Krieg oder Frieden. Auf der Suche nach einem Tertium Datur

Labyrinth ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 62-78
Author(s):  
Bernhard Taureck
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Human Survival ◽  
Present Essay ◽  
Violent Conflicts ◽  
International Anarchy

There is a consensus on war: violent conflicts are out. But they continue to happen. One likes to exclude violent conflicts and to avoid them. But they could happen. Avoidance of wars appears not be sufficient. International relations presuppose an international anarchy. Anarchy does not exclude wars, but reduces them to exceptions. The present essay attempts to argue in favour of a categorical exclusion of violent conflicts which easily could destroy vital conditions of human survival.

The invisible structures of anarchy: Gender, orders, and global politics

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 325-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Sjoberg
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Political System ◽  
International System ◽  
Salient Feature ◽  
Global Politics ◽  
Political Relations ◽  
Multiple Orders ◽  
International Anarchy ◽  
The Invisible

This article argues anarchy is undertheorized in International Relations, and that the undertheorization of the concept of anarchy in International Relations is rooted in Waltz’s original discussion of the concept as equal to the invisibility of structure, where the lack of exogenous authority is not just a feature of the international political system but the salient feature. This article recognizes the international system as anarchical but looks to theorize its contours—to see the invisible structures that are overlaid within international anarchy, and then to consider what those structures mean for theorizing anarchy itself. It uses as an example the various (invisible) ways that gender orders global political relations to suggest that anarchy in the international arena is a place of multiple orders rather than of disorder. It therefore begins by theorizing anarchy with orders in global politics, rather than anarchy as necessarily substantively lacking orders. It then argues that gender orders global politics in various ways. It concludes with a framework for theorizing order within anarchy in global politics.

scholarly journals Guns or Food: On Prioritizing National Security over Global Poverty Relief

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco García-Gibson
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
International Relations ◽  
National Security ◽  
Moral Duty ◽  
Global Poverty ◽  
Right To Life ◽  
Risk Of Death ◽  
Poverty Relief ◽  
Moral Duties ◽  
International Anarchy

Political realists claim that international relations are in a state of anarchy, and therefore every state is allowed to disregard its moral duties towards other states and their inhabitants. Realists argue that complying with moral duties is simply too risky for a state’s national security. Political moralists convincingly show that realists exaggerate both the extent of international anarchy and the risks it poses to states who act morally. Yet moralists do not go far enough, since they do not question realism’s normative core: the claim that when national security is really at risk, states are allowed to disregard their moral duties. I contend that there is at least one moral duty that states should not disregard even if their inhabitants are at risk of death by military aggression: the duty to reduce extreme global poverty. The reason is that even granting that national security is about securing individuals’ right to life, global poverty relief is about that as well.

scholarly journals Anarchy in International Relations

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silviya Lechner
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Society ◽  
English School ◽  
Ir Theory ◽  
Interaction Domain ◽  
Alternative Discourse ◽  
The Third ◽  
Analytical Review ◽  
International Anarchy

The concept of anarchy is seen as the cardinal organizing category of the discipline of International Relations (IR), which differentiates it from cognate disciplines such as Political Science or Political Philosophy. This article provides an analytical review of the scholarly literature on anarchy in IR, on two levels—conceptual and theoretical. First, it distinguishes three senses of the concept of anarchy: (1) lack of a common superior in an interaction domain; (2) chaos or disorder; and (3) horizontal relation between nominally equal entities, sovereign states. The first and the third senses of “anarchy”’ are central to IR. Second, it considers three broad families of IR theory where anarchy figures as a focal assumption—(1) realism and neorealism, (2) English School theory (international society approach), and (3) Kant’s republican peace. Despite normative and conceptual differences otherwise, all three bodies of theory are ultimately based on Hobbes’s argument for a “state of nature.” The article concludes with a summary of the key challenges to the discourse of international anarchy posed by the methodology of economics and economics-based theories that favor the alternative discourse of global hierarchy.

Helsinki Syndrome: The Parachronistic Renaissance of Finlandization in International Politics

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tapio Juntunen
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
Original Process ◽  
The Past ◽  
Great Power Politics ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Ukraine Crisis ◽  
International Anarchy

The ongoing conflict in Ukraine has produced a number of commentaries that have tried to grasp the crisis through the comforting lens of historical analogies. One of the most perplexing of these has been the revival of Finlandization, or the idea of the “Finnish model” as a possible solution to the Ukraine crisis. In this article I interrogate these arguments, firstly, by historicising the original process of Finlandization during the Cold War. Secondly, I argue that the renaissance of Finlandization is based on parachronistic reasoning. In other words, the Finlandization analogy has been applied to modern-day Ukraine in such a way that the alien elements of the past context are, to paraphrase Quentin Skinner, “dissolved into an apparent but misleading familiarity” in the present re-appropriation of the idea and its contextual prerequisites. Indeed, the reappearance of Finlandization in the context of the Ukraine crisis reinforces the idea that the real drivers of international affairs can be reduced to the axioms derived from the transhistorical logic of international anarchy and the iron laws of great power politics. Thus, this article makes a novel contribution to the theoretical discussion on the role of analogies and myths in International Relations.

