scholarly journals GLOBALISATION AT THE CROSSROADS? THE REVIVAL OF NATIONALISM AND IDENTITY POLITICS

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANTHONY MILNER
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Charles Taylor ◽  
World Politics ◽  
International Studies ◽  
International History ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
Francis Fukuyama ◽  
Nationalism And Identity ◽  
Analytical Frameworks

This article is a revised and expanded version of the author’s keynote address for the inaugural International Conference on Politics and International Studies (ICPIS) 2018, held in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. The title reflects the official theme of the said scholarly congregation, which deliberates on the contested notions of globalisation and the phenomenon’s related outcomes, including its much touted hegemonic, universal liberal qualities, which have elicited a backlash that has seen the revival of nationalism and identity politics during the last few decades. That globalisation has arrived at a crossroads and the thought of what might lie ahead is what this paper seeks to ponder, through the prism and critique of both recent as well as older works by the likes of Francis Fukuyama, Charles Taylor, Wang Gungwu and Samuel P. Huntington. More specifically, it critically explores the evolution and progress of globalisation from both historical and international relations (IR) perspectives, explicating watershed eras in the long cycle of modern international history that had as much facilitated as hindered the realisation of a universal liberal consensus, or liberal triumph. Although concluding that globalisation has been stopped in its tracks, the article nevertheless, expresses concerns regarding the limitations of Western-oriented IR as a discipline in comprehensively grasping the complexities of post-globalisation dynamics shaped by cultural-ideational specificities, not to mention, the fallacy of overemphasising on “identity politics” as a “master concept” in explaining all that is happening in contemporary world politics. Instead, it contends on the need to review existing analytical frameworks, while exploring new “logics” in the quest to construct new paradigms to help make sense of a post-globalisation, post-liberal, probably post-Western era.

The past, present, and future of intervention

2013 ◽  
Vol 39 (5) ◽  
pp. 1233-1253 ◽  
Author(s):  
GEORGE LAWSON ◽  
LUCA TARDELLI
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
The Past ◽  
Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries

AbstractDespite the prominent place of intervention in contemporary world politics, debate is limited by two weaknesses: first, an excessive presentism; and second, a focus on normative questions to the detriment of analysis of the longer-term sociological dynamics that fuel interventionary pressures. In keeping with the focus of the Special Issue on the ways in which intervention is embedded within modernity, this article examines the emergence of intervention during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, assesses its place in the contemporary world, and considers its prospects in upcoming years. The main point of the article is simple – although intervention changes in character across time and place, it is a persistent feature of modern international relations. As such, intervention is here to stay.

scholarly journals Sustainable International Relations. Pope Francis’ Encyclical Laudato Si’ and the Planetary Implications of “Integral Ecology”

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 466 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ferrara
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Development Economic ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Pope Francis ◽  
Call To Action ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
Integral Ecology

This paper analyzes the theoretical and pragmatic implications for international relations and world politics of the new holistic approach to climate change articulated by Pope Francis in the Encyclical Laudato Si’, particularly through the notion of “integral ecology”. It is not my intention to offer an exegesis of the Papal document. I will rather try to illustrate and discuss its planetary hermeneutics. I emphasize that the Encyclical’s perspective is not exclusively normative, and that, within the dynamic interplay between social structure and human agency, it can also be considered as a call to action. In this context, I suggest that both International Relations Theory and global politics have much to learn from the fundamental claims of contemporary religions in relation to climate disruption. In particular, Pope Francis’ document, far from being just a new chapter in the unfolding process of the “greening” of religions, raises the issue of the sustainability of the present world system. Therefore, I contend that the perspective of the Encyclical calls for a radical transformation of international relations, since it emphasizes the deep implications of environmental issues on the entire spectrum of security, development, economic and ethical challenges of contemporary world politics. Against this backdrop, my objective is to connect the main tenets of the Encyclical to the environmental turn in International Relations Theory and to the new epistemological challenges related to the paradigm shift induced by the new planetary condition of the Anthropocene and the relevant questions arising for a justice encompassing the humanity-earth system. The Encyclical seems to suggest that practicing sustainable international relations means exiting the logic of power or hegemony, while simultaneously operationalizing the concept of care.

scholarly journals Sustainable International Relations. Pope Francis’ Encyclical Laudato si’ and the Planetary Implications of the “Integral Ecology”

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pasquale Ferrara
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Development Economic ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Pope Francis ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
Present World ◽  
Radical Transformation ◽  
Integral Ecology

This paper analyzes the theoretical and pragmatic implications, for international relations and world politics, of the new holistic approach to climate change articulated by Pope Francis in the Encyclical Laudato si’, particularly through the notion “integral ecology”. Far for being just a new chapter in the unfolding process of the “greening” of religions, the document raises in radical terms the issue of the sustainability of the present world system. I contend that the perspective of the Encyclical calls for a radical transformation of international relations, since it puts emphasis on the deep implications of environmental issues on the entire spectrum of security, development, economic and ethical challenges of contemporary world politics. Against this backdrop, I connect the main tenets of the Encyclical to the environmental turn in International Relations Theory and to the new epistemological challenges related to paradigm shift induced by the new planetary condition of the Anthropocene and the questions arising for a justice encompassing the humanity-earth system. Practicing sustainable international relations means exiting the logic of power or hegemony, operationalizing the concept of care.

