viewpoints regarding the concept. Those viewpoints could be reduced on three prevailing comprehensions of power of the state: power as control over resources, power as control over actors and power as control over events and outcomes. All these prevailing comprehensions have its own advantages and disadvantages. The aim of this paper was to present the views of relevant scholars (through the theoretical discussion not only by the realists), and to offer an adequate overview of the advantages and disadvantages of each of these comprehensions. Such a review of literature could certainly be useful for researchers in the case of selecting an adequate comprehension of power of the state for their particular specific research. The researcher should make this kind of decision based on a particular school of thought that he/she prefers, his/her personal affinities, but primarily based on the object and purpose of his/her research. The conclusion of the paper could be reduced to the notion that the concept of power of the state is far beyond the scope of realistic theoretical approach, and that it represents a key concept (and according to some scholars it is the most important concept in the IR), as well as that each of these prevailing comprehensions of power of the state has its own place in the theoretical conceptual apparatus of International relations and Security studies.

Family values? Sexism and heteronormativity in Feminist Evolutionary Analytic (FEA) research

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 260-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen M. Kinsella ◽  
Laura Sjoberg
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Government Regulation ◽  
Family Values ◽  
The State ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Male Violence ◽  
Security Research ◽  
Sex And Sexuality

AbstractIn this article, we focus on the subset of evolutionary theorising self-identified as Feminist Evolutionary Analytic (FEA) within security studies and International Relations. We offer this accounting in four sections. First, we provide a brief overview of the argument that reproductive interests are the ‘origins’ of international violence. Second, we break down the definitions of gender, sex, and sexuality used in evolutionary work in security studies generally and in FEA specifically, demonstrating a lack of complexity in FEA’s accounts of the potential relations among the three and critiquing their essentialist heteronormative assumptions. Third, we argue that FEA’s failure to reflect on the history and context of evolutionary theorising, much less contemporary feminist critiques, facilitates its forwarding of the state and institutions as primarily neutral and corrective bulwarks against male violence. Fourth, we conclude by outlining what is at stake if we fail to correct for this direction in feminist, IR, and security research. We argue that FEA work misrepresents and narrows the potential for understanding and responding to violence, facilitating the continued instrumentalisation of women’s rights, increased government regulation of sexuality, and a more expansive form of militarism.

There is no such thing as society: beyond individualism and statism in international security studies

1993 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Shaw
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Security ◽  
The State ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Traditional View ◽  
International Studies ◽  
Sociological Perspective ◽  
Actor Model ◽  
Conceptual Issue

This article offers a sociological perspective on a major conceptual issue in international relations, the question of ‘security’, and it raises major issues to do with the role of sociological concepts in international studies. For some years now, the work of sociological writers such as Skocpol, Giddens and Mann1 has attracted some interest in international studies. International theorists such as Linklater and Halliday have seen their work as offering a theoretical advance both on realism and on Marxist alternatives. At the same time, these developments have involved the paradox that, as one critic puts it, ‘current sociological theories of the state are increasingly approaching a more traditional view of the state—the state as actor model—precisely at a time when the theory of international relations is getting away from this idea and taking a more sociological form.

scholarly journals Theoretical approaches towards the steps of nongovernmental actors in world politics: global paradiplomacy of the Iraqi Kurdistan (KRI).

2021 ◽  
pp. 31-41
Author(s):  
Dalsooz Jalal Hussein
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
International Politics ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Iraqi Kurdistan ◽  
State Actor ◽  
The Subject ◽  
State Actors

This article presents a theoretical approach towards the global political steps of non-state actors. Particular attention is given to a number of theories of international relations, such as neorealism, international liberalism, and constructivism, which are able to encompass current global actions of non-state political actors. For a clearer perspective on the subject matter, the article employs the example of Iraqi Kurdistan (KRI); as a non-state actor, KRI has recently become a vivid example for the theories of international relations. The conclusion is made that security, economy, culture, religion and identity are the key and post powerful instruments of non-state actors of international politics. The example of KRI demonstrates that international relations of non-state actors focus on security, economy and culture, as well as serve as the instruments of interaction with both, state and non-state actors. The article reviews such activity within the framework of neorealism, international liberalism, and constructivism. It is underlines that the example of Iraqi Kurdistan (KRI) fully meets all the criteria of a non-state actor of international politics. It is also a brilliant example for the theories of international relations.

scholarly journals THE THEORETICAL APPROACH TO THE FORMATION OF THE MECHANISM OF IMPLEMENTATION OF THE STATE POLICY FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE INTERNAL MARKET OF INNOVATIVE GOODS IN UKRAINE