Statistical Analysis of International Interdependencies

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Ward
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
International Relations ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Strategic Decision ◽  
Systematic Data ◽  
Causes Of War ◽  
The University ◽  
Interdisciplinary Study ◽  
Violent Conflicts

The origin of the statistical analysis of international relations can be traced back to 1920s with the work of Quincy Wright, who founded the University of Chicago’s Committee on International Relations. He led an interdisciplinary study of war that provided a first compendium of what was then known about the causes of war. Wright's studies and those that came after them were based on the assumption that systematic data were required to advance our knowledge about the causes of violent conflicts, and that an analysis of the dynamics of strategic decision making were essential; in short, systematic data coupled with a theoretical framework that focused on the decision-making calculus. However, debates soon raged over whether this scientific approach was better than the classical approach, which was based on philosophy, history, and law, and did not conform to strict standards of verification and proof. Since then, the literature has evolved into studies with a strong theoretical motivation, often expressed via game theoretical analytics, examined empirically with statistical frameworks that are specifically sculpted to probe those strategic dependencies. As such, existing models have resolved the levels of analysis problem that appeared daunting to earlier generations by actually focusing on the modeling of aspects of world politics that enjoin many different levels simultaneously.

Kant and the Kantian paradigm in international relations

1990 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 183-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Hurrell
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
State System ◽  
Interstate Relations ◽  
World Government ◽  
Perpetual Peace ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
International Anarchy ◽  
Lasting Influence

Although few in number and limited in scope, Kant's writings on international relations have had a lasting influence and have given rise to a wide range of interpretations. Kant's famous pamphlet, Perpetual Peace, has been seen as advocating federalism, world government, a League of Nations-type security system and outright pacifism. Underlying much of the debate on Kant lies a divergence over the relationship between what might broadly be called the ‘statist’ and the ‘cosmopolitan’ sides of Kant's writings. On one side, there are those who argue that Kant is primarily concerned with order at the level of interstate relations. Kant, it is argued, did not want to transcend the state system but to improve it. He wanted to subject the international anarchy to law and to find a solution to the problem of war but in a way which would not sacrifice the essential autonomy and independence of states.

An Anatomy of International Thought

2021 ◽  
pp. 39-48
Author(s):  
Martin Wight
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
International Society ◽  
The Political ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The World ◽  
Independent States ◽  
International Anarchy ◽  
International Thought

International relations encompass three aspects: international anarchy, with sovereign states recognizing no political superior; routine interactions in diplomatic, legal, and commercial institutions; and moral solidarity, with cultural and psychological links more profound than those of politics and economics. Thinkers who underscore international anarchy regard the idea of international society as fictional. Hobbes, for example, maintains that the only remedy for anarchical competition is to make a contract for a ruler or an assembly to take power and act to ensure security. Grotius and other thinkers who emphasize the extensive informal, legal, and customary interactions in international affairs highlight humanity’s sociability and its potential for constitutionalism and the rule of law. Kant and others anticipate the vindication of humanity’s potential for peace through the deepening of the material and moral interdependence of people around the world. This may come about through uniformity of independent states in standards of virtue and legitimacy or through the political and moral unification of humanity.

scholarly journals The Historiography of International Relations: Martin Wight in Fresh Conversation with Duroselle and Morgenthau

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-267
Author(s):  
Bruno Mendelski
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
National Interest ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
International Anarchy ◽  
Realist View

Abstract This article reviews three classic texts of the French, American-Realist and English schools in International Relations, namely Tout Empire Périra (Duroselle 1992), Politics Among Nations (Morgenthau 1948), and Power Politics (Wight 1978). I argue that Wight’s approach can be regarded as a middle course between those of Duroselle and Morgenthau, and that Wight adopted this position in order to associate himself with important assumptions by both Duroselle and Morgenthau. In particular, there are similarities between Wight’s concept of ‘international revolution’ and Duroselle’s notion of the ‘unbearable.’ Both are critical of behavioural methods, and both search for recurrences in international relations. As regards Morgenthau, Wight shares with him a Realist view of international anarchy, a classical understanding of ‘national interest,’ and an understanding of ideologies as the legitimation of government actions.

Inter-American Politics: Limited Thoughts on the Unthinkable

1964 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-156
Author(s):  
Daniel Goldrich
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Comparative Politics ◽  
Theoretical Orientation ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Value System ◽  
Empirical Inquiry ◽  
Present Essay ◽  
Four Books ◽  
Political Realities

These are four books on inter-American relations, the focus necessarily requiring the authors to make an assessment of intra-national politics as well. With one partial exception (Powelson), none of them is based on anything approaching a theoretical orientation, and the frame of reference is not that of systematic empirical inquiry. Their value then for the student of comparative politics or international relations is extremely limited. All (except Vianna Moog) share a diffuse commitment to the prevailing U.S. value system which constrains their ability to define Latin American political realities. It is to this point that most of the present essay is directed.

scholarly journals Thomas Kuhn dan Teori Hubungan Internasional: Realisme sebagai Paradigma

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 107
Author(s):  
Azwar Asrudin
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Thomas Kuhn ◽  
Normal Science ◽  
Security Cooperation ◽  
International Anarchy

This writing is the writer’s objections against Peter Van Ness’ claim on realist paradigm. In reference to Thomas Kuhn’s paradigm shift, Van Ness argued that realism, as what Kuhn would call “normal science” in international relations theory, is in a crisis because of its inability to explain some anomalies. According to Van Ness, rampant number of states doing security cooperation is enough to call realism is in a crisis as a paradigm. Through several cases on international anarchy, the writer argues that realism is still relevant and worthy to be called a paradigm in Kuhnian category.

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