Content Type: Journal Article / Topic: Political Theory

1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. Is Terrorism a Unique Form of Violence? An Assessment of the Academic Critique

Author:: Dayyab Gillani
Publication Date:: 07-2022
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: South Asian Studies
Institution:: Department of Political Science, University of the Punjab
Abstract:: The longstanding question over whether or not terrorism is a unique form of violence that demands its own unique set of responses is one of the most outstanding theoretical and conceptual problems in the terrorism discourse. The contentious debate has generated and actively sustained a number of competing theories and convictions. Amidst all this, the already convoluted concept of terrorism has become all the more peculiar. The attempts to undermine the uniqueness of terrorism, in particular, pose a serious challenge to the chances of terrorism ever becoming an independent field of academic research. Given the fallout, it becomes necessary to especially reassess the critique that strips terrorism of its uniqueness and distinctiveness.
Topic:: Terrorism, Political Theory, and Violence
Political Geography:: Pakistan and South Asia

5. 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

6. The institutionalized Buen Vivir: a new hegemonic political paradigm for Ecuador

Author:: Patricio Carpio Benalcazar, Francisco Javier Ullan de La Rosa, and Francisco Javier Ullan de La Rosa
Publication Date:: 02-2021
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional (RBPI)
Institution:: Instituto Brasileiro de Relações Internacionais (IBRI)
Abstract:: Buen Vivir has recently emerged in Latin America as an alternative societal model to the historical liberal (or neoliberal) and Marxist ones. The article focuses on its Ecuadorian variant and, more specifically, the institutionalized version embodied in the 2008 Constitution and the policies of the Citizens’ Revolution governments. This version is the particular result of the convergence of three different currents and has become the hegemonic ideology in the country. The article describes its main thematic axes and appraises its originality, as well as the theoretical and practical contributions.
Topic:: Political Theory, Governance, Hegemony, and Ideology
Political Geography:: South America and Ecuador

7. Mobilizing Resources and Signaling Intentions: a Neoclassical Realist Analysis of Japan’s Domestic and International Instrumentalization of the Senkaku Islands Dispute and China’s Maritime Assertiveness

Author:: Alana Camoca Gonclaves de Oliveira
Publication Date:: 03-2021
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional (RBPI)
Institution:: Instituto Brasileiro de Relações Internacionais (IBRI)
Abstract:: Using a neoclassical realist model, this paper builds an analytical model to understand how countries are able to change or adjust their security and foreign policies. The article analyzes Japan’s foreign and security policies under the Shinzo Abe government, exploring how the Japanese government’s internal and international propaganda on Chinese maritime assertiveness and the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands issue influenced the government’s capacity to mobilize resources in order to transform security policies and legitimize Japan’s military role in the Asia Pacific.
Topic:: Security, Foreign Policy, Political Theory, Military Strategy, and Propaganda
Political Geography:: Japan, Asia, and Asia-Pacific

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. Reflections on Russell Kirk

Author:: Lee Trepanier
Publication Date:: 12-2019
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Humanitas
Abstract:: A century has passed since the birth of Russell Kirk (1918-94), one of the principal founders of the post-World War II conservative revival in the United States.1 This symposium examines Kirk’s legacy with a view to his understanding of constitutional law and the American Founding. But before we examine these essays, it is worth a moment to review Kirk’s life, thought, and place in American conservatism.
Topic:: Religion, Political Theory, Domestic Politics, and Conservatism
Political Geography:: United States

13. Extremism, The American Founding, and Russell Kirk’s The Roots of American Order

Author:: Luigi Bradizza
Publication Date:: 12-2019
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Humanitas
Institution:: The Center for the Study of Statesmanship, Catholic University
Abstract:: Russell Kirk has three interlocking intentions in writing The Roots of American Order.1 First, he would draw our attention to the appearance of modern tyranny, particularly as established by the French and Russian revolutions, and have us see this form of tyranny as a new and especially dangerous type of political evil. Second, he aims to keep America from succumbing to a similar modern tyranny by arguing that America is largely the result of premodern strains of thought and historical and cultural experiences that have combined to give us an ordered liberty that, if properly understood and attended to, insulates us from modern tyranny.2 Third, in recovering an understanding of our ordered liberty, Kirk would also have us renew our loyalty to it on its own terms (apart from the protection it offers us from modern tyranny) and retain it as the substantial political goal toward which Americans can and should aim. In recovering an appreciation of the premodern roots of American order, Kirk sets himself against the position that America can be understood as a fundamentally early-modern liberal nation. Though recent scholarly work on the place of natural rights in the American Founding has raised questions about Kirk’s analysis of the Founding, it is my argument that Kirk’s analysis is largely sound because America’s political culture does indeed have deep roots in premodernity. Furthermore, Kirk’s analysis of modern tyranny is also sound. Despite the fact that debate over the character of the Founding is very much alive, and regardless of how it turns out, loyalty to Kirk’s understanding of ordered liberty is vital because the American ordered liberty that he describes is a precondition of human flourishing.
Topic:: Religion, Political Theory, Domestic Politics, and Conservatism
Political Geography:: United States

