Suchergebnisse

This article outlines three ways of analysing the 'politics of securitization', emphasizing an often-overlooked form of politics practised through theory design. The structure and nature of a theory can have systematic political implications. Analysis of this 'politics of securitization' is distinct from both the study of political practices of securitization and explorations of competing concepts of politics among security theories. It means tracking what kinds of analysis the theory can produce and whether such analysis systematically impacts real-life political struggles. Securitization theory is found to 'act politically' through three structural features that systematically shape the political effects of using the theory. The article further discusses -- on the basis of the preceding articles in the special issue -- three emerging debates around securitization theory: ethics, transformations and post-Western analyses. The article finally suggests one possible way forward for securitization theory: a route built on first clarifying its concept of theory, then specifying more clearly the place of political theory and causal mechanisms in different parts of the analysis. The politics of securitization accordingly becomes sharpened. Instead of deducing the political quality of the theory from various empirical statements by its proponents, this approach zooms in on the very core of the theory: how does it structurally condition work done with it in systematically political ways? [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd., copyright PRIO, www.prio.no]

Waltz's 1979 book, Theory of International Politics, is the most influential in the history of the discipline. It worked its effects to a large extent through raising the bar for what counted as theoretical work, in effect reshaping not only realism but rivals like liberalism and reflectivism. Yet, ironically, there has been little attention paid to Waltz's very explicit and original arguments about the nature of theory. This article explores and explicates Waltz's theory of theory. Central attention is paid to his definition of theory as 'a picture, mentally formed' and to the radical anti-empiricism and anti-positivism of his position. Followers and critics alike have treated Waltzian neorealism as if it was at bottom a formal proposition about cause--effect relations. The extreme case of Waltz being so victorious in the discipline, and yet being so consistently misinterpreted on the question of theory, shows the power of a dominant philosophy of science in US IR, and thus the challenge facing any ambitious theorising. The article suggests a possible movement of fronts away from the 'fourth debate' between rationalism and reflectivism towards one of theory against empiricism. To help this new agenda, the article introduces a key literature from the philosophy of science about the structure of theory, and particularly about the way even natural science uses theory very differently from the way IR's mainstream thinks it does -- and much more like the way Waltz wants his theory to be used. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd., copyright holder.]

Der Artikel beschreibt die unterschiedliche Entwicklung, Herangehensweise und heutige Situation der Disziplin der Internationalen Beziehungen in den USA und in Deutschland, England und Frankreich. Die Disziplin ist nach wie vor dominiert von amerikanischen Forschern, die die meisten Artikel in Fachzeitschriften verfassen. Die Europäer schauen zudem stark nach Amerika und beobachten die Entwicklungen dort viel genauer als dies umgekehrt der Fall ist (SWP-Drh)

Investigates why the discipline of international relations develops differently in different societies, basis of American dominance in the field, and its effects internationally.

Surveys shifts in security practices, in order to discover a possible emerging, common political identity; European Union.

This article undertakes a reading of political identifications in Europe from the security perspective. Who or what exist politically in Europe? This is investigated through the test of whether and how different units are able to carry out the move characteristic of "security": that is, to say "our survival is threatened, therefore we have a right to use extraordinary measures against this particular threat". Europe as an area is marked by a complex presence of different overlapping political subjectivities - security can be carried out most importantly with nation, state, Europe or the environment as referent object. "Europe" itself is a security referent in a truly original way, where integration through a security argument becomes a matter of survival for "Europe". Europe, security, integration and identity have been tied together in a specific narrative. Strikingly, the seemingly purely academic term "security identity" has a political appearance exactly at this intersection. (Journal of Common Market Studies / FUB)