IR Theories

Positivism

objective reality the same for everyone

the only thing we know for sure are things we can see:things we can measure,observe, test with our own eyes. THis is true for both the natural and social world.

Post positivism

 reality is socially constructed

• Also care about things you can measure, see, touch, etc

• In addition, believe that things you cannot measure, see, touch, also impact the social world. For example how people feel and what they believe.

• There are not absolute truths or laws

  • Less worried about Prediction and WHy something’s happens

  • Focus on explains HOW something works or comes to be

• Often incorporates qualitative research(but can also be quantitative)

Idealism

(also called liberal Institutionalists): reason, law, collective security, and international organizations could bring lasting peace

• War/conflict was a result of ignorance; if people could prove the causes and impacts of conflict, people couldn’t go to war

  • scientific rigour from the natural sciences applied to the study of IR

    • X causes war. If we stop X, there will be no war.

  relies on the idea that humans are rational actors that have some interests in common, therefore cooperation is possible.

• Focused on harmony of interests(rather than conflict of interests) as central to international relations.

  • States may want power, but this power can be balanced across states to facilitate global peace and stabiltiy

  • EVident in the post WWI attempt at the league of nations

  • Harmony of interests are based on universal norma’s or values upon which everyone can agree

  • Tried to appeal to rationality and morality

• Democracies rarely fight each other and are more powerful

• golden arches Theory

(Posititivist!)

Classical Realism

• Viewed the international system as a matter of navigating anarchy; sovereignty; balance of power (driven by human nature)

  • It is not that morality does not exist; but human nature will inevitable lead to war and conflict (and idealists ignore this reality)

  • even if all scientific evidence suggested rational behavior by states, states will still go to war

  • You don't attack others unless they attack first

• politics is a struggle for power and advantage over others. States want power. It’s human nature

• Politics are about power, not ethics

  • there are no “universal values” or “norms”

  • Power shapes what is right/wrong not nature

  • Any mutual agreement between allies is self-interested

• (Post Positivist!)

Neo Realism

Politics is about the balance of power and gaining power.

• Anarchy is cause day the structure of the state system (no global authority) NOT because of human nature

Differences between states (governments, values, etc) do not matter. Rather, states are all alike or the same in the international system other than how much power they compared to others.

• power is the best way to ensure survival

• power can be measured (scientific approach to IR)

1. Great powers (state) are the primary actors and operate in an anarchical system (anarchy is a form of order)

2. Assume all states possess military power

3. States can never know the intention of their states, and if they will be harmed

4. States want to survive (maintain their territory and sovereignty)

5. States are rational actors. They can come up with sound strategies to survive (even though they will sometimes make miscalculations).

   1. including deterrence: a defense-based strategy to prevent attacks

      1. Example: nuclear weapons

Positivist!

Defensive Realists

1. States should not try to keep gaining more and more power because if they gain too much power, other states will start to make threats against them (kenneth Waltz)

   1. Even in conquests of another state is possible, it does not work out well because of nationalism

   2. Focus on ways in which power can be balanced (like through allies)

   3. States don’t always behave this way; but when they behave “irrationally” it goes badly for them

Offensive realists

1.  it makes sense for states to gain as muc power as possible, including Hegemony if its possible. Hegemony is the dominance of a single state as the most powerful.

Neo Liberalism

How can we get states to adjust their behavior to prevent war?

• States are still the primary actors in International relations

• Rational; strategic; there is a path of human progress

  • Different from idealists because they recognize cooperation can be very hard 

  • We need to better design cooperative systems to overcome challenges

Marxism

• The world and political social and economic structures in which we live are socially constructed: meaning they can and do change. We have a world of social relations. Not a fixed unchanging reality.

  • Capitalism was crated is not a “natural” systems 

Capitalism: the commodification of human labor being bough and sold on the market

• NOT against markets or exchange, but against how the economic system functions

  • profits should be equitably distributed, especially because laborers do most of the work

  • Means of Production are owned by the Bourgeosisie (upper class)

    1. Interest is to maximize profit

  • The working class or proletariat (lower class) can not own anything, but can only sell their labor in exchange for wages

    1. Interests is to improve working conditions and wages

  • The interests of the working and owning classes are opposed to each other 

    1. These relationships are conflict ridden

    2. This leads to the exploitation of workers

    3. Wealth is not shared equally between the owners of production and the laborers

  • The economic dominance of the bourgeoisie allows them to then dominate the political and social life, not just economic life

  • The proletariat will likely revolt, overthrow the bourgeoisie, and transfer ownership over the means of production to everyone

  • WOrk can be one of our greatest joys; but workers need to see themselves in the products that the create

    • Labor allows use to see what is good inside us: but modern work does not allow anyone worker to see the genuine contribution they make to society

Constructivism

• the way that actors in IR interact with each other, does more to explain the international structure, more than

• social interactions + shared meanings

• Identity + norms - (sovereignty)

• State

• security - depends on social interactions, their identity and norms

• believe that not a singular way of acting and treatment can be applied to every state

• generally, believe there is a reality, but that people understand reality differently

  - States may behave as if the international system is anarchical, but only because the

  treat it as such (not because it is natural)

• here may be periods of time when ideas, values, institutions, systems seem stable or fixed. This

  would be an example of dominant constructions.

• There are multiple realities. They are fluid and

  constantly changing (even if we don’t notice it right away).

Middle ground between positivism and post positivism

Feminist Theory

• is an approach that understand gender as an organizing mechanism. “where are the women”

• ***states are not the only important actors in IR; gender hierarchies (and the practices that rely on them) also matter for international politics

• Men have long been associated with war and violence. However even before women could serve in the military, they actively participated in war and conflict. Irma Grese was 22 years old and known as one of the most violent perpetrators of Jews during the Holocaust. Eventually she was found quilts of crimes against humanity and hanged

• Fashion historians show how things such as the association of color and gender has changed over time 

Queer Theory and IR

• interdisciplinary theory that emphasizes the fluidity of gender, sexuality, and their relationship to other forms of social, political and economic power.

• (1) Sexuality is key relation that orders international politics

• (2) Deconstructs sexuality (and other) norms and binaries by showing how what is understood as “good” or “bad” in international politics is implicitlly tied to secularities and gender

  1. strong stand against fixed/ “natural categories to focus on fluidity of the social world

  2. Heteronormativity: the idea that heterosexual relationships are the only valid or natural form of sexual orientation

     • look at ways in which heteronormativity occurs in international politics

     • in 2018, the Trump administration removed standing protocol to provide visas to same-sex diplomatic couples (had to be married instead of being domestic partners)

     • Don’t Ask, Don’t tell policy

     • Rape of men used as a tactics of war; seen as one of the most humiliating forms of torture (more so than the rape of women).

     • looks at how LGBTQ is a western construct that does not equate to experiences of all those around the world

     • Hijra

     • Brings in questions about human rights (freedom,equality, etc); international law; indigenous sovereignty, etc

Post Colonial theory

1. The examination of the processes of colonization that continue after direct colonial control has ended, included by

   1. tracing the ways in which the project of colonialism

   2. Is made possible/inevitable through non material forms of control:culture, representation

   3. Examining, WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE? WHo can decide what is knowledge?- how is…

It will point to the dehumanization of typically people color of pre colonized areas

Post positvist