14. A Sympathetic Reading of Emerson’s Politics

Author:: William J. Berger
Publication Date:: 12-2019
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Humanitas
Institution:: The Center for the Study of Statesmanship, Catholic University
Abstract:: Ralph Waldo Emerson has a complicated political legacy owing at least in part to his own intermittent and hesitant political activism, crass racism, and fierce individualism. Despite this, a steady stream of political philosophers have attended to Emerson’s work, with the likes of John Dewey proclaiming him “the philosopher of democracy” (1903). But as his writings continually direct readers inwards—away from social and political life—recovering an Emersonian politics is not a straightforward task. A basic difficulty lies in the fact that Emerson “did not consider himself a political thinker and focused his energies on issues that seem, at first glance far removed from politics. . . . From first to last Emerson regarded politics as one of the practical applications of ethics or moral philosophy, and he insisted that all political questions were, at bottom, moral” (Robinson, 2004: 1). But politics is not just morality scaled up. It raises distinct collective concerns to which individuated moral philosophy cannot speak. As such, imputing a political theory to Emerson is not a simple matter. Jennifer Gurley may best summarize the difficulty of recovering a political Emerson, noting: “of all the nineteenth century American writers we might describe as political, he is perhaps the one who most despised politics, proclaiming they are ‘odious and hurtful’. . .” (Gurley, 2007: 323).
Topic:: Political Theory and Philosophy
Political Geography:: United States

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. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. Gender Issues in the Ivory Tower of Brazilian IR

Author:: Mariana Pimenta Oliveira Baccarini, Xaman Korai Minillo, and Elia Elisa Cia Alves
Publication Date:: 08-2019
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Contexto Internacional
Institution:: Institute of International Relations, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro
Abstract:: What is the status of women in the discipline of International Relations (IR) in Brazil? This study provides a pioneering map of gender issues in Brazilian IR, focusing on inequality, discrimination and harassment. It includes a literature review as well as the findings of two sets of research: the first a survey of personal and professional issues faced by academic staff in Brazilian IR, and the second a report on the staffing of IR and related departments at private and public academic institutions in Brazil. Our research shows that despite the specificities of the Brazilian higher education system, Brazilian IR academics conform to international trends in respect of gender issues, facing monetary and/or familial inequalities and gender discrimination in their careers. It also shows that 25% of female academics have experienced undesired sexual contact at least once, and that there is a gap between male and female understandings of what constitutes sexual harassment.
Topic:: International Relations, Political Theory, and International Relations Theory
Political Geography:: Brazil and Latin America

22. 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

23. 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

24. Reshaping International Relations: Theoretical Innovations from Africa

Author:: Karen Smith
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:: This article is based on the assumption that theoretical contributions from the global South – and in this case, from Africa, do not need to be radically different from existing theories to constitute an advancement in terms of engendering a better understanding of international relations. Reinterpretations or modifications of existing frameworks and the introduction of new concepts for understanding are equally important. This is an accepted practice in mainstream IR, where existing theories are constantly amended and revisited. One need only consider the various incarnations of realist thought.While adaptations and conceptual innovations by western scholars are recognised as legitimate and adopted into the canon of theory, this is not always the case with similar contributions emerging from outside of the West. This article will examine three examples of such contributions by African scholars. The first group of scholars reinterpreted the concept of “middle power,” arguing that there are specific characteristics that set emerging middle powers like South Africa apart from traditional middle powers. The second, Deon Geldenhuys, developed the concept “isolated states” and generated a novel analytical framework to categorise states based on indicators of isolation. Finally, Thomas Tieku draws on the African worldview of ubuntu in calling for the state to be reconceptualised in a collectivist, societal way. It is hoped that these examples will illustrate that there are theoretical innovations emerging from the Global South that can assist us in not only better understanding international relations in a particular part of the world, but can in fact provide greater insights into the field as a whole.
Topic:: International Relations, Political Theory, Emerging States, and Power
Political Geography:: Africa and South Africa

25. 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

26. Hebrew Sources in the Doctrine of the Law of Nature and Nations in Early Modern Europe

Author:: Charles Leben
Publication Date:: 01-2016
Content Type:: Journal Article
Abstract:: This article sets out to re-examine Hebrew sources in the doctrine of the law of nations of the 17th century, from Gentili’s De Jure Belli Libri Tres (although it strictly belongs to the 16th century since it was first published in 1598) to Pufendorf’s De Jure Naturae et Gentium (1672). It incontrovertibly confirms the importance of Jewish sources in the general intellectual education of the founding fathers of international law and in their general political philosophy while limiting their role with respect to the construction of international law in the strict and contemporaneous sense of the term.
Topic:: International Law, Religion, Political Theory, History, Law, and Judaism
Political Geography:: Europe and Mediterranean

