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Begin New Search Topic Political Theory Political Geography Global Focus Content Type Journal Article Publication Year within 25 Years

1. Thinking through the Event: Alain Badiou versus Michael Hardt & Antonio Negr

Author:
Semra Akay
Publication Date:
06-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Rest: Journal of Politics and Development
Institution:
Centre for Strategic Research and Analysis (CESRAN)
Abstract:
This article offers how the concept of the event is approached by two opposing post-Marxist thinkers - Alain Badiou, Michael Hardt & Antonio Negri. Since the beginning of the modern era, many events, which could be significant or not, have occurred, such as the French Revolution, the Paris Commune, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, the Zapatista movements, the Arab Spring, anti-globalisation movements, indigenous movements, agricultural movements and the contemporary global protests that have emerged in many parts of the world over the past few decades. They all have affected world politics in some ways. Hence, there are many ways to think about these events or conceptualise these events in distinctive ways. This article compares the approaches of Badiou, who has still been known for his commitment to Maoism, and Hardt & Negri, who established a postmodern relationship between biopolitics, capitalism and empire. The paper emphasises that although both Badiou and Hard & Negri believe that events bring up new possibilities, the event rarely occurs throughout history for the former. For the latter, global capitalism gives rise to the events. The paper stands with Hardt and Negri’s formulation as their perceptions enable us to perceive the novelties, potentialities, and creativeness of social uprisings that have become prevalent in the contemporary world.
Topic:
Political Theory, Social Movement, Intellectual History, and Philosophy
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2. ntroduction to the Special Issue Anxiety and Change in International Relations

Author:
Bahar Rumelili
Publication Date:
01-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
International Relations Council of Turkey (UİK-IRCT)
Abstract:
Despite being the prevailing emotion of our times, anxiety has received scant attention in the inter- national relations discipline. While political theorists and philosophers have long paid attention to anxiety as distinct from and constitutive of fear, international relations theory has assumed that much of international behavior is guided by fears of specific threats to state survival.1 However, today, the uncertainties surrounding the future of the world order, unanticipated crises like the COVID-19 pan- demic that radically change our lives, unforeseeable terrorist attacks, and the unexplainable lure of radical fundamentalist ideologies all evoke a pervasive anxiety about what we do not know and what we cannot control, rather than the fear of a specific and known enemy. This special issue joins a growing set of recent publications employing a theoretically informed notion of anxiety and highlighting its distinct effects on international politics.2 This emerging research program shares a number of common premises. The first is the conceptual distinction between fear and anxiety. The second is an interest in how international actors manage anxiety and how various anxiety management techniques and practices affect international outcomes. Thirdly, anxiety research in IR is interested in exploring the distinct potential in anxiety to be a force for emancipatory and /or radical change. Fourthly, anxiety scholarship in IR is interested in theorizing how anxiety is manifest not solely as an individual-level but also as a social and collective phenomenon. Finally, scholars are building on the neglected insights of existentialist and psycho-analytical thought, where anxiety fig- ures prominently and underscoring their relevance for IR.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, Political Theory, and Fear
Political Geography:
Global Focus

3. Anxiety, Ambivalence and Sublimation: ontological in/security and the world risk society

Author:
John Cash
Publication Date:
04-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
International Relations Council of Turkey (UİK-IRCT)
Abstract:
This article aims to expand the social-theoretical and psychoanalytic range of research on ontological in/ security, by exploring parallel concerns addressed by Beck, Kristeva, Butler and Zizek. These include, first, the psychic roots of othering processes and their encoding into cultural repertoires. Second, the difficulties and possibilities of displacing othering processes within national and international politics. Third, the disruptive effects of globalising processes on the symbolic efficiency of cultures and on their encoded defences against ontological insecurity. Fourth, the crucial significance for political and international relations of the qualitative characteristics of those defences against ontological insecurity that gain predominance within cultural repertoires and their variable norms of recognition. Likewise, the significance of those norms of recognition that challenge established norms and successfully reorganise cultural repertoires.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, Defense Policy, and Political Theory
Political Geography:
Global Focus

