Many faces of international politics - study material

Three primary levels for analyzing global politics

• Indivuduals

• State

• International system

Two Level game

Foreign Policy is shaped by both domestic politics and international pressures, which both needs to be dealt with according to Robert Putnam

What does the individual aspect of IR focus on?

Personalities, perceptions, choices, psychology, and ideologies of leaders

What does the state aspect of IR focus on?

Government structures, economies, interest groups, military institutions, and domestic factors

What does the international system aspect of IR focus on?

Interactions among states, global institutions, alliances, norms, and systemic forces

Four key aspects of realism

• Pessimistic view of human nature: humans as selfish and power-seeking

• States as rational actors: act in their own interests, defined in terms of power

• Anarchic international system: no higher autorhity above states

• Power as central: states seek increase in military/economic power against rivals

Realpolitik

Foreign policy should be based on practical interests, not morality/ideology, part of realism

Four key aspects of classical realism

• Modernity has radicalized power politics, breaking down traditional limits & creating unprecedented dangers

• History is not cyclical, maybe apocalyptic

• Politics is defined by the friend-enemy distinction, any issue can become political if framed existantial

• Nuclear weapons would be not tragic but apocalyptic, realists thus invoked apocalyptic rhetoric to warn against catastrophic potential of modernity

Four aspects of strutural (neo-)realism

• History as eternal return: anarchy —> competition —> war

• Waltz: states are unitary actors seeking survival in an anarchic system, war is normal

• Mearsheimer: anarchy creates uncertainty, forcing states to assume the worst about other’s intentions, great powers compete for hegemony

Three critiques on realism

• Overly pessimistic

• Ignores cooepration

• Moral blind spots

Five key aspects of liberalism

• Optimistic view of human nature: humans & state can cooperate and progress

• Institutions matter: international organisations and norms shape behaviour

• Interdependence: economic and social ties reduce conflict

• Normative focus: emphasizes values, ethics and human rights, not just power

• Democratic Peace Theory

Democratic Peace Theory

Democracies do not go to war with each other

Idealism

Early 20th century belief in moral progress through international cooperation

Neoliberalism

Focuses on institutions and regimes

Five key aspects of social constructivism according to Wendt

• Identities and interests are endogenous: shaped by social interaction/institutions

• Agents and structures: individuals & systems create & are shaped by norms

• Norms matter: shared beliefs influence state behaviour

• Identity and interests: who we are shapes what we want

• Anarchy’s effect depends on how states define their interests/identities through practices

A critique of social constructivism

Too idealistic with ideas over material power and hard to test

Four keyaspects of feminism

• Gender matters: patriarchy shapes global politics

• Marginalized voices: women and other groups are excluded from power

• Intersectionality: gender interesects with race, class and nationality

• Eg: wars are gendered, unpaid labour is undervalued in global economics and women are neededi n peacebuilding

Two critiques on feminism

• Overemphasis on gender

• Feminism fragments rather than unifies

Behaviourlism

Beliefs in objective, scientific laws governing international relations

Traditionalism

Rejects scientific determinism, emphasizes interpretation, history and context

Granualarity

Refers to different framings in geographical space, historical time & levels of agency/structure

Balance of Interests

International system moderates national ambitions and states are constrained by the interests of others

Primacy of Foreign Policy

IR require states to mobilize all resources for self-preservation; supreme law of politics

Three key aspects of IR scholars

• Sees history as a source of ‘raw materials’

• Picks studies based on immediate usefulness

• Critique: selection bias, eg ignoring contradictory historiography

Three key aspects of IH scholars

• Sees history as a ongoing debate where interpretations evolve over time

• Contextualized use: works are evaluated in historiographical debates

  • Critique: historical works contain implicit theories

Modernity

Organizing concept to explore the chronological development of international orders and the interaction between structure and continuity

Four aspects of historicist realism

• Realism is not ahistorical but historically contingent

• History as contingent change: social forces, power as fluid

• Histoy is a process of change, not repetition and power politics are embedded by social forces

• History is shaped by subjectivity of actors and the subjectivity of historians: history is a construct

Five key aspects of neoliberal internationalism according to Hayek

• Rejection of international planning

• Support for federalism

• Global rule of law

• States as a threat to freedom

• Top-down

Five key aspects of functionalism according to David Mitrany

• Bottom-up

• Functional

• State as outdated but not directly challenged

• Functional organisations for global governance

• Federalism rejected

What does primacy of societal actors contain for liberalism

• Individuals and private groups are fundamental actors in politics

• They are rational, risk-averse and pursue differentiatied interests under constraints

What does representation and state preferences contain under liberalism

• States are representative institutions that translate the peferences of domestic societal actors into foreign policy

• The structue of representation determines whose preferences dominante

What does interdependence of state behaviour contain for liberalism

• Societal actors in one state interact with those in another

• Creates transnational coalitions that shape outcomes

Cultural turn

Part of a broader postmodern reorientation in the humanities and social sciences: emphasized language, discourse and social construction, challenging traditional focus on statecraft, economics and strategy

Why narratives and bodies matter

Narratives

• Shape how we understand the past, justfiying actions and mobilize support

• Tools of power in politics and IR

• Shape identities

Bodies

• Bodies, as physical, lived and symbolic entities, are central

• Sites of power, discipline and resistance

• Embodied experiences shape identities

War-society spectrum

Spectrum between hard vs soft history, eg how many people died vs what happened culturally

Postcolonial theory

African feminisms

Comprise the liberatory political philosophies, theories, writings, research and cultural production, as well as the organizing work of the transnational community of feminists from Africa

Problem-solvnig theory

Critical theory

Five professional pathologies