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1(74)) ◽  
pp. 20-28
Author(s):  
A.I. BUTENKO ◽  
Y.T. SHTOKA ◽  
A.V. SHLAFMAN
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
State Policy ◽  
Interaction Mechanism ◽  
Global Market ◽  
Internal Market ◽  
The State ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Technological Entrepreneurship ◽  
Innovative Potential ◽  
Favorable Conditions

Topicality. The urgency of improving the mechanisms for implementing the state policy for the development of the internal market for innovative goods as a basis for the efficient use of innovative potential of technological entrepreneurship in Ukraine today is increasing due to the need to stimulate the entry into the national and global market of domestic technologies and knowledge-intensive products, ensuring the sustainability of technological entrepreneurship, which uses the knowledge and results obtained technologies for forming new products and services, which is positive change the structure of the national economy. Aim and tasks. The purpose of the article is to develop a theoretical approach to the formation of the mechanism of implementation of the state policy for the development of the internal market for innovative goods in Ukraine in order to create favorable conditions for the fullest use of the innovative potential of technological entrepreneurship. Research results. The theoretical approach to the formation of the mechanism for the implementation of the state policy for the development of the internal market for innovative goods based on the systematic combination of information and process approaches, and as a complex mechanism that must include both the management mechanism (as an instrument of influence) and the interaction mechanism (as a tool for interaction of all sub market). Determined: purpose, methodological principles of mechanism construction (principle of adaptability: mechanism must respond quickly to changes in external and internal factors; principle of integrity: mechanism must have stable, long-lasting relationships that can withstand external and internal loads; principle of self-organization: providing opportunities for all subjects to choose and combine directions, forms of interaction, methods of solving problems, the principle of property protection: any property of all market actors, especially intellectual, must be protected; investment protection principle: investment in research, technological entrepreneurship, etc. of all market entities must be protected; the principle of manufacturability: the elements of the mechanism and their relationships must be built on innovation and information bases; the design principle: the decomposition of goals and their achievement in within the framework of projects (including national, regional, sectoral, etc.); principle of reconciliation of interests; and mechanism itself in the form of a holistic system that includes: object, center, algorithm, desired results, factors, assumptions, and elements that provide active feedback to the subjects and center. Conclusion. A promising application area for the implementation of the proposed theoretical approaches is to create, through the implementation of the proposed mechanism, favorable conditions for the fullest use of the innovative potential of technological entrepreneurship in Ukraine.

scholarly journals Plights of Marginalised Limbu Community in Subba’s “Laato Pahaada” [Dumb Hill]

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-72
Author(s):  
Jiwan Kumar Rai
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Education System ◽  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
State Power ◽  
The State ◽  
The People ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Mainstream Culture

The title story “Laato Pahaada” [“Dumb Hill”] selected from Upendra Subba’ s anthology of stories Laato Pahaada [Dumb Hill] represents plights – pains, sufferings, tortures and difficulties – of ethnic Limbu community at the margin under the dominance of mainstream culture and various forms of repressive and ideological state apparatuses. So, this study aims to find out the responsible factors that compel the ethnic Limbu community to remain illiterate and go through numerous pains, sufferings, tortures and humiliation. Similarly, it aims to analyse how the illiterate and poor Limbu people suffer and get tortured by the cultural practices and apparatuses of the state power. In order to achieve the designed objectives and reach to a conclusion, Cultural Studies has been used as an overall theoretical approach. Particularly, Althusser’s concepts of ideology – repressive and ideological state apparatuses, and Michel Foucault’s idea of discourse and power have been used as theoretical tools for the analysis of the text. This study provides a new insight to see and understand the plights of the people at the margin from a new perspective; and to realize about the importance of marginalized cultures. Innocent Limbu people go through sufferings of illiteracy, poverty and difficulties due to the mono-cultural values and mono-lingual education system of state power which are effectively practiced by the means of both repressive and ideological apparatuses.

Justus Lipsius, political humanism and the disciplining of 17th century statecraft

2008 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 669-692 ◽  
Author(s):  
HALVARD LEIRA
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
The State ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
The Individual

AbstractJustus Lipsius (1547–1606) was among the most influential thinkers of the late 16th/early 17th centuries. His guides for action were highly influential in the establishment of moderate absolutism and what has been called the fiscal-military state across Europe. In this article I explore Lipsian thought in an International Relations context. Special attention is paid to his ideals of discipline, which were meant to order both the ruler and those that he ruled. Dignity, self-restraint and discipline were the recipes for the foreign policy of the prince, while the individual was subordinated to the purposes of the state, and taught to control his own life by mastering his emotions. If not a seminal thinker in his own right, it is necessary to understand Lipsius’ thought and influence to be able to fully understand the 17th century theoretical approaches to peace and prosperity and the relative discipline of early-modern statecraft.