4. Bringing the Critical Thinking Back in: A Critique of Andrew Linklater’s Theoretical Contributions to International Relations

Author:
Fabiana Sander and Matheus Souza
Publication Date:
04-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Contexto Internacional
Institution:
Institute of International Relations, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro
Abstract:
Inspired by the Critical Social Theory put forth by the Frankfurt School, Andrew Linklater has dedicated part of his career to elaborating a critical and emancipatory research agenda for International Relations. However, his recent research on the restriction of violence in international society, mostly influenced by the English School and by Eliasian Sociology, has pushed Linklater away from an explicit engagement with critical epistemologies and theoretical approaches. Although there is a possibility for close dialogue between these theoretical strands, we claim that Linklater did not articulate these approaches as much as he could have done. Therefore, we make an assessment of his work to discuss some of its epistemological and theoretical inconsistencies. Based on this, we provide a way to bridge Linklater’s initial critical agenda with his most recent analyses on processes of violence restriction and regulation of global harm in the international realm. We argue that by focusing on multiple global processes that contributed to the restriction of violence, Linklater failed to consider the particularities, pitfalls and side-effects of allegedly beneficial processes of violence restriction and, as a result, his work lost critical potential. Accordingly, this article demonstrates how Linklater would benefit from going back to his initial critical agenda to address the limitations of his scholarship on global harm.
Topic:
International Cooperation, Political Theory, Citizenship, and Violence
Political Geography:
Global Focus

5. Security Studies in International Relations: Evolution, Approaches and Contemporary Challenges

Author:
Ali Muhammad and Sugeng Riyanto
Publication Date:
07-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
AUSTRAL: Brazilian Journal of Strategy International Relations
Institution:
Postgraduate Program in International Strategic Studies, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
Abstract:
This article examines the growth and evolution of security studies since its emergence to the end the Cold War. Security studies as a subfield in international relations was dominated by realist approach during the Cold War. However, by the of the cold war, the concept of security was debated between the widener–deepener. Not only about the concept, but variety of theoretical approaches also emerged to challenge the traditional realist/liberal approach, such as, constructivism, critical theory, feminism, human security and postcolonialism. There were crucial differences in how these competing approaches constituted referent objects, the sectors to which security is applicable, and epistemological position as well.
Topic:
Security, Political Theory, Intellectual History, and Post Cold War
Political Geography:
Global Focus

6. Public Security and Public Order – Conceptual and Institutional Scope

Author:
Janusz Gierszewski and Andrzej Pieczywok
Publication Date:
01-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Polish Political Science Yearbook
Institution:
Polish Political Science Association (PPSA)
Abstract:
The publication aims to analyze public security and public order in conceptual and institutional terms as an analytical category of security sciences. The legislator defines neither public security nor public order. So far, they have been treated mainly as categories of administrative law. It is therefore important to assign them analytical content in the new scientific discipline. The research results allowed for the presentation of the thesis that public security and public order are mainly connected with protection against pathological phenomena occurring in the public space, which are minimized by institutions established to ensure it. These categories should constitute the research field (subject) of the security sciences. The research problem formulated in the form of the question: How are public security and public order treated in definitional and institutional terms? The problem was solved based on a critical analysis of the literature. The paper uses theoretical research methods, including analysis of literature and phenomena occurring in society and inference – as a cognitive factor of the subject of analysis. A critical analysis of the literature on this issue played a large role in the cognitive process.
Topic:
Security, Political Theory, Public Policy, and Social Order
Political Geography:
Global Focus

