733A41 International relations theory

1. 733A41 International relations theory Per Jansson Fall 2014

2. Course aims On completion of the course, the student should • be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of important theoretical and methodological developments within the discipline of International Relations, with special focus on the impact of the end of the Cold War, • display ability to critically analyze international practices according to the various theoretical perspectives introduced, • adhere to academic criteria such as writing style, reference and citation styles, and objectivity, • critically analyse problems and to present coherent analyses.

3. Examination • This course is examined through active participation and fulfillment of assignments in seminars, and by completion of a course paper. • Seminars are obligatory. • You are expected to be well prepared and to have completed assigned preparations for seminars. • If you cannot attend a seminar you will be given a further written assignment to be handed in on a fixed date.

4. Examination – course paper The paper assignment consists in • choosing a phenomenon in international relations (an event, a process, an institution, etc.), contemporary or in history and analyzing it from at least three alternative theoretical perspectives which have been suggested by the course. • The paper should comprise no less than 2.000 and no more than 3.000 words. Indicate the number of words on the last page of your paper! • In preparing your paper you should take particular care to discuss the problem at hand: Why is this phenomenon puzzling; what is there to know about this? It is also important that your paper indicates different or alternative understandings, made possible by modern theories of international relations. • Relevant parts of the course literature must be utilized and referred to. • All sources must be properly indicated (notes and references in the text, bibliography at the end of the paper).

5. Introduction: The nature and purposeoftheory

6. Theory The aim of theory is to make sense of what happens in the world. Inevitably, theories tell us what to look at and, by inference, what can be safely ignored. Yale H. Ferguson & Richard W. Mansbach (Polities: Authorities, Identities, and Change (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1996), 3.

7. International Relations ”What makes the world hang together?” John G. Ruggie (Edward Teller)

8. Theory • Tools for explanation • Tools for understanding • Traditions ofthought • Hypothesis-testing • Conceptualanalysis • Criticalanalysis • Normative analysis • Meta-theory …

9. Meta-theoreticalconcerns • Ontology (what is theretoknow?) • Epistemology (howcanweknowwhatweknow?) • The agent-structure problem (whatshould be our focus (both) • The levels-of-analysis problem (howmany?)

10. The multitudeofperspectives • International politicaltheory • International liberalism • Political realism • The international society tradition • International politicaleconomy • The post-positivist tradition

11. The realist and liberal traditions I

12. The three (?) debates • Idealism vs Realism – pre and post-WW I • Science vs Traditionalism – 1960s • The Interparadigm debate – 1970s and 1980s • Fourth debate – late-1980s and 1990s. Present?

13. ”The characteristic vice of the utopian is naivety; of the realist, sterility.” E.H. Carr, The TwentyYears’ Crisis 1919-1939

14. “The strong do what they have the power to do and the weak accept what they have to accept.” Thucydides, the Melian Dialogue during the war between Sparta and Athens, 431 – 407 f.Kr.

15. ”Machiavelli is the firstimportantpolitical realist.” History is a sequenceof cause and effect, whosecoursecan be analyzed and understood by intellectualefforts, but not (as the utopianbelieve) directed by ”imagination”. Theorydoes not (as utopiansassume) createpractice, butpracticetheory. Politicsare not (as utopianspretend) a functionofethics, butethicsofpolitics.

16. ”During the time men live without a common powertokeepthem all in awe, theyare in thatconditionwhich is calledwar; and such a war as ifofevery man againstevery man … and the lifeof man [is] solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan

17. International anarchy Anarchy is evenly distributed throughout the international system.

18. International anarchy Anarchy is unevenly distributed in the international system; there are ”islands” of order and cooperation.

19. International institutions The ”normative texture” of international relations, consisting of more or less coalesced bodies of converging interests, coordinated action, shared values etc.