27. Isabelle Ley. Opposition im Völkerrecht: Ein Beitrag zur Legitimation internationaler Rechtserzeugung [Opposition in International Law: A Contribution to the Legitimation of International Law-Making]

Author:: Jan Klabbers
Publication Date:: 07-2015
Content Type:: Journal Article
Abstract:: Isabelle Ley, in her exemplary dissertation defended at Humboldt University, takes the emergence of regulatory international law as her starting point and aims to investigate how its democratic legitimacy could be enhanced. For her, democracy is not just a matter of particular institutions or practices but, rather, of open and possibly oppositional politics. Building on the work of Claude Lefort and, in particular, Hannah Arendt, she develops a framework for discussing democracy in international law conceptualized as the possibility for opposition. A democratic polity is one where every participant has the possibility of helping to take care of the common world, as Arendt might have put it, and presupposes open politics. This politics is, so to speak, politics for the sake of politics or politics in the Olympic spirit: what matters is not so much winning but taking part; what matters is not so much which policies will be adopted but the political process itself. Following Aristotle, taking part in public affairs is viewed as the most salient manifestation of human excellence: man being a political animal, he can do no better than take part in the political process – this is where individual happiness is achieved and, therewith, the ultimate justification of democracy.
Topic:: International Law, International Organization, Political Theory, and Democracy
Political Geography:: Europe and Germany

28. Politics of Ethnicity: A Theoretical Perspective

Author:: Rehana Saeed Hashmi and Gulshan Majeed
Publication Date:: 01-2015
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: South Asian Studies
Institution:: Department of Political Science, University of the Punjab
Abstract:: Ethnicity and Ethnic Politics is an important Phenomenon of Plural Societies. In developing world, ethnic politics is one of the main reasons of internal instability. Ethnic conflict leads towards ethnic politics which is often conceived as a conflict among ethnic groups. This study has focused on the theoretical frame work of ethnic politics, and the main argument is that state has a central role in developing, escalating and diffusing ethnic conflict that is why ethnic conflict does not only mean conflict among ethnic groups but group’s conflict with state is also the part of ethnic politics. The study highlights various steps towards the development of politics of ethnicity. A life cycle model of ethnic conflict is also drawn to analyze various stages of conflict, and how the intensity of ethnic conflict with state gradually gain momentum. The debate also focuses that ethnic conflict with state should be handled on priority basis. If state fails to resolve conflict, the reformation of nationality of a particular ethnic group creates serious unrest and threat to the process of nation building.
Topic:: Conflict Prevention, Ethnic Conflict, Political Theory, Ethnicity, and State
Political Geography:: Pakistan, South Asia, India, and Kashmir

29. Catalan Secessionism: Young People's Expectations and Political Change

Author:: Montserrat Guibernau
Publication Date:: 09-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: The International Spectator
Institution:: Istituto Affari Internazionali
Abstract:: Various factors have triggered the recent shift from devolution to secession in Catalonia: the Aznar government's lack of response to demands for greater autonomy for Catalonia, the legal challenging of the 2006 Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia and, increasingly, economic arguments as Catalan society endures a harsh economic crisis. After evaluating the impact of the Spanish transition to democracy upon younger generations' expectations regarding the meaning and content of democracy in post-Franco Spain, it is argued that democracy based upon 'consensus' rather than 'majoritarian democracy' would be better suited to respond to national minorities' demands in Spain.
Topic:: Economics, Government, and Political Theory
Political Geography:: Spain

30. Neoclassical realism and international climate change politics: moral imperative and political constraint in international climate finance

Author:: Mark Purdon
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of International Relations and Development
Institution:: Central and East European International Studies Association
Abstract:: In this article, I present a neoclassical realist theory of climate change politics that challenges the idea that cooperation on climate change is compelled alone by shared norms and interests emanating from the international level and questions if instead material factors also play a significant constraining role. Relative-gains concerns incited by the international resource transfers implicit in climate change policy may compel some states to be prudent in their international climate change efforts and conserve resources domestically for future contingencies, including their own adaptation and resiliency. Neoclassical realism recognises such systemic constraints while also identifying international and domestic factors—a 'two-level game'—that explain variation in state sensitivity to relative gains. As a preliminary test of this theory, I compare the latest data on the magnitude, distribution and financial 'additionality' of climate funds and carbon markets. Climate funds are found to be more vulnerable to systemic forces identified by neoclassical realism because they are largely drawn from existing official development assistance budgets despite international commitments that funds are 'new and additional'. Carbon markets engage a relatively broader number of states and, contrary to moral hazard concerns, have been used to a greater degree by states reducing emissions domestically. While there are concerns about whether carbon credits represent genuine emission reductions, the effectiveness of climate funds is equally, if not more, dubious. I conclude that, while imperfect, carbon markets have too often been unfairly compared with an ideal climate finance mechanism that assumes few political constraints on international resource transfers for climate change.
Topic:: Security, Foreign Policy, International Security, Political Theory, and Bilateral Relations
Political Geography:: Europe

