Exam Flashcards
(29 cards)
What is International Theory
body of writings that provides concepts and models for the organised study of relations among countries, or across borders
Wight, Waltz, Smith
What does international theory also analyse
How our ways of thinking about these are unconsciously structured by issues of identity, gender, difference
Early 20th century, moved through several great debates about its subject matter, there are two main areas of disagreement connected to international and theory
Wight and Waltz think the anarchic nature of the international requires a whole new way of thinking, whilst there are those (Steve Smith) who think we should take from other disciplines
Can we actually create theories that produce objective explanations, or are they all reproduced by bias of identity?
Wight
International theory-
think the anarchic nature of the international requires a whole new way of thinking,
Waltz
Realism-
due to anarchy, international politics cannot be explained by looking at the internal make up of different societies – the error that everyone had made since 19th century
We must theorize the international structure which explains why bathe basic character of IR hasn’t changed for 1000s of years
Steve Smith
International Theory-
who think we should take from other disciplines
What is Realism
Realists believe that anarchy condemns countries to a situation in which, in order to ensure their own survival, they have to struggle for power
Mearsheimer, Morgenthau, Waltz
Morenthau
Realism -
Tragic situation because good intention can lead to bad outcomes
Insists political leaders must follow different moral codes than private individuals
Liberalism
liberals believe that a change inside society – emergence of modern liberal democratic societies - is transforming the international condition and leading gradually to the possibility of world peace
Angell, Ikenberry, Moravcsik, Sorensen, Woodrow, Jackson
Norman Angell
Liberalism-
1910 - Whilst power used to be defined by territory and military, it is becoming increasingly based on financial credit and scientific knowledge and therefore realism is under a ‘Great Illusion@
Ikenberry
Liberalism-
The first attempt of league of nations had failed, but the second one after WW2 was a success and it was even possible that liberal internationalism 2.0 could be followed by liberal internationalism 3.0 whereby international organisations play a key role in running liberal order even after the end of US hegemony
UN and IMF should be reformed to redistribute power and enable the shift to use the international organisation to open up the liberal world order
Constructivism
By the end of the cold war the fact it ended peacefully contradicted realism – constructivism says it undermined that anarchy must lead to conflict
Wendt, Finnemore
Wendt
Constructivism-
consequences of anarchy is what states make of it – how states handle each other – state identity is not fixed, socially constructed through interaction
Marta Finnemore
Constructivism-
how the norm of humanitarian intervention has changed several times during 20th and 21st century – showing relations are built on norms
Marxism
The central fact about the modern world is capitalism
Marx, Rosenberg, Callinicos
Marx
Marxism
General social theory based on the double relationship – look at how different societies collectively organise their productive interaction with nature and that will provide a key to the workings of power in those societies and the nature of their international relations with each other. Explains the possibility of a global sovereign state system rather than a world or territorial empires – modern IR in that sense is the empire of civil society.
2 things make Marxism more than an objection against inequality.
- In modern societies - The capitalist form of double relationship produces a separation of the economic and political and that gives rise to the abstraction of the state from civil society – will produces the modern state
- Produces the ability of economic power to spread across borders in non-political ways
Critical Theory
Or Reflectivist Theories
Rejection of positivism as a form of knowledge production
Linklater, Fisher, Cox, Devetak
Andrew Linklater
Critical Theory
disconnecting from any social group – we can judge social systems in terms of how far they enable all social group to participate equally in the rights enjoyed by the most privileged in those societies – apply this to the international by asking far within a given international system do the countries in the systems operate as bounded communities – deny to outsiders the basis rights that they give their own citizens – when you look at IR in long world history terms – the modern international system does recognise more human rights than previous systems with contradicts the realist idea that there cannot be progress in IR
Post-structuralism
First that pushed the critique of positivism to its logical conclusion
Fuko- Truth is a thing of this world meaning in other words that god is dead – there’s no this as an objective view from nowhere- ideas therefore need to be studied as a part of the reality that they claim to explain
Fuko, Campbell, Walker
Campbell
Post-structuralism
There is nothing outside of discourse – you can’t separate the observer from the observed – what this meant in terms of US foreign policy during cold war – the representation of the outside world in terms of the soviet threat was playing an important role in the defining American identity and in the justification for the domestic authority of the US state and because the role of the USSR in framing US identity in these ways was replaced by other threats like IS – at a deeper level, the cold war never ended – it wasn’t about the USSR it was about the opposites to the US
Feminism
• Realist theory had been operating as a regime of truth (Fuko) that silenced some voices whilst empowering others – The feminist distinction between sex and gender enabled Ann Tickner to do a gender analyses of Hobbes state of nature to show how it was from a version of masculinity – which if it was true would have left total the death of the species
Tickner, Hooper, Petersen & Runyan
Ann Tickner
Feminism
The feminist distinction between sex and gender enabled…
Ann Tickner to do a gender analyses of Hobbes state of nature to show how it was from a version of masculinity – which if it was true would have left total the death of the species
Charlotte Hooper
Feminism-
all 3 levels of analyses were defined on one side between the division of public and private and weren’t able to see the role of Women and children which crosses over both – and couldn’t see the role of the international in structuring gender relations