7. Systemic Analysis of Politics in the Light of Reconstruction of Structural Functionalism of Jeffrey C. Alexander

Author:
Jaroslaw Nocon
Publication Date:
01-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Polish Political Science Yearbook
Institution:
Polish Political Science Association (PPSA)
Abstract:
Applying systems analysis in political science research is still one of the important dimensions of political science methodology. Reconstruction of the functional model of the social system seems to be an attractive proposition for policy researchers. Signed by the name of Jeffrey Charles Alexander, the American version of neofunctionalism is one of the responses to the crisis of traditional forms of structural functionalism. The main purpose of the reconstruction of T. Parsons’s theory was its revitalization consisting in restoring the possibility of its application in contemporary social research. The reinterpretation of the classical approach was to a large extent “forced” by harsh criticism of the current approach and focused especially on attempts to overcome the limitations contained therein, which manifested in the impossibility of correlation of functional theorems with newly developing research currents Jeffrey Alexander restored relevance and emphasizes suitability for interpreting and explaining political processes and phenomena. Understanding the concept of functions and functional relations in the political environment allows for effective application in the analysis of contemporary political systems. Therefore, changing the method of functional analysis is a useful methodological tool in developing a political theory.
Topic:
Politics, Political Theory, Institutionalism, and Structuralism
Political Geography:
Global Focus

8. Erratic Behaviour of the United Nations and Global Governance in. Africa: The State as a Smokescreen for World Security

Author:
Agbo Uchechukwu Johnson, Nsemba Edward Lenshie, and Ndukwe Onyinyechi Kelechi
Publication Date:
12-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Institution:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Abstract:
State’s choice for human beings emerged when they realized that wild freedom in the “state of nature” where power is right, failed to achieve life and property independence and protection. Human beings were forced to capitulate for the common good to the abstract government. In what Hobbes (1588-1678) called the “social contract”, the state acknowledged this obligation to be governed by a leader of an all-powerful society. In his Second Treatise of Government (1689), John Locke (1632-1704) also agreed with Hobbes’ notion of a social contract, based on the premise that human beings are born free. Individuals enjoy a natural right to life, freedom and the freedom to own or possess estates.
Topic:
Government, Political Theory, Philosophy, State, and Nation-State
Political Geography:
Africa, Brazil, and Global Focus

9. The Political Import of Deconstruction—Derrida’s Limits?: A Forum on Jacques Derrida’s Specters of Marx after 25 Years, Part I

Author:
Maja Zehfuss, Antonio Y. Vázquez-Arroyo, Dan Bulley, and Bal Sokhi-Bulley
Publication Date:
12-2019
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Contexto Internacional
Institution:
Institute of International Relations, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro
Abstract:
Jacques Derrida delivered the basis of The Specters of Marx: The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning, & the New International as a plenary address at the conference ‘Whither Marxism?’ hosted by the University of California, Riverside, in 1993. The longer book version was published in French the same year and appeared in English and Portuguese the following year. In the decade after the publication of Specters, Derrida’s analyses provoked a large critical literature and invited both consternation and celebration by figures such as Antonio Negri, Wendy Brown and Frederic Jameson. This forum seeks to stimulate new reflections on Derrida, deconstruction and Specters of Marx by considering how the futures past announced by the book have fared after an eventful quarter century. Maja Zehfuss, Antonio Vázquez-Arroyo and Dan Bulley and Bal Sokhi-Bulley offer sharp, occasionally exasperated, meditations on the political import of deconstruction and the limits of Derrida’s diagnoses in Specters of Marx but also identify possible paths forward for a global politics taking inspiration in Derrida’s work of the 1990s.
Topic:
Post Colonialism, Political Theory, Philosophy, Decolonization, and Deconstruction
Political Geography:
Global Focus