31. European integration and the problem of the state: universality, particularity, and exemplarity in the crafting of the European Union

Author:: Stefan Borg
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of International Relations and Development
Institution:: Central and East European International Studies Association
Abstract:: The European Union is often presented as an entity that has 'moved beyond' the model of organising political life along the way of the modern sovereign state. This paper questions this understanding by engaging a set of texts that could be understood as exemplary of the EU's official discourse of Europe: EU's failed Constitutional Treaty and Javier Solana's collected speeches. A paradox is herein identified: the values that are said to sustain Europe's identity and upon which Europe is founded are simultaneously presented as distinctly European and universal. It is suggested that Europe is being crafted in a pendular oscillation between particularising and universalising the values upon which Europe allegedly rests. By drawing on critical International Relations theory, the paper suggests that this very contradictory oscillation between particularising and universalising Europe's values to an important extent mirrors modern statecraft. One should therefore think twice before announcing the construction of the European Union as something qualitatively different from, or 'gentler' than, modern statecraft.
Topic:: Security, Foreign Policy, Political Theory, and Bilateral Relations
Political Geography:: Europe

32. The West: a securitising community?

Author:: Gunther Hellmann, Gabi Schlag, Benjamin Herborth, and Christian Weber
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of International Relations and Development
Institution:: Central and East European International Studies Association
Abstract:: The primary objective of this article is to theorise transformations of Western order in a manner that does not presuppose a fixed understanding of 'the West' as a pre-constituted political space, ready-made and waiting for social scientific enquiry. We argue that the Copenhagen School's understanding of securitisation dynamics provides an adequate methodological starting point for such an endeavour. Rather than taking for granted the existence of a Western 'security community', we thus focus on the performative effects of a security semantics in which 'the West' figures as the threatened, yet notoriously vague referent object that has to be defended against alleged challenges. The empirical part of the article reconstructs such securitisation dynamics in three different fields: the implications of representing China's rise as a challenge to Western order, the effects of the transformation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) towards a global security actor, and the consequences of extraordinary renditions and practices of torture for the normative infrastructure of 'the West'. We conclude that Western securitisation dynamics can be understood as a discursive shift away from a legally enshrined culture of restraint and towards more assertive forms of self-authorisation.
Topic:: Security, Foreign Policy, Political Theory, and Bilateral Relations
Political Geography:: Europe

33. 'Moral power' as objectification of the 'civilian'/'normative' 'EUlogy': the European Union as a conflict-dealer in the South Caucasus

Author:: Syuzanna Vasilyan
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of International Relations and Development
Institution:: Central and East European International Studies Association
Abstract:: This article develops a new conceptual framework of 'moral power' by arguing that the 'civilian'/'normative' power Europe paradigms are insufficient for understanding the essence of the conflict resolution policy of the European Union (EU) in the South Caucasus. Analysing the conflicts of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno-Karabakh, the study reveals that until the August 2008 war, the EU was an incoherent actor in terms of the interplay among its institutions and member-states. The EU's policy has been devoid of a long-term peace-focused strategy, making it inconsequential; as a result, the EU has merely dealt with, rather than managed, the conflicts. Its rhetoric has been inconsistent with practice. Often the EU has subordinated its values to material and power-related interests. Moreover, the EU has hardly been normatively stable in its approach to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Bypassing inclusiveness until the launch of the Geneva talks pertaining to the Abkhazian and South Ossetian conflicts, the EU has not enjoyed much legitimacy by the de facto states. Whereas the EU has largely failed to resolve the South Caucasian conflicts, it has achieved partial success by putting a halt to the 2008 hostilities between Russia and Georgia. Overall, having faltered as a 'civilian'/'normative' power it still has to fare as a 'moral power'.
Topic:: Security, Foreign Policy, Political Theory, and Bilateral Relations
Political Geography:: Russia, Europe, Georgia, South Caucasus, South Ossetia, and Abkhazia

34. Looking back: communist melancholia and post-socialist pains

Author:: Anca Pusca
Publication Date:: 07-2014
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of International Relations and Development
Institution:: Central and East European International Studies Association
Abstract:: Remembering communism in Central and Eastern Europe is a tricky business, as memories are increasingly put on display through practices of museumisation, collective and personal biographies and official investigations. Everything — from former factories to architecture, monuments and statues, to secret service files and other material reminders — is carefully reshaped into politically convenient, or in some cases inconvenient, discourses.
Topic:: Security, Foreign Policy, Political Theory, and Bilateral Relations
Political Geography:: Europe

35. Notebook: Christopher Meyer

Author:: Christopher Meyer
Publication Date:: 09-2012
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Chatham House
Abstract:: No abstract is available.
Topic:: Political Theory

