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This article starts from the observation that International Relations scholars do not agree on what they mean by theory. The declining popularity of grand theory and the celebration of theoretical pluralism are accompanied by the relative absence of a serious conversation about what 'theory' is or should be. Taking the view that we need such a conversation, especially given the shallow theorizing of modern scholarship that conflates theory with method, and the postmodern view that abstract narratives must be deconstructed and rejected, this article puts forward the notion of 'deep theorizing' as the ground for grand theory. Specifically, it argues that deep theorizing is the conceptual effort of explaining (inter)action by developing a reading of drives/basic motivations and the ontology of its carrier through an account of the human condition, that is, a particular account of how the subject (the political actor) is positioned in social space and time. The article illustrates this angle through a discussion of realist, liberal and postcolonial schools of thought. It basically argues that, through their particular readings of the human condition, these approaches develop distinct conceptions of political agency and, hence of the nature and location of world politics.

Cover -- Half Title -- Series -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Preface -- Part One Theoretical Foundations: Private International Law and Globalization -- 1 Introduction: Private Law in a World of Globalization -- 2 The Theory and Practice of Transnational Legal Pluralism -- 3 Talking Past One Another: Private International Law and International Political Economy -- Part Two Private Law Technologies and the Construction of Globalization -- 4 The Technologies of Private International Law I: Contract and Party Autonomy -- 5 The Technologies of Private International Law II: The Pluralism-Harmonization Dynamic -- 6 The Technologies of Private International Law III: International Commercial Arbitration and the Private Settlement of Disputes -- 7 International Investment Law and Investor-State Arbitration: Incorporating Private Law Technologies into Public Law -- Part Three Conclusion -- 8 PIL and Power in the Contemporary Political Economy: Contention Amidst Cooperation -- Bibliography -- Index.

AbstractThis article develops a theoretical approach to stigma in international relations and resituates conventional approaches to the study of norms and international order. Correcting the general understanding that common values and norms are the building blocks of social order, this article claims that international society is in part constructed through the stigmatization of "transgressive" and norm-violating states and their ways of coping with stigma. Drawing on Erving Goffman, this article shows that states are not passive objects of socialization, but active agents. Stigmatized states cope strategically with their stigma and may, in some cases, challenge and even transform a dominant moral discourse. A typology of stigma management strategies is presented:stigma recognition(illustrated by Germany);stigma rejection(illustrated by Austria); and finallycounter-stigmatization(illustrated by Cuba). Because of the lack of agreement on what constitutes normal state behavior, attempts to impose stigma may even have the opposite effect—the stigmatizers become the transgressive. A focus on stigma opens up new avenues for research on norms, identities, and international order.