scholarly journals Knowledge production and its politicization within International Relations and Peace Studies

2021 ◽  
pp. 21-36
Author(s):  
Burak Toygar Halistoprak
2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (02) ◽  
pp. 408-413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Sjoberg

InGender and International Security: Feminist Perspectives on Achieving Global Security, J. Ann Tickner (1992) identified three main dimensions to “achieving global security”—national security, economic security, and ecological security: conflict, economics, and the environment. Much of the work in feminist peace studies that inspired early feminist International Relations (IR) work (e.g., Brock-Utne 1989; Reardon 1985) and many of Tickner's contemporaries (e.g., Enloe 1989; Peterson and Runyan 1991; Pettman 1996) also saw political economy and a feminist conception of security as intrinsically interlinked. Yet, as feminist IR research evolved in the early 21st century, more scholars were thinking either about political economy or about war and political violence, but not both.


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.


2020 ◽  
pp. 030582982097168
Author(s):  
Michael P. A. Murphy

This forum addresses Laura Zanotti’s Ontological Entanglements, Agency, and Ethics in International Relations: Exploring the Crossroads, a landmark work for quantum International Relations (IR) that seeks to demonstrate the critical purchase of quantum thinking for exploring novel worldview. Interveners question the value added by the quantum turn in IR theory, both as it related to critical and broader debates. Zanotti’s particular intervention – drawing on a wide variety of themes in social theory, peace studies, feminist theory, metatheoretical debates in IR, international organisations, international development, and beyond – is approaches from the perspective of feminist theory, affect theory, temporality, philosophy of social science, and critical theory. In the spirit of exploring the crossroads, this forum brings together different lines of thinking that intersect through Ontological Entanglements but also extend onward, opening provocative questions for future scholarship in critical quantum IR.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 1203-1229
Author(s):  
Michiel Foulon ◽  
Gustav Meibauer

Realism has long been criticized by global IR, but the former can contribute to the latter and thereby improve explanations of international relations. Global IR criticizes that realism supposedly applies universally, sidelines non-Western perspectives, and misunderstands much of foreign policy, grand strategy, and international affairs. Reviewing global IR’s case against realism, however, exposes avenues for realism to complement global IR. Realism can contribute to a more global understanding of international relations through its most recent variant: neoclassical realism (NCR). This newest realism allows for contextualization and historicization of drivers of state behavior. It can embrace and has already been engaging global questions and cases; global thought and concepts; and global perspectives and scholarship. Mapping 149 NCR publications produced by 96 scholars reveals a slow shift in knowledge production away from North America toward Europe and to a lesser extent Asia and Africa. Creative research designs and scholarly collaboration can put realism in fruitful conversation with global IR. This has implications for theory building and inclusive knowledge production in realism, global IR, and the wider discipline. Only when we discover new avenues for realists to travel can they contribute to a more global IR. In turn, when global IR scholars engage realism, they may be better able to address the Western versus non-Western dichotomies they challenge.


2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 979-1006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Luke Austin

This article introduces International Political Ergonomics. International Political Ergonomics is a novel research programme focused on achieving political change through the ergonomic (re)design of world politics. The approach is grounded on a shift across International Relations which recognizes that its epistemic (i.e. knowledge-producing) core is often inadequate to achieve change. Insights from the practice turn and behaviouralist International Relations, as well as from philosophy, sociology and neuroscience, demonstrate that much international behaviour is driven by the ‘unconscious’ or ‘non-reflexive’ re-articulation of repertoires of actions even where the pathologies of this process are known. This implies that knowledge production and dissemination (i.e. to policymakers, global publics) is often unable to effect influence over social practices. What is thus required is a non-epistemic means of producing world political change. International Political Ergonomics is a research programme that takes up this task. It does so by describing how small material interventions into world politics can radically shift individual behaviours by encouraging greater rationality, reflexivity and deliberation. After laying out the theoretical basis for this claim, the article demonstrates it by detailing the application of International Political Ergonomics to violence-prevention efforts. The article concludes by reflecting on the radical implications that International Political Ergonomics has for the vocation of International Relations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 118-134
Author(s):  
Alexander Rusetsky ◽  
Olga Dorokhina