36. 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

37. 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

38. “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

39. 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

40. Avrupa Birliği-Türkiye İlişkilerine Postyapısalcı Yaklaşım: Almanya Örneğinde Dış Politika ve Söylem Analizi

Author:: Senem Aydın Düzgit
Publication Date:: 05-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:: In line with the poststructuralist approach that theorises identity as relationally constructed through discourse, the purpose of this article is to shed light on the different visions of Europe that are constructed in debates on Turkey’s accession to the EU among German politicians. The article focuses on the political party debates on Turkish accession in Germany, a key member state in EU integration and the debate on Turkish membership to the EU, and subjects them to critical discourse analysis. In doing that, it also brings forward the importance of the concept of discourse from a poststructuralist perspective.
Topic:: International Relations, Political Theory, and European Union
Political Geography:: Europe, Turkey, and Germany

41. “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

42. 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

43. The Interaction between Theories of European Integration and the Literature on Turkey: Rethinking the Europeanization Research Program through the Case of Turkey

Author:: H. Tolga Bölükbasi, Ebru Ertugal, and Saime Özçürümez
Publication Date:: 08-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:: This article argues that the evolution of the Europeanization research program and that of the literature on Turkey has come evolved incongruously. The article identifies the limits of this interaction, investigates the conceptual, theoretical and methodological origins of these limits, and concludes that such incongruence may be overcome by cross-utilization of the conceptual, theoretical, methodological, and research design tools offered by the Europeanization research program more effectively in studying Turkey. Doing so will allow studying the exclusive impact of the EU on the processes of transformation in Turkey by isolating its transformative role from the impact of other domestic dynamics and international factors.
Topic:: Political Theory
Political Geography:: Europe and Turkey

44. 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

45. The development of International Relations theory in the UK: traditions, contemporary perspectives, and trajectories

Author:: Chris Brown
Publication Date:: 05-2011
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: International Relations of the Asia-Pacific
Institution:: Japan Association of International Relations
Abstract:: British International Relations (IR) theory is distinguished by a concern with institutions and norms, and by an emphasis on history, philosophy, and law rather than the formal methods of the social sciences; in both respects, but especially the latter, it differs from American IR theory. The origins of British IR theory are traced, and the importance of the 'English School' (ES) is stressed, partly because of the work it stimulates, but also because of its role as a brand which helps to establish the independence of British IR from the otherwise dominant American profession. Along with ES scholarship (pluralist and solidarist), political theory and IR, and critical theory, including critical security studies, are the major areas where contemporary IR theory in Britain is located. This is likely to persist, but the generally critical approach taken to social scientific theorizing may be changing, with the increasing importance of historical sociology and critical realist work. It may also be the case that the privileged status of IR theory in British IR may be under challenge.
Topic:: International Relations, Development, and Political Theory
Political Geography:: United Kingdom and America

46. 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

47. 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

48. Homeros'dan Hobbes ve Ötesine: "Güvenlik" Kavramının Avrupa Geleneğindeki Boyutları

Author:: J. Frederik M. Arends
Publication Date:: 09-2009
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:: This article examines the historical development of the concept of security in two phases. In the first phase, the word coined by the Romans as 'securitas' and accompanied from the beginning by ambivalence and religious connotations had conceded most of its territory to 'certitudo' at the end of the Middle Ages. In the second phase starting in the times of Thomas Hobbes, it became one of the paradigmatic 'great words' of the modern state. In this phase, 'security' became associated with the genesis of the authoritarian 'super state' committed to the prevention of civil war. This article starts by elaborating the connection between Thomas Hobbes and the ancient Greek historian Thucydides and proceeds by examining the usages of the concept by several contemporary authors.
Topic:: Political Theory and History
Political Geography:: Europe

49. 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

50. Uluslararası İlişkiler Teorisinde Yerel- Görüşlülük ve Doğu\'nun Özneselliği

Author:: Bahar Rumelili
Publication Date:: 12-2009
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:: I argue that International Relations Theory has not been able to transcend its parochialism because it continues to negate the agency of the East. By analyzing the articles published in four leading journals of the discipline between 2002-2007, I find that the number of studies that focus on the East have indeed increased, but most of these studies continue to situate the cases derived from the East in the context of West-centric theories. Even critical approaches continue to position the West as the main subject of international relations and dismiss the mutual constitution and interaction between the East and the West, and the local and global. I contend that the generation of non-Western IR theories is not going to pose an adequate challenge to West-centrism; what is necessary is the formulation of specific propositions on East-West relations that directly counter the established assumptions of West-centric theories.
Topic:: Political Theory
Political Geography:: America, Europe, and Asia

51. Uluslararası Politikada Karşılıklı Bağımlılık ve Küreselleşme Üzerine Bir İnceleme

Author:: Muharrem Gürkaynak and Serhan Yalçıner
Publication Date:: 12-2009
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:: This study aims to evaluate the current position of the interdependence theory which existed in the literature of international relations for over thirty years. The study focuses particularly on the theory of interdependence as formulated by Keohane and Nye and its development. Keohane and Nye's pluralist understanding of international relations got into transformation and drove through several stages with the international system itself. After its early years, the pattern of interdependence has followed up a line of evolution from complex interdependence to globalism The study, after evaluating these stages, discusses the term of interdependence within the context of USA-Japan relations and the linkage of USA with international leadership, and arrives at the conclusion that the terms of interdependence and globalization are not equivalent, but complementary.
Topic:: Political Theory
Political Geography:: United States and Japan

