Intro International Relations

Global Organisation of Political Authority

Sources of Power

Material (temporary + frail)

Guns

Money

Legitimacy

perception of rightfulness, goodness, justness, appropriateness

Stable + cheap to sustain

constant yearning by political leaders

Putin's narrative

Zelensky's narrative

International Institutions

Accepted practices, rules, norms

Shape actors identity

Regulate behaviours of states

Authority depends on

Are sites of authority

Three levels

International regimes

Fundamental institutions

Constitutional institutions

fundamental

sovereignty

political authority distributed amongst sovereign states

basic practices used (by states) to cooperate + coexist

international law

diplomacy

ambassadors

fundamental framework

regulating state behaviours in issue areas

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

Chemical Weapons Convention

International Trade agrements

WTO

Historical development

Sovereignty (Today)

Empire (1900)

Heteronomy (1200)

Territorially demarcated states

Multiple forms of political authority

Overlapping jurisdictions

Up to 5 systems

Merits

Captures

Political history

Dramatic transformations

Analytical

Why?

Normative

ethical questions

race

gender

class

Reflexive

understanding field

Realism

IR is struggle for power like all politics

why? consequences?

classical

structural/neo

Hans Morgenthau

humans are inherently domineering

within state, tendencies constrained by law + police + courts

international arena is anarchic (no state)

endemic conflict

order = balancing power

cooperation difficult

Kenneth Waltz

rejection of human nature assumption

structure of int. system

anarchic

absence of central authority

organising principles (sovereignty)

functional differentiation of states (like units)

states have same function, but use different resources do those functions

unequal distribution of capabilities

some have guns and money, some don't

English School & Liberalism

Similarities

IR fundamentally social

rationalist

actors/states are self-interested

not narcissistic

personal strong interests (e.g. end poverty)

humans can rank interests

states (rational actors) are strategic

pursue interests efficiently under environmental constraints

Heavy emphasis on institutions

English School

Liberals

fundamental institutions

issue-specific institutions/regimes

Differences

English School

Liberalism

Society possible between states

Agrees w/ Waltz's realism

international system anarchic

starting point

Hedley Bull

International system

International society

States have 'common interests in the elementary goals of social life'

sovereign states

enough interaction

need to take each other into account

billiard board

anarchical system

states with common values/interests

form society

bound by common rules/laws

share in working of common institutions

physical security

safety

respect for agreements

trust

stability of possession

property rights

not necessarily private, capitalist

to advance these interests

common rules

constitutional principle of world politics

rules of coexistence

restricting violence

obey treaties

non-intervention

regulating cooperation

pacta sunt servanda

self-defence

UN peace enforcement

to uphold rules

fundamental institutions

diplomacy

international law

management by great powers

war

1st Gulf War

removal of Saddam Hussein from Kuwait

legally protected means of communication

act responsibly to ensure rules upheld

balance of power

Old political theory

17th-19th century European origins

against absolute monarchical power

individuals as primary units

not states

individuals have inalienable rights that legit government protects

US independence

Hamilton

French monarchy

Government based on consent of citizens

law legit only if authored by those subject to it

Rousseau's "true freedom"

Translations to IR

Immanuel Kant

1795 Perpetual Peace

90s Western Policy

war will end if you spread democracies ("republics")

free trade

interdependence

less likely to war

state ruled by people

people suffer in war

people won't support war

Liberal principles of gov. transplanted into IR

law only legitimate if authored by states

rule of law

neoliberal institutionalism

Robert Keohane

Why is cooperation so common among states?

Concessions to realists

state-centrism

importance of anarchy

states are rational actors

cooperation under anarchy = hard

costly

lack of info

motives?

cheating

states create issue-specific institutions to overcome

lower transaction costs

increased info

increased diplomatic transparency

prevents cheating

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Marxism and Constructivism

Similar

Humans are products of social environment

Marxism

Constructivism

Key thinkers

Marx

Lenin

Gramsci

Mao

Wallerstein

Steps

  1. Marxism is scientific
  1. Humans are inherently social

humans distinguished by ability to form complex social relations

can only be an individual within society

  1. Most important part of social environment is 'mode of production'

for humans to survive, transform nature

way this is done = mode of production

  1. Modes of production vary

primitive

ancient

feudal

capitalist

socialist

agricultural

hunter-gatherer

slave-based agriculture

industrial

common ownership of means of production

relationshing between lords, serfs

  1. Different modes produce different 'relations of production'

inherent inequality

fuels conflict

  1. Relations of production are hierarchical + conflictual
  1. Ruling classes define political structures, institutions, and processes

Marxism + iR

  1. Capitalism is inherently expansionist

Imperialism is expression of capitalism

  1. Resulted in single world capitalist system
  1. Within this system, states exist to serve interests of capitalism
  1. World capitalism produces hierarchical social relations

core

periphery

semi-periphery

  1. Hierarchy determines nature of IR

Core ideas

ideational structures matter as much as material structures

identities inform interests

agents + structures shape each other

Variations

Systemic

Unit-level

Transnational

Holistic

structure of states system

under what circumstances do human right make a difference?

internal norms within states

how shape behaviour?

where did the system of sovereign states come from?

Feminism and Postcolonialism

Critical v Problem-solving

Critical

Subjects world as it is to critical scrutiny

Problem-solving

takes organisation as given, aims to make it more functional

Power

Material

Legitimate

Hierarchy

guns + money

realists

rightful authority

any relationship of subordination + superordination

gender, race, wealth, class

sustained by ideas + values

Feminism

IR is androcentric

critique of social demographic nature

Forms

Empiricism

Standpoint theory

Postmodernism

Documenting gender-based forms of inequality in IR

Cynthia Enloe

document place of women in global economic/political system

Nationalism

Diplomacy

Military bases

Agriculture

Industry

Conceptual + theoretical questions

Gendered nature of ideas we use to understand world

Ann Tickner

gendered dichotomies

objective/subjective

reason/emotion

etc

Reformulation of Morgenthau's 6 principles

anti-foundational

relativist

focus on relationship between knowledge & power

celebration of diversity

critique of empiricism + standpoint theory

focus on

power & knowledge

construction of identity

Postcolonialism

Before 1970s

1945-1970s

world organised into empire-states

Europe's and US's empires collapsed

Institution of empire collapsed

Theory

Most to say about shift to sovereignty

Expose & critique global imperial hierarchies

5 dimensions

Emphasise reality & importance of Imperial past

Challenge idea that hierarchical world of empires replaced by equal world of sovereign states

legal equality hides inequality of states

Hierarchies are material but racial

global colour line

Challenge Eurocentric narratives of history & IR

Decolonise the IR curriculum