10. Building Transnational Feminist Alliances: Reflections on the Post-2015 Development Agenda

Author:
Awino Okech and Dinah Musindarwezo
Publication Date:
08-2019
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Contexto Internacional
Institution:
Institute of International Relations, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro
Abstract:
This article reflects on transnational feminist organising by drawing on the experiences of the African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) during the consultations leading up to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. First, we re-examine some of the debates that have shaped the field of women’s rights, feminist activism and gender justice in Africa, and the enduring legacies of these discourses for policy advocacy. Second, we analyse the politics of movement-building and the influence of development funding, and how they shape policy discourses and praxis in respect of women’s rights and gender justice. Third, we problematise the nature of transnational feminist solidarity. Finally, drawing on scholarship about transnational feminist praxis as well as activism, we distil some lessons for feminist policy advocacy across geo-political divides.
Topic:
Globalization, International Cooperation, Regional Cooperation, Political Theory, Women, Sustainable Development Goals, International Relations Theory, and Alliance
Political Geography:
Africa and Global Focus

11. From Binary to Intersectional to Imbricated Approaches: Gender in a Decolonial and Diasporic Perspective

Author:
Andréa Gill and Thula Pires
Publication Date:
08-2019
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Contexto Internacional
Institution:
Institute of International Relations, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro
Abstract:
This article proposes a re-reading of the problem of gender, or as it has been put, more often than not, ‘the woman problem,’ that resists the reproduction of modern/colonial systems of governance and their political norms, standards, ideals and pacts. In turn, it seeks to open pathways to dialogue with, rather than import, conceptions of gender that respond to the terms through which modern/colonial societies have been forged on the continent of Abya Yala, drawing inspiration from decolonial and diasporic perspectives. To this end, the article maps some of the available channels of the gender debate in what has come to be known as the global South from an array of perspectives that highlight the ways in which the relations between categories of oppression and privilege (such as race, class, sexuality and gender) are reflected and positioned so as to grapple with the coloniality of knowledge, power and being. More specifically, it focuses on three ways of dealing with power dynamics in the context of Abya Yala that have influenced how we conceive and respond to questions of gender. Its primary objective is to investigate the politico-epistemic conditions that structure gender thinking in binary and intersectional ways, and, in turn, open space for imbricated approaches forged from within (post-)colonial histories that do not take as their starting point the importation of theoretical references from places otherwise situated within a global political economy of knowledge/power/being. More than a critique of theoretical standpoints from the global North, in and of themselves, which regardless were not thought to respond to our realities, here we analyse the terms through which gender and feminisms have been put up for debate. Without effectively decentring the Eurocentred references that preoccupy gender thinking in our respective disputes, we risk continued distraction from what is at stake when gender is put on the table: the (im)possibilities of living one’s full humanity on one’s own terms.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Political Theory, Diaspora, Women, and International Relations Theory
Political Geography:
Europe, Latin America, and Global Focus

12. A Few Problems with Mouffe’s Agonistic Political Theory

Author:
Monika Mazur-Bubak
Publication Date:
01-2019
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Polish Political Science Yearbook
Institution:
Polish Political Science Association (PPSA)
Abstract:
The main goal of examining a single philosophical theory, connected with social and political disciplines, is not just to identify its incoherence or to restate the theory in a more elegant way. More important in that kind of investigation is to show its possible impact on people’s lives and the functioning of communities. Thus, it seems more reasonable to conduct a critical analysis of the possible consequences for a real society than to undertake a simple study of the argument’s logical consistency. The main aim of this paper is to introduce doubts about the thesis of Chantal Mouffe presented by her in Agonistics. Thinking the World Politically and Passion and Politics. Main hypothesis is that thinking about the “political” and “politics” with reference to enmity as well as claiming that the source of every political and social activity is antagonism, can provoke an attitude that social and political scenes are battlefields rather than an agora or the space of human interactions. First of all, the author provides the critical analysis and reconstruction of the most important claims connected with the “political”, which can have strong negative effects-i.e. brutalization and creating a negative basis for social relation. Then presents a few possible sources of thinking of “political” as a “competition” or rather “enmity”. The last part it is the critic of what Mouffe claims about reason why people get involve into politics, based on the psychological experiments and in result of this the author shows the importance of validity the high standards in politics, diplomacy and relation on the social level.
Topic:
Politics, Political Theory, Democracy, and Liberalization
Political Geography:
Global Focus