52. The political realism of Augustine and Morgenthau: Issues of Man, God, and just war

Author:: Bettina Dahl Soendergaard
Publication Date:: 04-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Alternatives: Turkish Journal of International Relations
Institution:: Center for International Conflict Resolution at Yalova University
Abstract:: Augustine and Morgenthau are examples of classical political realists who base their arguments on the nature of man. Both believe that man is born evil but they differ on the question if man can improve. Augustine also believes that the statesman has a moral purpose while Morgenthau believes that the consequences of man's nature can only be counterbalanced. This difference is rooted in Morgenthau and Augustine's different views of the meaning of peace. To Morgenthau, peace is power balance and stability and a permanent peace cannot be achieved. Augustine, however, describes two kinds of peace, the earthly peace and God's peace. The article discusses these differences and how it impacts their views on moral and war. These different views have similarity with the different views that led to the Reformation in the 1500's and their difference is as great.
Topic:: Political Economy and Political Theory

53. Causes for Participation in Hegemonic Governance

Author:: Cornelia Beyer
Publication Date:: 04-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Alternatives: Turkish Journal of International Relations
Institution:: Center for International Conflict Resolution at Yalova University
Abstract:: This article argues that the causes for participation in Global Governance are to be found in part in the mere structure of it. In the debate about Global Governance, largely, the issue of power is neglected. However, we certainly deal with a hegemonic constellation. Therefore, the power is present and exerted in Global Governance. It is argued here, that the exertion of power in Global Governance by the United States is causal for participation in it. The study looks at the Global Governance of Counterterrorism, i.e. the Global War on Terrorism, and the regional organizations of ASEAN and the EU.
Topic:: International Organization, International Political Economy, and Political Theory
Political Geography:: United States

54. Sense and Nonsense About European Security Policy

Author:: Michael Brenner
Publication Date:: 01-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: European Affairs
Institution:: The European Institute
Abstract:: For Europe to punch its weight in global affairs, the leaders of the European Union need to think more lucidly and more realistically about what their actual security priorities should be. Tough obstacles persist, but clarity could help.
Topic:: International Political Economy and Political Theory
Political Geography:: America and Europe

55. The Children of Antifascism: Exploring Young Historians Clubs in the GDR

Author:: Catherine Plum
Publication Date:: 03-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: German Politics and Society
Institution:: German Politics and Society Journal
Abstract:: In 1982, a ninth grader named Anna from Eberswalde-Finow composed an essay in which she recounted one of the most influential moments in her life. One might have expected a description of a triumphant victory at a swim meet or gymnastics competition. Instead, Anna described a day four years earlier when she was formally inducted into a special club at her school. The initiation ceremony took place at an historical site laden with a disturbing legacy, the former concentration camp of Ravensbrück. Anna remembered the moment when she became a card-carrying member of the young military historians:
Topic:: Civil Society, Education, Government, and Political Theory

56. "Subaltern Nationalism" and the West Berlin Anti-Authoritarians

Author:: Jennifer Ruth Hosek
Publication Date:: 03-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: German Politics and Society
Institution:: German Politics and Society Journal
Abstract:: The West Berlin anti-authoritarians around Rudi Dutschke employed a notion of subaltern nationalism inspired by independence struggles in the global South and particularly by post 1959 Cuba to legitimate their loosely understood plans to recreate West Berlin as a revolutionary island. Responding to Che Guevara's call for many Vietnams, they imagined this Northern metropolis as a Focus spreading socialism of the third way throughout Europe, a conception that united their local and global aims. In focusing on their interpretation of societal changes and structures in Cuba, the anti-authoritarians deemphasized these plans' potential for violence. As a study of West German leftists in transnational context, this article suggests the limitations of confining analyses of their projects within national or Northern paradigms. As a study of the influence of the global South on the North in a non-(post)colonial situation, it suggests that such influence is greater than has heretofore been understood.
Topic:: Nationalism and Political Theory
Political Geography:: Europe, Germany, Cuba, Island, and Berlin

57. The Emerging Structure of International Politics

Author:: Kenneth Waltz
Publication Date:: 03-2008
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:: During the Cold War, the bipolar structure od international system and the nuclear weaponry avaliable to some states combined to perpetuate a troubled peace. As the bipolar era draws to a close, one has to question the likely structural changes in prospect. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, bipolarity endures, albeit in an altered state, because Russia stil takes care of itself and no great powers have emerged yet. With the waning of Russian power, the United States is no longer held in check by any other country. Balance of power theory leads one to assume that other powers, alone or in concert, will bring American power into balance. Considing the likely changes in the structure of international system, one can presuppose that three political units may rise to great-power rank: Germany or a West European state, Japan and China. Despite all the progress achieved by these countries, for some years to come, the United States will be the leading counrty economically as well as militarily.
Topic:: Cold War, International Political Economy, Nuclear Weapons, Politics, and Political Theory
Political Geography:: Russia, United States, Japan, China, Europe, and Germany

