International Relations

International Relations

1. ENGLISH SCHOOL

   • between realism and liberalism
   • realism abandons the idea of intn society
   • war = the breakdown of order
   • great powers, limited war and the balance of power are all institutions
   • waltz: not positivist, so not a theory
   • criticism: can collective constructs have agency?
   • IR is not just about states but also about NGOs etc
   • history helps us know why and how
   • implications of theorist's beliefs
   • IR is normative
   • similar to constructivism
     • inner state order is a social sphere
     • ES focuses on diplomats etc, not the state
   • diplomatic and FR elites are the real agents of intn society
   • states are the primary members, but not the only members (NGOs, religions)
   • intn society is not always harmonious order, but tolerable order
   • Pluralist intn society values sovereignty and sees intervention as a threat
     • solidarist intn society modifies sovereignty and protects human rights
     • third type = mix of the two - complex governance
   • studying the formulation of the system, we can see what shapes intn societies
   • intn system similar to systems theory in realism
   • wold society looks at rights, equality and freedoms

2. Constructivism

   • lacks a theory of agency
   • the setting in which agents take action is social and material
     • this setting provides states with an understanding of their interests
       • the US is not worried about british nuclear weapons, just korean ones
   • constructivists don't question science or causal explanation
   • cooperation has made a european identity
   • sovereignty has made us think we need to defend our boundaries
   • IR is defined by process, not structure
   • self help originates from the interaction of units in the system
   • Constructivism's failure is that it focuses on epistemological debates without looking enough at how identities are formed in practice
   • interests and identity should be a dependent variable
   • identities and interests are not given

3. The English School

   • order is not a goal, but a possible state
   • order is a pattern that arranges social life and promotes goals or values
   • societal goals = secure life, promises kept and stable posessions
   • intn system: states have an effect on each others' actions
   • intn society: common interests/values and bound by a common set of rules
   • goals of intn society
     • preservation of the system
     • maintaining sovereignty
     • peace
   • the world is made up of hobbesian realist tradition, kantian universalist tradition and grotian internationalist tradition
     • grotian view is between the first two, with sovereign states as the principle
   • christian intn society: no clear membership. natural law not positive law, inchoate rules of coexistance
     • then came european intn society
       • European IS: natural law, not positive, states have membership,
         • then world intn society, hobbesian with wars, states try to transcend the system, return to natural law
   • the world is not hobbesian because it's not just about security
   • methodological pluralism
   • historicism
   • the English School needs both to construct a more coherent research agenda

4. Critical Theory

   • structures are both frameworks and the effects of human activity
   • structures condition but do not determine individual actions
   • structures can be resisted and opposed
   • Problem solving theory accepts the current world order
     • dvises the means to sustain the prevailing order, irrespective of the outcome
   • critical theory sees the current social order as one historical possibility amongst others
     • conceptualises alternatives that can guide processes of change, in light of the ends of human emancipation
   • Beck: globalisation -> cosmopolitanism
   • cosmopolitanism = a universal community of humanity
     • the interests of humanity come before the interests of the state
   • post-national frames of reference make visibe problems obscured by naional perspective
   • linklater: together, the ES and Crit Theory promote global solidarity and liberation from injustice
   • CHCs define impermissable harms in human relations
   • Cosmo harm principle: do not harm people regardless of where it is
   • abstract harm = poverty, nuclear energy accidents, diseases, environmental degredation
   • barbaric modernity, and solidarist modernity

5. Post Colonialism

   • the discipline of history was rooted in the idea of human progress
     • cave man -> neolithic farmer etc
     • focus on what cultures lacked, not what they have
       • india was closer to nature and had spiritual superiority
   • europe is a template for modernity
   • decolonalisation is always a violent struggle
   • colonisation = institutionalised violence
   • in the west, power is demonstrated through education and morality etc, but in colonized societied, it is the police, soldiers and threats
   • the colonized are bribed with education and technology
   • the colonised become consumers in the capitalist market, gaining economic power
   • violence makes the colonised violent
   • capitalism should invest in the colonies to help them develop
   • european experiences are seen to be universal
   • history is presented as the unfolding of european logic with no other input
   • marx: caplitalism and colonialism were necessary to allow the non west to create a society they coudln't have created on their own
   • eurocentric historiographies

6. Feminism

   • both the US and al qaeda transnationalizes violence in the name of security
     • hypermasculine leaders
   • women who confound the stereotypes of passive vitims of war or non-violent peace women are not given agency
     • they become seen as mothers, monsters or whores
   • women who engage in war are seen only through the lens of their sex
     • male terrorists are acknowledged within their political context
   • women offer us a perspective outside the state focus, and broaden the empirical bias we build theories on
   • the personal is political
     • private power is linked to public power
   • state elites: sovereignty couldn’t be guaranteed without state control over women’s sexuality
   • postcolonial feminism: agents and structures transform each other constantly
   • Hyperfemininity refers to an idealized, radicalized version of traditional femininity
   • discourse normalizes violence
   • bin laden sugests that the islamic world are the victims, to become the warrior
     • hyperfeminizing it to hypermasculine it
   • For Bush and the U.S. government, the pursuit of bin Laden and Al Qaeda (re)invigorates a sense of American manliness
   • third debate = ways of knowing
   • most knowledge created by men, about men
   • first gen feminists critique other theories
     • second gen do their own research
   • liberal feminism = positivist, not challenging epistemology
     • equality achieved by removing legal and other obstacles
       • problem with using stats to measure equality
   • Critical feminism looks at the ideational and material manifestations of gendered identities and gendered power in global politics
     • gender identities come from mutually constructed ideas about men and women
   • constructivist feminism looks at how gender is shaped and shapes global politics
   • poststructuralists: those who create knowledge gain power (men)
   • - The language used by the UN about gender is constitutitive of these gender roles according to poststructuralists
   • postcolonial feminism: western women do not represent all women
   • security threats include domestic violence etc
     • women are more likely to be affected by the economy
       • iraqi sanction = poverty and disease
         • mainly affcected women and children
       • few women involved in the implimentation of sanctions
   • women are seen to abandon their primary roles as mothers to become soldiers
     • female soldiers represented according to female gender roles
     • forfeiting innocence and purity
   • women have to prove they belong in the masculine public sphere
     • women can only succeed in politics through hypermasculinity