13. Local Self-Government as a Problem of Political Theory

Author:
Łukasz Swieciki
Publication Date:
01-2019
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Polish Political Science Yearbook
Institution:
Polish Political Science Association (PPSA)
Abstract:
The article aims at restoring local self-government as a research problem of political theory. In contemporary political science literature, local self-government is not treated as one of its normal, standard research problems. The main obstacle of its ambiguous position within political theory is, as I argue, the forced and imposed apolitical character of local self-government considered as a part of public administration. Despite some degree of organizational, especially institutional and legal, self-determination, the local self-government is not a political, i.e. sovereign entity. However, its non-sovereign status, which is legally established, does not exclude the existence of political potency in it.
Topic:
Sovereignty, Political Theory, Governance, Legitimacy, and Local
Political Geography:
Global Focus

14. Gender and Feminisms in IR: Reviewing Theory and Practice: Interview with Marysia Zalewski

Author:
Amanda Álvares Ferreira
Publication Date:
08-2019
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Contexto Internacional
Institution:
Institute of International Relations, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro
Abstract:
Marysia Zalewski is a Professor at Cardiff University, in Wales, and a renowned International Relations (IR) scholar. She has become a reference for her work with feminism and gender since the 1990s. She has published several books including The ‘Man’ Question in International Relations (edited with Jane Parpart, re-released in 2019 by Routledge), Feminist International Relations: Exquisite Corpse (2013) and Sexual Violence against Men in Global Politics edited with Paula Drumond, Elisabeth Prügl and Maria Stern (2018), among many other books and articles. Her work has brought important contributions in thinking feminist critical methodologies, as well as looking at everyday life as a productive site for empirical and theoretical analysis of how gender is implicated in international politics. She was in Rio de Janeiro for an event at the International Relations Institute of the Pontifical Catholic University (PUC-Rio), where she was part of two panels called ‘Rethinking the Borders between Gender and Sexuality’ and ‘The Rise of Conservatisms and the Challenges to the Women, Gender and Sexuality Agendas.
Topic:
International Relations, Gender Issues, Political Theory, International Relations Theory, and Feminism
Political Geography:
Global Focus

15. Bad World: The Negativity Bias in International Politics

Author:
Dominic D.P. Johnson and Dominic Tierney
Publication Date:
02-2019
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Security
Institution:
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:
A major puzzle in international relations is why states privilege negative over positive information. States tend to inflate threats, exhibit loss aversion, and learn more from failures than from successes. Rationalist accounts fail to explain this phenomenon, because systematically overweighting bad over good may in fact undermine state interests. New research in psychology, however, offers an explanation. The “negativity bias” has emerged as a fundamental principle of the human mind, in which people's response to positive and negative information is asymmetric. Negative factors have greater effects than positive factors across a wide range of psychological phenomena, including cognition, motivation, emotion, information processing, decision-making, learning, and memory. Put simply, bad is stronger than good. Scholars have long pointed to the role of positive biases, such as overconfidence, in causing war, but negative biases are actually more pervasive and may represent a core explanation for patterns of conflict. Positive and negative dispositions apply in different contexts. People privilege negative information about the external environment and other actors, but positive information about themselves. The coexistence of biases can increase the potential for conflict. Decisionmakers simultaneously exaggerate the severity of threats and exhibit overconfidence about their capacity to deal with them. Overall, the negativity bias is a potent force in human judgment and decisionmaking, with important implications for international relations theory and practice.
Topic:
Political Theory, Emotions, International Relations Theory, and Psychology
Political Geography:
Global Focus