58. ELISE Final Synthesis Report

Author:: Didier Bigo and R.B.J. Walker
Publication Date:: 01-2006
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Cultures & Conflits
Institution:: Cultures & Conflits
Abstract:: In EU Treaties "liberty" is always the principle against which any state interference on the basis of security must be limited, justified and open to judicial scrutiny. The perspective sketched here, along with the more specific research projects that inform it, suggest an urgent need for much more robust resistance to the marginalization of claims about liberty whenever the necessities of security are invoked. In general terms it might be said that where the possibilities of political liberty are currently being constrained by forms of structural and institutional fragmentation, they ought to be nurtured by imaginative forms of cooperation across existing jurisdictions; and where the possibilities of cooperation and unification are being sought in order to control human populations on a wider scale, they ought to be subject to greater scrutiny and control by many different democratically accountable communities and institutions. The policy implications advanced in this paper follow these principles. La liberté constitue toujours le principe à partir duquel toutes les interférences des Etats en termes de sécurité doivent être limitées, justifiées et transparentes dans les traités de l\'Union européenne. La perspective qui s\'esquisse ici, avec les projets de recherches plus spécifiques qui en font partie, suggère que la résistance face à la marginalisation des revendications de liberté doit être plus forte dès lors que l\'on invoque le besoin d\'une sécurité accrue. En d\'autres termes, là où les possibilités de liberté politique sont désormais retenues par des formes de fragmentation structurelle et institutionnelle, elles devraient se nourrir des formes imaginaires de coopération entre les juridictions existantes ; et là où les possibilités de coopération et d\'unification sont pensées pour contrôler les populations dans une plus grande ampleur, elles devraient faire l\'objet d\'un contrôle démocratique plus important, qu\'il soit parlementaire ou qu\'il vienne de communautés et d\'institutions démocratiques responsables et transparentes. Les implications en termes de politiques, que nous mettons en avant dans ce texte, suivent les principes que nous venons d\'exposer.
Topic:: Security and Political Theory

59. Genealogy of the Field of European Judicial Cooperation

Author:: Antoine Megie
Publication Date:: 06-2006
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Cultures & Conflits
Institution:: Cultures & Conflits
Abstract:: L'objet de l'article est de tracer les pistes d'étude qui permettent de mieux comprendre les caractéristiques et les conséquences de la mise en place d'une coopération pénale à l'échelle européenne. Prenant en considération la littérature juridique et institutionnelle déjà importante sur ce sujet, il s'agit d'expliquer en quoi une approche historique en termes de processus constitue une première piste essentielle pour appréhender les différentes étapes de la construction d'un pouvoir pénal européen qui, loin d'être linéaire, apparaît plutôt comme intermittente et chaotique. Saisir les différentes phases de cette européanisation implique de travailler sur les moments de ruptures et de changements. La mise en évidence de ces instants critiques conduit, dans un second temps, à placer au cœur de l'analyse les interactions entre les acteurs via l'étude de leurs ressources sociales et de leurs représentations. La compréhension des logiques du champ de la coopération pénale permet, enfin, de donner du sens à la forme normative que revêt aujourd'hui le régime judiciaire européen notamment concernant le déséquilibre structurel qui existe en défaveur des droits procéduraux et des libertés civiles.
Topic:: Political Economy and Political Theory
Political Geography:: Europe

60. Le monopole étatique de la violence : le Brésil face à l´héritage occidental

Author:: Sergio Adorno
Publication Date:: 09-2005
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Cultures & Conflits
Institution:: Cultures & Conflits
Abstract:: Dans un livre publié en 2004 – La violence – Michel Wieviorka suggère l´hypothèse d'une remise en cause, à l'heure actuelle, dans les sociétés occidentales, de la formule weberienne qui plaide en faveur du monopole légitime de la violence physique en tant que fondement de l´État moderne. Bien que l'on puisse être d´accord avec cette hypothèse générale, on ne peut pas l´accepter aussi complètement, si l'on considère les sociétés « de l´extrême Occident » (selon l'expression d'Alain Rouquier), comme c'est le cas du Brésil. En dépit des mutations survenues de par les liens de société brésilienne avec le mouvement de la mondialisation, le contrôle démocratique de la violence et du crime urbain suggère un double défi à relever : d'un côté, le contrôle d'une violence endémique qui se déploie au sein de la société civile; et d'un autre côté, le contrôle, autant par la société civile organisée que par le gouvernement civil, des forces répressives de l'Etat.
Topic:: Political Theory
Political Geography:: Brazil

