Suchergebnisse

Diversity in IR Theory: Pluralism as an Opportunity for Understanding Global Politics / Yale H. Ferguson 3. - Fear of Relativism / Patrick Thaddeus Jackson 13. - nternational Relations Pluralism and History-Embracing Amateurism to Strengthen the Profession / Halvard Leira 23. - Pluralism in International Relations Theory: Three Questions / Nicholas Rengger 32. - All Hail to the Chief: Liberal IR Theory in the New World Order / Jennifer Sterling-Folke 40

This paper suggests that the central question in IR theory today is not perhaps how "the international" should be conceived, rather what role either the state and interstate relations continue to have in a globalizing world with numerous actors of different types engaged in almost every significant issue. Postinternational theory advances this worldview in an aggressive fashion. Yet it is also true that (a) traditional theoretical perspectives continue to have their utility in limited contexts; and (b) postinternational theory intersects in interesting ways with traditional approaches as well as some of their most important challengers. The central organizing question, the paper maintains, is which actors exercise a significant influence over outcomes in particular issues—and why?

There are several problems in the modern theory of international relations that are difficult to solve, but the very existence of which leads to a certain demarcation of possible and received knowledge. These phenomena include the problem of 'anthropomorphizing', which is an attribution or an identification of certain human characteristics with complex social actors, including, above all, states. This research technique is often not limited to the use of any figures of speech and serves to ascertain the ontological and epistemological foundations for further theorizing. The purpose of this article is to systematize the existing approaches to 'anthropomorphizing' and put forward further directions for understanding this theoretical problem. The author reconstructs the three main traditions of 'anthropomorphizing' – back to the works of Hugo Grotius, Thomas Hobbes and Georg Hegel. Each tradition has both a certain understanding as regards the meaning of this research technique and ontological along with epistemological consequences, which implicitly affect the result obtained. The tradition of Hugo Grotius is distinguished by a metaphorical understanding of 'anthropomorphizing' associated with a peculiar perception of the rights and freedoms of the individual. On the contrary, the tradition of Thomas Hobbes considers the internal characteristics of the state in comparison with a person while similarities are used to raise new research questions. Finally, the last tradition arose under the influence of Georg Hegel. It connects the problem of 'anthropomorphizing' with the processes of external communication of states. The article provides an orderly interpretation of ontological and epistemological consequences as well as the traditions that are linked to existing theoretical schools (as much as possible). The author analyzes the synthesis of several traditions of 'anthropomorphizing' presented by constructivist Alexander Wendt. The emerging tradition of 'anthropomorphizing' is aimed at clearly defining its own epistemological and ontological foundations while raising the theoretical status of 'humanization' itself. As a result, the article concludes on the possibility, limitations and prospects of revisiting and more actively using the concept of 'anthropomorphizing' in reflectivist and neopositivist methodologies, as well as the likelihood of hybrid versions of the three main research traditions.

Anniversaries are occasions for celebration and reflection. The thirtieth anniversary of BISA presents the opportunity to look back over what has been achieved in the eventful years since the foundation of the Association, but also the duty of identifying things that have gone wrong, paths not taken or promising avenues that turned out to be dead-ends. We owe it to the people who founded BISA – some still here, others, sadly, gone – to preserve the critical spirit even when celebrating our achievements, and I will certainly honour that debt in this talk.

AbstractThis article aims to reinvigorate the utopian imagination as a vital and necessary component in IR theory. Since the First Great Debate between the Realists and the Utopianists (or more accurately, the Liberal-Internationalists) the utopian tradition has been viewed as being both subjective and arbitrary, leading to its dismissal as vain idealism in world politics. This article re-interrogates the arguments of Carr and Morgenthau and finds that they have relevance today only as against closed systems of utopia and have little bearing against the open-dialectical utopianism which is advocated here as a viable alternative to the sterility of realism. The article also examines the historical nexus between realism's dismissal of utopianism and the wider movements in political philosophy via a critical engagement with the works of Popper, Berlin and Arendt. Finally, after exploring the limitations of Booth's idea of 'Utopian Realism', the article argues that utopianism should no longer be assumed to be a blueprint for a future, perfect society, a tradition fraught with the danger of proto-totalisation, but as a critical imaginary that acts as a heuristic device to reveal the fissures in existing reality and as an ideational motivating force for progressive change in world politics.