16. Roundtable Discussion on Homegrown Theorizing

Author:
Ersel Aydinli, Mustafa Aydin, Andrey Makarychev, Karen Smith, Ramazan Gözen, Pinar Ipek, Deniz Kuru, Haluk Özdemir, Chih-yu Shih, Siddharth Mallavarapu, Ching-Chang Chen, Seçkin Köstem, Eyüp Ersoy, Knud Erik Jörgensen, and Berk Esen
Publication Date:
07-2018
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
All Azimuth: A Journal of Foreign Policy and Peace
Institution:
Center for Foreign Policy and Peace Research
Abstract:
2nd All Azimuth Workshop on Widening the World of IR Theorizing 23-24 September 2016, Ankara
Topic:
International Relations, Political Theory, and Conference
Political Geography:
Turkey and Global Focus

17. The Relevance of Clausewitz’s Theory of War to Contemporary Conflict Resolution

Author:
Jasmin Cajic
Publication Date:
01-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Connections
Institution:
Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:
This article argues that Clausewitz’s writing on war nearly 200 years ago is still relevant for contemporary conflict resolution from at least three aspects: his idea that war is “the continuation of policy by other means”; secondly his analysis of the nature of war and the trinity theory; and finally his understanding of the nature of the strategy. The analysis in this article found that, if there is good policy from which to derive a strategy, and if we are able to apply it efficiently, with support of the people and international community, we have created solid preconditions to win the war. In addition, Clausewitz’s view of the issues associated with war, strategy and conflict resolution is important for understanding the major issues and decision making even while history and reality constrain his abstractions with today’s experience. His theories and concepts are as relevant today as they were two hundred years ago. Therefore, the twenty-first century strategists and leaders are recommended to take into consideration Clausewitz’s theories on war and strategy because they are still applicable today. In short, Clausewitz is a theorist for the twenty-first century.
Topic:
War, Political Theory, Military Strategy, and Conflict
Political Geography:
Global Focus

18. Uluslararası İlişkiler Kuramında Anarşi Söylemi

Author:
Faruk Yalvaç
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
This article discusses the development of the anarchy discourse in international relations theory. It questions the main problematiques around which the discourse of anarchy is organised and asks whether anarchy is still a valid concept to understand international relations. The mainstream IR theory analyses anarchy from an institutional framework, and is based on the assumption that state relations is sufficient to describe and understand anarchy. Post-positivist period have developed diverse criticisms to this conceptualisation. The article evaluates the criticisms of postmodernist, historical sociological, postcolonial and feminist approaches to the concept of anarchy. One of the main theses of this article is that the concept of anarchy can meaningfully be used to analyse international relations only if it is connected to social relations (and more specifically to social relations of capitalism with respect to understanding present international system). Therefore, the approach adopted in this article overlaps with many of the criticisms of anarchy by postmodernism, feminism, but more specifically with recent historical sociological approaches and the postcolonial studies. Another argument of the article is that the anarchy/order opposition can not totally be eradicated unless the social relations sustaining them can be altered.
Topic:
Political Theory, Socialism/Marxism, and Anarchy
Political Geography:
Global Focus

19. Segregasyonlar ve Jeopolitik “Yeni” Düzenler: Müteşebbis Efendiler olarak Türk Silahlı Kuvvetleri

Author:
Anna M. Agathangelou and Barış Karaağaç
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
Beginning with the epistemological principle, International Relations (IR) critiques “world politics”, we look at the discipline of International Political Economy (IPE) within IR, considering to what extent IPE re-thinks key IR divides. What does IPE mean when the military-industrial complex is a site of power for the accumulation of resources and knowledge production? Can we critically theorize without understanding the international, the military, or the industrial as contested categories? How have critical theories of security and militarization and their racial formations been “globally” and “locally” positioned? Does an assumed segregation of security and property relations preclude making tensions visible in security regimes and among vulture capitalists? This essay foregrounds Turkey and its armed forces as sites of critical inquiry into the key divides of IR: national and international; global and local; the economy and state relations; rationality and bodies. We highlight what is produced as viable within the fields of the current model of global power and collective practices instrumental in changing IPE consensus about global processes and relations to dissent.
Topic:
International Political Economy, Political Theory, and Military Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