61. Penser la violence : en réponse à Sergio Adorno

Author:: Michel Wieviorka
Publication Date:: 09-2005
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Cultures & Conflits
Institution:: Cultures & Conflits
Abstract:: La formule célèbre de Max Weber sur le monopole étatique de la violence physique légitime peut être lue en termes historiques, c\'est-à-dire pour caractériser certains Etats à certains moments, ou en termes plus abstraits, comme l\'amorce d\'une théorie générale de l\'Etat. Mais dans les deux cas, elle suscite bien des critiques, les unes renvoyant à des facteurs externes, à commencer par la globalisation, les autres aux transformations internes des Etats, et par exemple à la privatisation des activités policières, et d\'autres encore à la façon dont se télescopent dans les changements récents les frontières entre logiques externes et logiques internes.
Topic:: Political Theory

62. European Integration in the Light of the International Relations Theories

Author:: Sinem Akgül Açikmese
Publication Date:: 03-2004
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:: This article contends that most of the intellectual work on European integration reflect major dichotomies between the theories of International Relations. During the first few decades of the integration process, the core European integration debate involved idealism-oriented neo-functionalists and realism-oriented intergovernmentalist approaches; whereas the current scholarship on European integration mirrors the main division that has emerged within the discipline of International Relations since 1980's between rationalists regarding the integration process as the products conscious member states' behaviour and constructivists focusing on policy-formation based on norms and common values. The main purpose of this article is to analyse the evolution of European integration within the context of the traditional and contemporary debates of International Relations. Since the sui generis nature of the integration process in the shape of the European Union constitutes a barrier to theorizing efforts in general terms, this article argues that each theory can only explain some pieces of the integration puzzle.
Topic:: Government and Political Theory
Political Geography:: Europe

63. "East" and "West" from the Sociology of Knowledge Perspective

Author:: Sennur Özdemir
Publication Date:: 03-2004
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:: This study elaborates and (re)conceptualizes the 'east' and the 'west', representing the two distinct historical and 'socio-economic whole from a 'sociology of knowledge' dimension. The most important consequence of the defining characteristics of 'the west' (as being hierarchical, class-based and exclusive), lies in its class-based and partial nature resulting in an identification of knowledge with power. This is also responsible for the 'metaphysical nature' of the 'western' knowledge and science: 'Dualistic-exclusive and polaristic' character of 'western habitus' creating a large gap between 'theory and practice' can also be understood in this context. All these together explain the reasons for not being capable of 'universal and representative' of modern knowledge and science. As a result, this study projects that as 'eastern characteristics' has increasingly become more hegemonical on global level, a transition from cyclically reproducing 'exclusive and contradictory' relational and methodological 'western' 'style' to comprehensive new paradigmatic methodologies and syntheses will be expected.
Topic:: Islam, Religion, and Political Theory

64. A Structural Theory of Imperialism

Author:: Johan Galtung
Publication Date:: 06-2004
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:: Galtung develops a theory of imperialism to account for inequality within and between nations and the resistance of this inequality to change. He distinguishes between Centre and Periphery and argues that those in power in the former have a community of interest with those in power in the latter. The result is a relationship which operates at the expense of the majority of the people in the Peripheral countries, but which is largely in the interest of the majority of the people in Centre countries. Two mechanisms of imperialism are defined. One is the pattern of vertical interaction whereby the dominating nation enriches itself as a result of the interaction process. The second mechanism is the feudal interaction structure whereby the dominated nations in the periphery are kept apart.
Topic:: Imperialism and Political Theory

65. A Structural Theory of Imperialism - Part II

Author:: Johan Galtung
Publication Date:: 09-2004
Content Type:: Journal Article
Institution:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:: Galtung develops a theory of imperialism to account for inequality within and between nations and the resistance of this inequality to change. He distinguishes between Centre and Periphery and argues that those in power in the former have a community of interest with those in power in the latter. The result is a relationship which operates at the expense of the majority of the people in the Peripheral countries, but which is largely in the interest of the majority of the people in Centre countries. Two mechanisms of imperialism are defined. One is the pattern of vertical interaction whereby the dominating nation enriches itself as a result of the interaction process. The second mechanism is the feudal interaction structure whereby the dominated nations in the periphery are kept apart.
Topic:: Imperialism and Political Theory

66. Power and Systemic Dependence from Liberalism to Neoliberalism

Author:: Yücel Bozdaglioglu and Çinar Özen
Publication Date:: 12-2004
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Institution:: Uluslararasi Iliskiler
Abstract:: This paper analyzes and compares the concept of power as defined both in liberalism/neolibaeralism and realism. As a result of this analysis, it is presented that there is not a big difference between the definitions of liberal/neoliberal and realist approaches in terms of the goals and both schools converge in that aspect. While realism emphasizes the importance of military power, liberalism/neoliberalism points out the importance of power arising from economic relations. Under this analytical framework, a definition of systemic power is presented. Systemic power is not the capacity of a state to have a direct influence on others' behaviors but power that arises from a state's ability to change the political and economic structure of the system. In this context, systemic power is crucial in creating and maintaining hegemony.
Topic:: International Political Economy and Political Theory

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