Nature or Atoms? Reframing the IR Curriculum through Ethical Worldviews

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-211
Author(s):  
Landon Frim ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Relative Advantage ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
Opening Up

The international relations (IR) curriculum has long presented a dichotomy between the so-called “realist” and “idealist” positions. Idealists seek to embody universal norms of justice in foreign policy. Realists, by contrast, see competition between states, the balance of power, and relative advantage as basic to international politics. Though considered polar opposites, both the realist and idealist affirm the primacy of the nation state as a sovereign political unit, and so neither embraces cosmopolitanism in the strongest sense, i.e., the transcendence of national divisions as such. Opening up the IR curriculum to such a radical possibility requires its reframing in terms of underlying, ethical worldviews. Under this lens, it becomes evident that the realist and idealist share far more in common than contemporary policy debates would suggest. It also points us toward the space for an alternate ethical worldview, provided by Stoic rationalism, which is more viable for grounding cosmopolitan thought.

The Myth of the “Civilization State”: Rising Powers and the Cultural Challenge to World Order

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amitav Acharya
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
World Order ◽  
First Century ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Rising Powers ◽  
Clash Of Civilizations ◽  
Global Policy ◽  
The Past ◽  
Policy Debates

Abstract“Civilization” is back at the forefront of global policy debates. The leaders of rising powers such as China, India, Turkey, and Russia have stressed their civilizational identity in framing their domestic and foreign policy platforms. An emphasis on civilizational identity is also evident in U.S. president Donald Trump's domestic and foreign policy. Some analysts argue that the twenty-first century might belong to the civilization state, just as the past few centuries were dominated by the nation-state. But is the rise of civilization state inevitable? Will it further undermine the liberal international order and fuel a clash of civilizations, as predicted by the late Samuel Huntington? Or might ideas from East Asian and other non-Western civilizations contribute to greater pluralism in our thinking about world order and the study of international relations?

scholarly journals L’état des études internationales au Canada : un survol de la recherche scientifique

2005 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 337-360
Author(s):  
Arpad Abonyi ◽  
Ivan J. Sylvain ◽  
Brian W. Tomlin
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Small Group ◽  
Theoretical Basis ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Scientific Study ◽  
Scholarly Journals ◽  
Four Dimensions ◽  
Systematic Survey ◽  
Issue Area

This article depicts the configuration of approaches to the scientific study of foreign policy and international politics in Canada, as represented in a systematic survey of research written in Canada and published in forty scholarly journals, some from as early as 1945 up to 1975. Scientific studies found in this sample were analyzed along four dimensions : theoretical basis ; issue area ; units upon which the investigation is based ; and method of analysis. Scientific study of international relations emerged as a largely recent yet growing phenomenon of the last decade. It constitutes a unique subfield outside the mainstream of research, and is concentrated among a relatively small group of individuals and even fewer institutions. Études internationales emerged as the single most important channel of communication for this subfield in Canada

Leibniz’s Political Vision for Europe

2015 ◽  
pp. 663-683
Author(s):  
Friedrich Beiderbeck
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Roman Empire ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
Louis Xiv ◽  
Church Politics ◽  
Cultural Structures

This chapter examines Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz’s political vision for Europe, beginning with his views on the Holy Roman Empire and the Peace of Westphalia. It considers how Leibniz viewed Germany’s political and cultural structures and his support for the Reich, along with his thoughts on order, security, and law. It also discusses Leibniz’s modern notion of state and his ideas of territorial power, diplomacy, and international politics; his views on France’s foreign policy under Louis XIV and the War of Spanish Succession (1701–1713/14); and his dispute with Abbé de Saint Pierre over peace and balance of power in Europe. Finally, the chapter looks at Leibniz’s pronouncements on denominational issues and church politics, particularly the presence of Protestants and Catholics in Germany, and his arguments with regards to the House of Hanover and the role played by Great Britain in power politics as a counterbalance to French hegemony.