20. “Güvenlik İkilemi”ni Yeniden Düşünmek Güvenlik Çalışmalarında Yeni Bir Perspektif

Author:
Ali Bilgiç
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
Th is article will discuss the concept of “security dilemma”, which was conceptualized sixty years ago, but has been enriched and recently re-thought, in three periods. In the first period, the concept was formulated based on the security understanding dominating the Cold War era. The second period is the one during which the concept was enriched in conjunction with emerging problems in world politics and the broadened security understanding in the discipline of International Relations. In the last period, the concept was completely re-thought and fed by new ideas. Among these new ideas, the concept of “trust” was offered as a way of transcending security dilemmas. The re-generated version of “security dilemma” presents a new perspective to understand, study, and re-think what security and insecurity mean in world politics.
Topic:
International Relations, International Security, and Political Theory
Political Geography:
Global Focus

21. Yirmibirinci Yüzyılda Savaşı Tartışmak: Clausewitz Yeniden

Author:
Ali L. Karaosmanoğlu
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
In the post-Cold War era the changing international system, primordial hate and violence motivated by ethnic and religious conflicts, transnationally operating non-state actors, relativization of the state, and rising democratic and liberal values have prompted an ongoing debate on the nature of war. Those commentators who argue that the “new” wars have fundamentally changed the nature of war are of the opinion that the theory of war by Carl von Clausewitz has lost its analytical relevance as a conceptual framework for understanding and explaining war in the twenty-first century. The major contention of this article is the following: In some respects, “new” wars are different from the “old” (conventional) ones. The depth of this difference, however, falls short in changing the nature of war. The conceptual framework of Clausewitz, therefore, remains relevant to a great extent. Clausewitzian interpretation of contemporary wars would be useful to reevaluate political and strategic alternatives that are developed to control and terminate them.
Topic:
War and Political Theory
Political Geography:
Global Focus

22. “The International”, Epistemic Fallacy and Possibilities of Critical Realism

Author:
Burak Ülman, Evren Balta-Paker, and Muhammed A. Ağcan
Publication Date:
08-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
This article examines the main assumptions of neo-realism and neo-liberalism from the perspective of a critical realist philosophy of science. Although neo-realist and neo-liberal theories of inter- national relations (IR) disagree on some issues, they do have a common ontological understanding of “the international” based heavily on the principle of anarchy. The centrality of and emphasis on anarchy, in turn, creates a monolithic, unhistorical and asocial idea of the international. This article argues that a critical realist philosophy of science, as proposed by Roy Bhaskar, provides a good framework to pursue the ontological interrogation required to deconstruct the anarchy centered idea of the international assumed by rationalist/positivist theories. Critical realism allows us to identify the crucial error that the rationalist/positivist tradition commits: which is to fall into the trap of ‘epistemic fallacy’, where ontological questions concerning the nature of being are posed and answered in epistemological terms. Critical realism not only provides a tool to investigate the ontological assumptions of mainstream IR theories but also to propose a differentiated and stratified ontology that can open the door to the mutual recognition of alternative perspectives.
Topic:
Political Theory
Political Geography:
Global Focus

23. Perception or Discourse? Security Threats in Copenhagen School and Neoclassical Realism

Author:
Sinem Akgül-Açikmese
Publication Date:
08-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
This article compares the perceptive approach of neoclassical realist security understanding with the discursive constructivist methodology of the Copenhagen School in analyzing the emergence of security threats. It departs from the assumption that these theories divergent in their perspectives on the content of security threats as well as security actors are comparable since they reveal methodological commonalities. The main emphasis of this article is that while partly adopting the perceptive subjectivity of neoclassical realism, the Copenhagen School has further developed an alternative model of discursive intersubjectivity in analyzing security threats. In this context, it will first cover the discussions on the content of security threats in Security Studies literature. It will then compare the assumptions of various realist understandings of security on the content and emergence of security threats, with a particular focus on the perceptive perspective of neoclassical realism. Finally, it will study the threat approach of the Copenhagen School through its securitization theory with insights from the speech-act theory, political theory and discourse analysis, in comparison with neoclassical realism.
Topic:
Security and Political Theory
Political Geography:
Global Focus