The Arab Spring changes under the prism of international relations theory

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Bustos
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Social Constructivism ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Theoretical Development ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Political Transformations ◽  
Critical Theories ◽  
Transitions To Democracy ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
And Control

This chapter analyses what the political transformations following the Arab Spring mean from the perspective of different International Relations theories: neo-realism, institutionalism, social constructivism and critical theories.  The chapter first points to the direct effects of foreign policy intervention in transitions to democracy worldwide, including the MENA region, notwithstanding the traditional support some non-democratic or aggressive regimes have received from consolidated democracies.   Second, the chapter reviews the work of a number of prestigious International Relations’ scholars on the Arab Spring and reviews how leading International Relations journals of different theoretical leaning have treated the Arab Spring in the period 2011-15. The chapter illustrates how similar topics are treated in each theory in rather inverted ways. While neo-realists do not focus on the Arab Spring itself but rather on the possible threats that derive from it and their consequences, critical theorists reverse the analysis and locate it in the economic causes and implications of armed interventions as well as the excessive processes of vigilance and control. If liberals engage in a debate on the defence of the R2P doctrine, constructivists are more aware of the contradictory effects of democratic diffusion and cognitive uncertainty. Finally, the chapter concludes on the prospects and need within International Relations for further theoretical development on the Arab Spring.

Understanding and Classifying Critical Approaches

2019 ◽  
pp. 79-98
Author(s):  
J. Samuel Barkin ◽  
Laura Sjoberg
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Global Politics ◽  
Common Elements ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Critical Theories ◽  
Political Theories ◽  
Social Theories ◽  
Copenhagen School ◽  
Critical Approaches

This chapter argues that what various theoretical approaches to IR that describe themselves or are described as critical share in common is that they are political rather than social theories. There are no other common elements to be found across this group of approaches. Various schemas used to typify different sorts of critical theories (e.g., emancipatory/postmodern; feminist/postcolonial/poststructuralist; Copenhagen School/Aberystwyth School/Paris School) signify different political theories with different political content but share political investment in both disciplinary International Relations and global politics. They are explicitly engaged in International Relations theorizing and International Relations research as a political enterprise with political ends.

scholarly journals How to do things with silence: Rethinking the centrality of speech to the securitization framework

2018 ◽  
Vol 49 (6) ◽  
pp. 476-492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xavier Guillaume
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
The State ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Way Of Thinking

This contribution offers the first steps in a novel conceptualization of how international relations and security studies can provide an analytics of silence. Starting with an analysis of a paradigmatic use of silence in the field, Lene Hansen’s ‘Little Mermaid’, the contribution shows the limitations and issues with an analytics that concentrates on the meaning behind silences. Silence as meaning is problematic because analytically what is offered solely is the overinvestment of the analyst’s ‘horizon of expectation’ upon a sign that is not generally meant to be one. Mobilizing a feminist reading of pornography as speech act, the contribution shows how silence may also be performative, in the sense that it does something to a specific logocentric order at the heart of our analysis of the international or security. The contribution finally offers a possible way of thinking about silence as doing rather than meaning and shows how this can be a possible analytical path to invert our analytics of the international and security from the perspective of the state/the powerful to that of the subaltern.

scholarly journals Theoretical approaches towards the steps of non-state actors in world politics: global para-diplomacy of the Iraqi Kurdistan (KRI)

2021 ◽  
pp. 23-33
Author(s):  
Dalsooz Jalal Hussein
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
International Politics ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Iraqi Kurdistan ◽  
State Actor ◽  
The Subject ◽  
State Actors

  This article presents a theoretical approach towards the global political steps of non-state actors. Particular attention is given to a number of theories of international relations, such as neorealism, international liberalism, and constructivism, which are able to encompass current global actions of non-state political actors. For a clearer perspective on the subject matter, the article employs the example of Iraqi Kurdistan (KRI); as a non-state actor, KRI has recently become a vivid example for the theories of international relations. The conclusion is made that security, economy, culture, religion and identity are the key and post powerful instruments of non-state actors of international politics. The example of KRI demonstrates that international relations of non-state actors focus on security, economy and culture, as well as serve as the instruments of interaction with both, state and non-state actors. The article reviews such activity within the framework of neorealism, international liberalism, and constructivism. It is underlines that the example of Iraqi Kurdistan (KRI) fully meets all the criteria of a non-state actor of international politics. It is also a brilliant example for the theories of international relations.  

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