Reflections on International Legitimacy

2021 ◽  
pp. 210-218
Author(s):  
Martin Wight
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
The Other

In this essay, presented at a Sussex history seminar in 1971, Wight set out reflections on international legitimacy—supported by historical examples—in addition to those included in his two essays entitled ‘International Legitimacy’, one published as an article in 1972 in the journal International Relations, and the other as a chapter in his 1977 posthumous book Systems of States. Wight pointed out in this essay that governments on some occasions have set aside established principles of legitimacy in order to serve other purposes—maintaining a preferred balance of power, gaining territory, promoting commercial relations, or pursuing state-consolidation, sometimes with a ‘lack of scruple’. Wight observed that rules regarding legitimacy have furnished grounds ‘for argument, controversy, conflict, even war’. He nonetheless concluded that ‘the influence of principles of legitimacy upon international politics has generally been overestimated’ and ‘has declined rather than grown, with the transition from the dynastic to the popular age’. Prevailing concepts of legality and legitimacy have correspondingly enjoyed less ‘moral ascendancy’.

1. The history and evolution of foreign policy analysis

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerie M. Hudson
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Classical Period ◽  
Foreign Policy Analysis ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Large Groups

This chapter traces the history and evolution of foreign policy analysis (FPA) as a subfield of international relations (IR) from its beginnings in the 1950s through its classical period until 1993. It begins with a discussion of three paradigmatic works that laid the foundation of FPA: Decision Making as an Approach to the Study of International Politics (1954), by Richard C. Snyder, H. W. Bruck, and Burton Sapin; ‘Pre-theories and Theories of Foreign Policy’ (1966), by James N. Rosenau; and Man–Milieu Relationship Hypotheses in the Context of International Politics (1956), by Harold and Margaret Sprout. These three works created three main threads of research in FPA: focusing on the decision making of small/large groups, comparative foreign policy, and psychological/sociological explanations of foreign policy. The chapter also reviews classic FPA scholarship during the period 1954–1993 and concludes with an assessment of contemporary FPA’s research agenda.

Leaders and Foreign Policy: Surveying the Evidence

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Benedict Dyson ◽  
Thomas Briggs
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Political Action ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Leadership Influence ◽  
Causal Variable

Political Science accounts of international politics downplay the role of political leaders, and a survey of major journals reveals that fewer than 3% of all articles focus on leaders. This is in stark contrast to public discourse about politics, where leadership influence over events is regarded as a given. This article suggests that, at a minimum, leaders occupy a space in fully specified chains of causality as the aggregators of material and ideational forces, and the transmitters of those forces into authoritative political action. Further, on occasion a more important role is played by the leader: as a crucial causal variable aggregating material and ideational energies in an idiosyncratic fashion and thereby shaping decisions and outcomes. The majority of the article is devoted to surveying the comparatively small literature on political leaders within International Relations scholarship. The article concludes by inviting our colleagues to be receptive to the idiosyncrasies, as well as the regularities, of statespersonship.

scholarly journals Images, emotions, and international politics: the death of Alan Kurdi

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Adler-Nissen ◽  
Katrine Emilie Andersen ◽  
Lene Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Refugee Crisis ◽  
Open Door ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Subject Positions ◽  
Syrian Refugee Crisis

AbstractHow are images, emotions, and international politics connected? This article develops a theoretical framework contributing to visuality and emotions research in International Relations. Correcting the understanding that images cause particular emotional responses, this article claims that emotionally laden responses to images should be seen as performed in foreign policy discourses. We theorise images as objects of interpretation and contestation, and emotions as socially constituted rather than as individual ‘inner states’. Emotional bundling – the coupling of different emotions in discourse – helps constitute political subjectivities that both politicise and depoliticise. Through emotional bundling political leaders express their experiences of feelings shared by all humans, and simultaneously articulate themselves in authoritative and gendered subject positions such as ‘the father’. We illustrate the value of our framework by analysing the photographs of Alan Kurdi, a three-year-old Syrian-Kurdish boy who drowned in September 2015. ‘Kurdi’ became an instant global icon of the Syrian refugee crisis. World leaders expressed their personal grief and determination to act, but within a year, policies adopted with direct reference to Kurdi's tragic death changed from an open-door approach to attempts to stop refugees from arriving. A discursive-performative approach opens up new avenues for research on visuality, emotionality, and world politics.

Securitizing Culture in Chinese Foreign Policy Debates

Asian Survey ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 629-652 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel C. Lynch
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Chinese Foreign Policy ◽  
China’S Rise ◽  
Cultural Autonomy ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
American Hegemony ◽  
China's Rise ◽  
Policy Elites

The tendency for Chinese foreign policy elites to securitize culture in international relations by portraying it as a zone of intense contestation with other states suggests that China’s rise will be rocky. Some seek to defend China’s cultural autonomy from American hegemony, others, to establish Chinese domination over weaker states.

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