24. The Issue of Effectiveness in International Environmental Regimes

Author:
Yasemin Kaya and Sezgin Kaya
Publication Date:
08-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
The effectiveness of international environmental regimes is a subject that is becoming more and more important within the International Relations discipline. While one of the reasons of that is the increasing interest of the international community in environmental issues, the other reason is that the environmental issues have turned into a problem that has a direct impact on the relations among the states. However, there is no consensus on approaches about the assessment of the effectiveness of the environmental regimes. This study aims to consider the different approaches and views that are important in terms of the assessment of the effectiveness of environmental regimes. In this framework, the approaches related to regime effectiveness are assessed, and the outlines of theoretical and methodological framework that can be used in the analysis of regime effectiveness are tried to be defined.
Topic:
Climate Change, Environment, and Political Theory
Political Geography:
Global Focus

25. Eleştirel Gerçekçilik: Uluslararası İlişkiler Kuramında Post-Pozitivizm Sonrası Aşama

Author:
Faruk Yalvaç
Publication Date:
01-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
Critical realism is a philosophy of science that is increasingly occupying the center of discussion in the theory of International Relations. The most important aspect of critical realism is that it shifts the focus of controversy in international relations from epistemology to ontology. According to the materialist ontology of critical realism there exists a reality independent of our observations and experiences. This is an alternative to the dominant positivist as well as post-positivist conceptions of science which associate reality either with what can be observed or with what can be said and thought in discourse. Critical realism provides an understanding of science that overcomes the difficulties of both and explains international relations as part of a totality of social relations with varying ontological depths. By defining structures in terms of social relations, critical realism presents a structural analysis of international relations different from the structuralism of neorealism and develops a transformational model of social activity which tries to avoid both the voluntarism of individualist/unit based analyses and the determinism of structuralist analyses.
Topic:
Political Theory
Political Geography:
Global Focus

26. Uluslararası İlişkiler Kuramında Yapan-Yapı Sorunu

Author:
Alexander E. Wendt
Publication Date:
12-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
The Agent-Structure Problem in International Relations Theory. In this article the nature of structural analysis in each of neorealist and world-system theory are clarified and contrast. The author's primary interest, however, is to critique the conceptions of structural theory found in each of them, and to use this critique to motivate the development of a new approach to structural theorizing about international relations adapted from the work of "structuration theorists" in sociology. In the first section, the author examines the nature of the agent-structure “problem” and briefly identifies the principal kinds of solutions to it. In the second section the author suggests that neorealism and world-system theory embody two of these solutions, the methodological individualist and structuralist ones, respectively. In the third section structurationist approach and its foundations in realist philosophy of science are being defined. In the fourth section, some general epistemological and theoretical implications of structuration theory for the explanation of state action are examined. In the conclusion, the author returns to some implications of scientific realism for social scientific research.
Topic:
International Relations and Political Theory
Political Geography:
Global Focus

27. Hegel, Dünya Tarihi ve Özgürlük Mücadelesi Olarak Uluslararası İlişkiler

Author:
Faruk Yalvaç
Publication Date:
05-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:
Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:
This article attempts to evaluate Hegel's theory of international relations in the context of his general philosophy of history. Hegel defines history as a struggle for freedom for mutual recognition. This is true for individuals as well as for states. The struggle for recognition and freedom is a constant feature of social life. Therefore, it would be wrong to interpret Hegel's philosophy as implying that the struggle for freedom has been completed in the modern nation state and that history has come to an end. However, according to Hegel it would be impossible to predict the future shape of the international society and the form which the struggle for freedom will take as “it is just as foolish to fancy that any philosophy can transcend its present world, as that an individual could leap out of his time or jump over Rhodes. ”
Topic:
Political Theory and History
Political Geography:
Global Focus