Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Edelstein
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Time Horizons

The introduction establishes the puzzle motivating the book: what explains variation in the strategies that existing powers pursue toward rising great powers? The puzzle is central to international relations theory and also has important implications for contemporary policy questions. The introductory chapter presents a brief abstract of the book’s argument, which focuses on how time horizons and uncertainty affect leaders’ decision-making. The introduction concludes with a roadmap for the rest of the book.

The Study of Peaceful Change in World Politics

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.V. Paul
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
International Relations ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Agents Of Change ◽  
Different Dimensions

This introductory chapter offers an overview of the core themes addressed in The Oxford Handbook of Peaceful Change in International Relations. It begins with a discussion of the neglect of peaceful change and the overemphasis on war as the source of change in the discipline of international relations. Definitions of peaceful change in their different dimensions, in particular the maximalist and minimalist varieties, are offered. Systemic, regional, and domestic level changes are explored. This is followed by a discussion of the study and understanding of peaceful change during the interwar, Cold War, and post–Cold War eras. The chapter offers a brief summary of different theoretical perspectives in IR—realism, liberalism, constructivism, and critical as well as eclectic approaches—and how they explore peaceful change, its key mechanisms, and its feasibility. The chapter considers the role of great powers and key regional states as agents of change. The economic, social, ideational, ecological, and technological sources of change are also briefly discussed.

The emotive causes of recurrent international conflicts

2003 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Long ◽  
Peter Brecke
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Rational Choice ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Rational Decision ◽  
International Conflicts ◽  
Rational Decision Making ◽  
Constructivist Approaches

Many international conflicts are recurrent, and many of these are characterized by periods of violence, including wars, that are hard to describe as planned products of rational decision-making. Analysis of these conflicts according to rational-choice international-relations theory or constructivist approaches has been less revealing than might have been hoped. We consider the possibility that emotive causes could better explain, or at least improve the explanation of, observed patterns. We offer three emotive models of recurrent conflict and we outline a method by which the reliability of emotive explanations derived from these models could be tested prospectively.

International Relations Theory

2021 ◽  
pp. 560-578
Author(s):  
Richard J. Hoskins
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
The Other ◽  
English School ◽  
Ethical Judgement ◽  
Reinhold Niebuhr ◽  
Christian Realism ◽  
A Value ◽  
Hans Morgenthau

The study of international relations is dominated by the school of Realism, articulated in its classical form by Hans Morgenthau. It teaches that great powers are focused on enhancing their national interest defined in terms of power: military, political, and economic. Reinhold Niebuhr became known as the father of Christian Realism, adding his own biblical and Augustinian insights about human nature and its effects on the evil uses of power. Traditionally, both forms of Realism incorporated ethical judgement within their analysis. After Niebuhr’s death, Realism became neorealism, a value-free social science which eschews ethical judgement as any part of international relations study, as did the other major schools—except for the English School. This chapter argues that the English School represents the modern paradigm closest to Niebuhr’s perspective.

Introduction: ‘The UFOs Are Coming!’

2016 ◽  
pp. 7-16
Author(s):  
Jon Towlson
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
New Age ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
The Third ◽  
Close Encounters ◽  
Alien Abduction

This introductory chapter provides an overview of Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). Close Encounters is a UFO movie that arose from a resurgence of ufology in the 1970s, which coincided with the growth of New Age movements, mysticism, alien-abduction cults, and an increasing belief in conspiracy theories. The film speaks to Utopianism, the belief within international relations theory that war can be eliminated either by perfecting man or by perfecting government. Utopianism is, of course, a key concept in science fiction. The chapter then looks at Jack Kroll's review of Close Encounters, which demonstrates how so many of the political criticisms surrounding the film stem from the time of its initial reception, and how its cultural denotation as ‘transcendent’ science fiction was immediately recognised and accepted by some — but not all — critics. The chapter also details the synopsis of the film.

Research Bets and Behavioral IR

2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (S1) ◽  
pp. S265-S277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Powell
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Behavioral Research ◽  
Behavioral Approach ◽  
Fundamental Challenge ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Decision Making Processes

AbstractBehavioral IR faces a fundamental challenge. The actors in most IR models and theories are not individuals—they are aggregates like states, ministries, interest groups, political parties, and rebel factions. There are two broad approaches to attempting to integrate behavioral research about individuals. The first, a quasi-behavioral approach, makes nonstandard assumptions about the preferences, beliefs, or decision-making processes of aggregate actors. The second tries to build theories in which the key actors are individuals. Pursuing the former means that the assumptions about actors will be only weakly linked to the empirical findings propelling behavioral research. The second approach faces formidable obstacles that international relations theory has confronted for a long time and for the most part has not overcome.

Conceptual Index

1972 ◽  
Vol 24 (S1) ◽  
pp. 248-266
Author(s):  
Stephen M. Shaffer
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Free Riders ◽  
Conceptual Schemes ◽  
Supplementary Issue

Approaches to the study of international relations employ a wide variety of concepts and indicators. The interrelationships among these concepts often are specified in conceptual schemes, models, or theories. This supplementary issue of World Politics presents several approaches to international relations theory which utilize familiar concepts, such as decision-making, crisis, and interdependence, and also concepts (frequently borrowed from other disciplines) that are less familiar, e.g., entrepreneurial and consumer roles, free riders, and externalities. The diversity of approaches and the variety of models specified by the contributors led the co-editors to commission an index focusing on concepts and the variables used to tap the concepts (indicators) rather than a more traditional listing of names, places, and events.

scholarly journals Neorealism and neoliberalism in the contemporary international relations theory

2007 ◽  
Vol 59 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 211-242
Author(s):  
Zaklina Novicic
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Cooperation ◽  
Policy Decision ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Policy Decision Making ◽  
Neoliberal Institutionalism

The author explores some fundamental aspects of international cooperation its functional incentives and structural limitations, by describing the discussion between two most influential approaches in international relations theory: neorealism and neoliberalism, or to be more precise between defensive neorealism and neoliberal institutionalism. During the discussion on possibilities and limitations of international co-operation neorealism and neoliberalism showed their differences, but also similarities of views that resulted in their approach, which is called the neo-neo synthesis in international relations theory. The discussion, that has been going on for three decades in USA also reflects on the practical foreign policy decision making in this country. The discussion contains the ideas that can serve as means to explain some foreign policy approaches in our country as well.

Liberal Perspectives on the Global Political Economy

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darel E. Paul
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Trade Policy ◽  
Open Economy ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Neoclassical Economics ◽  
Special Relationship ◽  
Liberal Approach

Liberal international political economy (IPE) is the offspring of a marriage between mainstream international economics with its focus on markets and mainstream international relations with its emphasis on the state. While clearly involving the traditional disciplines of economics and political science, liberal scholarship in IPE tends to be housed almost exclusively in the latter. Liberal IPE has always maintained a special relationship with its absentee father economics, looking to it particularly as a source of theoretical and especially methodological inspiration. In its earlier phase, the “American school” of IPE, also known by its practitioners as Open Economy Politics (OEP), was strongly oriented toward studying the societal determinants of state trade policy and indeed continues to expand upon this terrain. OEP has moved into many diverse areas since then. Having roots in both neoclassical economics and realist international relations theory, OEP has a strong tendency to limit its empirical interest to observable behavior, define interest in strictly material terms, and assume the psychology of decision-making to be rational and therefore unproblematic. Unsurprisingly, OEP has little room for ideas as interesting and important objects of study, and in turn some of the early pioneers of the liberal approach in IPE have lamented its becoming “too materialistic.”

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