This article is part of a research conducted as part of the Support Program for Doctoral Studies of Shota Rustaveli Georgian National Science Foundation.This article is part of a research conducted as part of the Support Program for Doctoral Studies of Shota Rustaveli Georgian National Science Foundation.Name of the research – "Interdisciplinary analysis of the complex system of the Abkhazian conflict by the method 4D-RAV-17" (grant number – PHDF‐18‐1147). The method is a combination of well-known and innovative approaches and techniques. This article is part of the abovementioned research. The complex system of the Abkhazian conflict in this article received a conditional definition – the Abkhazian crisis. The political component of the complex system is accordingly called the Abkhazian political crisis and is the main object of research in the framework of the article.The article is aimed at solving a specific scientific and applied task – at determining a scientifically based method for the positive transformation of the Abkhazian political crisis and the transition to a new level of political order – to the Abkhazian security community.The article considers the possibility of carrying out work on the development and implementation of a new, alternative to the existing, peacemaking process, which can be based on the policy of the transition of the Abkhazian political crisis to a new political order.Consecutive transition tools are the following:• building a model of the structure of the Abkhazian political crisis;• The concept of awareness of common threats;• The concept of the Abkhazian security community.The work can be attributed to the following studies: Abkhazian Studies; Conflicts and Peace Studies, Crisis Studies, Security Studies, Political Studies and International Studies.The practical significance of the work and novelty. As a result of a reflective analysis of the past and existing political and scientific discourse, the absence of holistic research and the dominance of reductionism in the perception and description of the Abkhazian crisis and individual conflicts – its components - were first shown. In scientific works, a mostly complex and multi-component conflict is taken down to a hybrid and scientifically unreasonable formulation – "Georgian-Abkhazian" conflict. This wording also dominates in political discourse and even in international documents.As a result of a thoroughful analysis and synthesis of the information received, for the first time a brief and conditional definition was given to the complex system of the Abkhazian conflict – "Abkhazian crisis".As a result of this research, for the first time, at a scientific level, security threats are considered as a resource for peacemaking and the Concept of awareness of common threats is formulated.Also, for the first time (in the case of the Abkhazian crisis), the well-known Theory of the Security Community for International Relations of Karl Deutsch was proposed. It was adapted to the specifics of this conflict, not only related to the dimension of international relations. The political component of the crisis was classified in the research and a model of the Abkhazian political crisis was proposed, which includes both the domestic and international components of the crisis. The presented definition – "mixed conflict" theoretically resolved the conflict between supporters to define this conflict as "internal, local" and those who consider it "international". This is a useful solution for other political conflicts of the post-Soviet Union space, in particular, for the "Donbas crisis".From a theoretical and practical points of view, attention was drawn to the fact that Security Studies are considered a subsystem of studies in the field of International Studies, which does not allow the effective use of existing scientific achievements in these fields for mixed conflicts.The article proposes specific innovative ideas for implementing these approaches and techniques. This article proposes solutions to the problems of increasing the effectiveness of the peacemaking process. The task itself has an innovative character, since basically researches conducted earlier in this area (around the Abkhazian conflict) is more focused on the Conflicts Studies, rather than Peace Studies. In particular, this concerns the lack of research aimed at studying the effectiveness of peacemaking processes.As a result of formalization of the results obtained, the article presents new political concepts – neologisms, which until now have not been used (or not sufficiently used) in relation to this issue. Among them the following may be outlined: "Abkhazian crisis"; "Mixed conflict", "secessionists of Abkhazia"; "unionists of Abkhazia"; "irredentists of Abkhazia"; "Internationalization of the peacemaking process"; "legitimacy of peacemaking formats"; "democratization of the negotiation process"; "Abkhazian Security Community".As a result of the conducted work, an algorithm of stage-by-stage actions is presented, which can lead to a way out of the crisis and a transition to a new level of management culture and political order. It also provides specific practical recommendations that can be used by the participants in the process.Research on improvement of this model is ongoing, the following articles are being prepared, and negotiations are conducted on implementation with representatives of the participating parties at the expert and political levels.This research may be useful for those interested in the Abkhazian issue, as well as for adapting and using the approaches and techniques described in this article to improve the quality of peacemaking processes to resolve other conflicts and crises.


Raído ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (27) ◽  
pp. 419
Author(s):  
Fabiana Esteves Neves ◽  
Ivi Vasconcelos Elias

Este artigo investiga a aprendizagem e a produção de conhecimento teórico na graduação em Relações Internacionais (RI) no Brasil. Consideramos que as dificuldades do estudante para ler/escrever textos acadêmicos se relacionam a questões metacognitivas e escolhas teóricas no âmbito acadêmico. Essa hipótese fundamenta-se tanto no contexto educacional brasileiro, que prioriza conceituações, no lugar do raciocínio analítico, quanto na predominância de abordagens positivistas tradicionais, desconectadas da situação de países em desenvolvimento como o Brasil. A fundamentação teórica compreende princípios da pedagogia crítica e das ciências cognitivas, com foco em quatro ações metatextuais com a escrita: reportar, sumarizar, analisar e teorizar (NEVES, 2015). Para descrever a produção dos estudantes, propôs-se a 35 alunos da disciplina “Teoria das RI I” um roteiro de leitura diagnóstico sobre um capítulo de livro teórico. As respostas para quatro das questões mostram que a falta de pensamento autônomo na disciplina se reflete na compreensão dos alunos, expressa por meio da escrita perfunctória. Consequentemente, nega-se a possibilidade de se tornarem sujeitos ativos na compreensão e transformação da política internacional. Quanto à leitura/escrita, reflexões sobre os aspectos metacognitivos do aprendizado precisam ser incluídas não apenas no ensino da linguagem, mas também nas disciplinas teóricas, especialmente no trato com textos acadêmicos.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-32
Author(s):  
Yihenew Wubu Endalew ◽  
◽  

Until alternative theories that sought a serious consideration of third world states in International Relations (IR) proliferated in the last quarter of the 20th century, knowledge production remained monopolized by dominant Western-centered theories. Historical Sociology in International Relations (HSIR) is one of the approaches that aimed at directing IR towards more inclusive inquiries that acknowledge temporal and spatial variance; especially against ahistorical and ‘asociological’ foundations of Neorealism. Despite this motivation, most of the studies and debates within HSIR are concentrated on illustrating the approach’s applicability in the study of Western states. Through a review of the available literature, this paper aims to demonstrate the promise of HSIR in explaining the relationship between domestic and foreign affairs of third world states. To achieve this objective, the paper mainly draws from the works of John Hobson and Fred Halliday and suggests the incorporation of third world states in the inquiries and debate within HSIR.


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