Poststructuralism, Postcolonialism, War, and Global Governance Study Guide

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers poststructuralism, postcolonialism, the philosophy of war, global governance, and international political economy based on the provided lecture notes.

Poststructuralism

The premier post-positivist "critical" alternative to mainstream International Relations that critiques universal truths, objective facts, and fixed natural categories like the state.

Discourse

The linguistic structures through which materiality is given meaning; a system where language is never neutral but functions as an exercise of power.

Deconstruction

A method developed by Jacques Derrida that exposes unstable, hierarchical dichotomies (e.g., West/East) and shows that the dominant term depends on the marginalized term for its definition.

Genealogy

A "history of the present" method, drawn from Michel Foucault, that traces how certain truths became normalized while alternative truths were suppressed.

Intertextuality

The concept that no text stands in isolation, as all political statements continuously reference and build upon previous texts to generate meaning.

Securitization Theory

A Copenhagen School concept where security is viewed as a "speech act"; by labeling an issue an "existential threat," actors move it from normal politics to extraordinary, extra-legal politics.

Eurocentrism

The systematic prioritization of Western, white, Northern history and agency as the standard human experience while silencing the Global South.

Orientalism

A pervasive Western discourse described by Edward Said that binaries the world into a rational West and an irrational, dangerous, or passive East ("Orient").

Neo-colonialism

A condition identified by Kwame Nkrumah where a state has formal sovereignty but its economy and resources remain exploited by external Western powers.

The Subaltern

A term by Gayatri Spivak referring to the most subordinated social groups who are denied agency or voice within dominant global or imperial structures.

Modernity/Coloniality

A framework arguing that Western progress and capitalism are structurally dependent on the continuous violence and racial classification of the colonial world.

War (Barkawi 2023)

Organized violence among groups that changes with historical context and is fought for a specific purpose according to a strategy or plan.

Strategy

The overarching plan that connects the tool of violence to the ultimate political objective.

Tactics

The technical, immediate battlefield actions used by armed forces to defeat an opponent in combat.

Global Governance

The loose, complex framework of institutional and normative regulations, including international law and organizations, that constrains state conduct.

International Organization (IO)

A formal entity with representatives from three or more states and a permanent secretariat tasked with fulfilling a common objective.

Emanation

The process by which an international organization is created or spun off by the pre-existing members of an already established IO.

Liberal Institutionalism (on IOs)

The perspective that IOs facilitate absolute gains, lower transaction costs, and help states overcome collective action problems.

Human Security

A security framework that shifts the referent object from the state to the individual human being, emphasizing freedom from want and fear.

Security Dilemma

A negative social structure resulting from mutual mistrust where states make worst-case assumptions about each other's weapons, leading to self-help competition.

Security Community

A positive social structure where states share a common identity and high mutual trust, making war between them rethinkable.

International Political Economy (IPE)

The field of study focusing on how political power and economic forces interact and co-constitute each other.

Beggar-thy-neighbor policies

Destructive protectionist measures, such as trade barriers or currency devaluation, used to protect domestic production at the expense of trading partners.

Embedded Liberalism

The post-WWII Bretton Woods system designed to lower trade barriers while giving states the domestic flexibility to fund welfare systems and manage unemployment.

Neoliberalism

An economic perspective prioritizing the deregulation of financial markets, privatization of state enterprises, and the removal of trade barriers.

Relative Gains

A Nationalist/Realist concern focusing on how much a state gains in comparison to others rather than the expansion of total wealth.