20. Hans J. Morgenthau

21. Hans Morgenthau'sPrinciplesofPolitical Realism • Politics governed by objective laws based on human nature • National interest defined in terms of power • No fixed or unchanging meaning of Interest • Inapplicability of abstract moral principles • Difference between moral aspiration of a nation and universal moral laws • Autonomy of the “political”

22. The realist and liberal traditions II

23. Key assumptions of Structural Realism • Most important actors in world politics are territorially organized entities (city-states and modern states). • State behavior is rational (goal-directed, preferences being transitive: if X is preferred to Y, and Y is preferred to Z, then X is preferred to Z). • States seek security and calculate their interests in terms of their power relative to others in the international system. • The international system is characterized by anarchy, that is, the absence of any effective authority over states that can ensure their compliance to agreements and norms.

24. Offensive vs. Defensive Realism • Offensive realists argue that states should always be looking for opportunities to gain more power, with the ultimate prize being hegemony • Defensive realists argue that unrelenting expansion is imprudent – conquest is often costly and troublesome • Defensive realists argue that states should seek an ‘appropriate amount of power’.

25. Major Realist Theories (John Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, 2001, p. 22)

26. Neo-classical realism "In the neoclassical realist worldleaderscan be constrained by both international and domesticpolitics. International anarchy, moreover, is neitherHobbesian nor benign butrathermurky and difficultto read. ... " (Gideon Rose, Review Article in World Politics, vol. 51 (1998), pp. 144-72)

27. Liberalism • Power of reason: man is a rational being, with powers to self-improvement. • Public opinion: international affairs would be peaceful if (the rational) opinions of the public can have impact. • Harmony of interests: the basic condition of human life is not a Hobbesian war of everybody against everybody, but common interests of survival and improvment.

28. Neoliberalism and realism Neoliberalism adopted key assumptions from structural realism: • that states are the dominant actors • that domestic politics do not explain variations in state behavior

29. Liberal institutionalism • Accepting the broad structuresofneo-realism, butemployingrational choice and game theorytoanticipate the behaviorofstates, liberal institutionalistsdemonstratethatcooperationbetweenstatescan be enhancedevenwithout the presenceofa hegemonicplayerwhichcanenforcecompliancewithagreements. • For them, anarchy is mitigated by regimes and institutionalcooperationwhichbringshigherlevelsofregularity and predictabilityto international relations. (Burchill et al., p. 67)

30. Complex Interdependence(Keohane & Nye) • Multiple channels of communication • Absence of hierarchy of issues • Military force less relevant

31. International regimes … • ”a set of mutual expectations, rules and regulations, plans, oganizational energies and financial commitments, which have been accepted by a group of states” (John Gerard Ruggie) • ”sets of implicit or explicit principles, norms, rules and decision-making procedures around which actors’ expectations converge in a given area of international relations. Principles are beliefs of fact, causation, and rectitude. Norms are standards of behavior defined in terms of rights and obligations. Rules are specific prescriptions or proscriptions for action. Decision-making procedures are prevailing practices for making and implementing collective choice” (Stephen D. Krasner)

32. International regimes Convergence of excpectations High Low Full-blown regimes Dead-letter regimes High Formality Tacit regimes Low

33. THE ENGLISH SCHOOL

34. International Society • The distinguishing power of the school rests on the significance it attaches to the idea that states, through their actions, have generated a society with its own unique institutions and rules

35. Hedley Bull and the AnarchicalSociety

36. International system – International society ”A system of states (international system) is formed when two or more states have sufficient contact between them, and have sufficient impact on one another’s decisions, to cause them to behave – at least in some measure – as parts of a whole.” (Bull, 1977, p. 9-10) “A society of states (or international society) exists when a group of states, conscious of certain common interests and common values, form a society in the sense that they conceive themselves to be bound by a common set of rules in their relations with one another, and share in the working of common institutions.” (Bull, 1977, p. 13)

37. International Society International System WorldSociety

38. Pluralism Minimal conception of international society (thin) Consisting of (qualitatively different) states States follow rules because of a shared interest in maintaining order Order producing institutions include the balance of power, diplomacy, and great power cooperation Solidarism Maximal conception of international society (thick) Basically consisting of individual human beings An institutional arrangement for producing order and justice Solidarism requires that states commit to enforcing the rules and they act as guardians of human rights Types of International Society