Discusses trusteeship as depending on direction of a people by an external authority in a relationship of superior virtue, inequality, and tutelage and therefore its conflict with the idea of equality of sovereign states.
What is the relationship between national security & human security? One of the key factors in this relationship is responsibility & how it affects both human relations & the practice of statecraft. It is often taken for granted that human security follows national security; however, the true foundation of human security lies in its moral groundwork, & in its commitment to both equality & quality of life. Yet, it must be realized that the preservation of human security at all costs is not always the best course of action. Any time that human beings are forced into situations not of their own choosing, simply because their human security must be ensured, they are degraded. K. A. Larsen
This article explores Jim George's claim that Hans Morgenthau's notion of political realism is founded upon a spectator theory of knowledge and that it discloses no meaningful distinction between theory and practice. An investigation of Morgenthau's understanding of scientific inquiry, the relation of theory and practice, and his views on American foreign policy suggests that both of these claims may be misplaced. Rather Morgenthau's realism is an authentic moral voice in the discourse of world politics which emphasizes the importance of judgment and the need to locate statecraft in historical, social, and political context. It is a realism that is representative of a rich moral tradition, one which orders, arranges, and prioritizes fundamental human values and which is concerned with how these values might be realized. This conclusion not only emancipates a valuable tradition of scholarship, it also raises important question about how we engage and organize the discipline of international relations and it suggests that some critical thinking spaces may provide a rather limited refuge for those wishing to go beyond Morgenthau and realism.
Two influential schools of thought that deal with the management of hazardous technology are Normal Accident Theory and High Reliability Theory. This paper presents another avenue for studying safety management by applying Argyris and Sch?n's theory of action. Theory of action provides a detailed explanation for why well‐intentioned individuals and organizations often behave ineffectively. When applied to safety, it yields specific insights into why learning and safety performance typically fall short of desired results. This paper presents an overview of this approach and it does so by turning to the debate between the proponents of Normal Accident Theory and High Reliability Theory. Application of theory of action informs both of these dominant schools as it provides specific insights into why safety is often undermined. This approach thereby recasts the debate between these two and argues that they should be seen as complementary, not competing, perspectives.
As the author sees it, the world's largest communist state, the PRC, and India, the world's largest democracy, will each play an increasingly important role in the new Asian security environment. The end of the Cold War signals the beginning of a period in which India and China will have greater latitude in defining their future roles in Asia. The author examines the principal trends in Indian and Chinese military modernization and assesses their potential destabilizing effects on regional security. (DÜI-Sen)
The history of international thought has traditionally focused on a limited number of canonical texts. Such an approach now seems both naive and parochial. International Relations scholars often read their own ideas into these texts instead of getting ideas from them – ideas that if properly understood have the potential to undermine theirs. By ignoring non-canonical texts, we overlook resources that are not only necessary to establish the historical contexts of canonical writings but that can also help theorists of International Relations to understand their subject better. Judgements of what is and is not canonical are in any case themselves context-bound and contestable. Intellectual history can help us understand how the International Relations canon was constructed and for what purposes. It can also counter the abstractions of theory by reminding us not only that theories are abstractions from the activities of people living in particular times and places but also that our own theories are embedded in historicity. In these and other ways, paying attention to intellectual history expands the repertoire of ideas on which International Relations theorists can draw and against which they can measure their conclusions. The articles in this issue illustrate these points in relation to a wide range of texts and contexts. They suggest that whether one approaches international relations from the angle of description, explanation, policy or ethics, knowing how past thinkers have understood the subject can lead to better informed and more robust scholarship.
El concepto de anarquía es uno de los más importantes en la teoría de las Relaciones Internacionales. Por ello, se recurre a menudo a Thomas Hobbes para ilustrar el carácter y las consecuencias de la anarquía. El presente artículo se cuestiona acerca del aspecto teológico de la filosofía política de Hobbes en un intento de superar la mitología distorsionada que se ha creado entorno a las relaciones internacionales "hobbesianas". De este modo, se avanza hacia un argumento positivo que presenta a Hobbes como un teórico de una sociedad interestatal que se forma y deforma al igual que Dios creó el universo. El concepto de anarquía que se atribuye a Hobbes se basa en una disputa teológica sobre la naturaleza de Dios y la magnitud de su poder, lo que supone una forma específica de constituir y comprender la realidad. Cuando se consideran las implicaciones de dicha disputa, se demuestra que la anarquía no es ni una característica objetiva de un mundo compuesto por estados independientes ni una condición lógica inevitable que sigue a la ausencia de una autoridad central. Más bien, la anarquía es un logro del pensamiento, que nace en un momento y lugar determinado y que busca un reflejo de sí mismo en el espejo de la eternidad.