The State of the Japanese State

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gavan McCormack
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
World Politics ◽  
The State ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Modern Japan ◽  
Client State ◽  
Constitutional Revision

In this his latest work, Gavan McCormack argues that Abe Shinzo’s efforts to re-engineer the Japanese state may fail, but his radicalism continues to shake the country and will have consequences not easy now to predict. The significance of this book will be widely recognized, particularly by those researching contemporary world politics, international relations and the history of modern Japan. McCormack here revisits and reassesses his previous formulations of Japan as construction state (doken kokka), client state (zokkoku), constitutional pacifist state, and colonial state (especially in its relationship to Okinawa). He adds a further chapter on what he calls the ‘rampant state’, that outlines the increasingly authoritarian or ikkyo (one strong) turn of the Abe government in the fifth year of its second term. And he critically addresses the Abe agenda for constitutional revision.

5. International Society

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Jackson ◽  
Georg Sørensen
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Immanuel Kant ◽  
International Society ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
World Politics ◽  
World Society ◽  
English School ◽  
International History ◽  
Basic Assumptions ◽  
Niccolò Machiavelli

This chapter examines the International Society tradition of international relations (IR). International Society, also known as the ‘English School’, is an approach to world politics that places emphasis on international history, ideas, structures, institutions, and values. After providing an overview of International Society's basic assumptions and claims, the chapter considers the three traditions associated with the leading ideas of the most outstanding classical theorists of IR such as Niccolò Machiavelli and Immanuel Kant: realism, rationalism, and revolutionism. It then explores International Society's views regarding order and justice, empire and world society, statecraft and responsibility, and humanitarian responsibility and war. It also discusses several major criticisms against the International Society approach to IR and concludes with an overview of the current research agenda of International Society.

scholarly journals WORLD REGIONAL STUDIES AS A RESEARCH FRAMEWORK AND ACADEMIC DISCIPLINE

2016 ◽  
pp. 63-69
Author(s):  
E. V. Koldunova
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Regional Studies ◽  
International Studies ◽  
Research Framework ◽  
Ir Studies ◽  
International Environment ◽  
Correct Understanding ◽  
Academic Debate

Dynamic development of international processes at the regional level, various trajectories of regionalization in Europe, Asia, Latin America and other parts of the world created a complex and multidimensional picture of the contemporary international relations. However Social Sciences and IR retained a distinct eurocentrism. This eurocentrism only partly meant that students of IR did not take into account non-European or non-Western realities. Thus, a German Scholar J. Vullers from German Institute of Global and Area Studies analyzing in 2014 three leading International Relations journals (International Organization, World Politics, European Journal of International Relations) diagnosed a serious geographic imbalance in the international studies, which meant a very limited number of articles based on the nonWestern empirical data.Even with such geographic imbalance in IR studies more important for preserving eurocentrism there was the absence of non-Western IR theories or IR theories originating from non-Western political context. The collective monograph edited by Barry Buzan and Amitav Acharya focused exactly on this problem. The title of the book was provocatively asking why there is no non-Western IR theory. Thus, the book in question provoked a lively academic debate on the topic. Russia was not covered in this book. Therefore, this very fact gives one some reasons to reflect on how Russian research in the field may face a double challenge of a changing international environment and an inappropriate level of its intellectual assessment. Against this background this article analyzes World Regional Studies, a research framework and discipline, which is rapidly developing in Russia and may to some extent contribute to a more correct understanding of the international processes.

The Anarchical Society at 40

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Violence Against Women ◽  
International Society ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Racial Inequalities ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
Society Perspective ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Impact

Hedley Bull’s The Anarchical Society was published in 1977. Though considered as one of the classics in International Relations, it does not address many world political issues that concern us deeply today—volatile great power relations after the end of the Cold War, the rise of terrorism, financial crises, climate change, the impact of the Internet, deep-rooted racial inequalities, violence against women. Moreover, through the evolution of International Relations as an academic pursuit, various limitations of the type of approach followed by Bull are coming to light. Against this background, eighteen contributors to this collection, with diverse intellectual orientations and academic specializations, have revisited Bull’s book forty years on to assess its limitations and resilience. A number of contributors point to certain fundamental problems stemming from Bull’s a historical conceptual theorizing. However, several others find arguments and insights developed or hidden in his text which are still relevant, in some cases, highly so, to understanding contemporary world politics while others explore ways of augmenting Bull’s intellectual repertoire. An intricate tapestry of ideas emerges from the criss-crossing contributions to the volume and, through this, it becomes clear that there is more to The Anarchical Society than the ‘international society’ perspective with which it is conventionally associated. The contemporary relevance of Bull’s work is clearest when we recognize the flexibility of his conceptual framework and, in particular, the often overlooked potential of his concept of the ‘world political system’ of which, Bull acknowledges, modern international society is only a part.

5. International Society

2018 ◽  
pp. 142-176
Author(s):  
Robert Jackson ◽  
Georg Sørensen ◽  
Jørgen Møller
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Immanuel Kant ◽  
International Society ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
World Politics ◽  
English School ◽  
Historical Approach ◽  
International History ◽  
Basic Assumptions ◽  
International Systems

This chapter examines the International Society tradition of international relations (IR). International Society, also known as the ‘English School’, is an approach to world politics that places emphasis on international history, ideas, structures, institutions, and values. After providing an overview of International Society’s basic assumptions and claims, the chapter considers the three traditions associated with the leading ideas of the most outstanding classical theorists of IR such as Niccolò Machiavelli and Immanuel Kant: realism, rationalism, and revolutionism. It then explores International Society’s views regarding order and justice, world society, statecraft and responsibility, and humanitarian responsibility and war; as well as how International Society scholars have used a historical approach to understand earlier international systems and the development of international society. It also discusses several major criticisms against the International Society approach to IR and concludes with an overview of the current research agenda of International Society.

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