Cold War Theoretical Developments: The Second Great Debate Flashcards
What are Laws and Theories according to Waltz?
Laws are facts of observation: theories are speculative processes introduced to explain them
What is a paradigm?
Intellectual framework comprising interrelated values, theories and assumptions, within which the search of knowledge is conducted
What can empirical theories be?
- Prescrivptive
- Explanatory
- Predicative
What was the first great debate?
Realist vs Liberals (aka idealists/utopians)
What are the core tenets of realism in regard to the Cold War?
- Anarchy
- State-centricity
- Unitary rational actors assumption
- States are power-seeking
- Zero-sum game
What are the core tenets of liberalism in regard to the Cold War?
- Non-zero sum game
- Cooperation is possible
- History is progressive
What is neorealism?
- Also called structural realism
- Most often associated with the work
of Kenneth Waltz - It focuses less on human nature and
more on the structure of the
intertnaional system - Highlights the security dilemma -
states efforts to increase its
security can be perceived as
a threat by other states
and lead to greater insecurity
(Spiral model of Conflict) - States are concerned about relative
gains
Who was Kenneth Waltz?
- A structural realist focused on explaining the causes of ir at the systemic level (third image) - First book: Man, the State, and War (1959) - Outlines causes of war in three images (levels of analysis) - Second (biggest) book: Theory of IR (1979) - Waltz’s systemic structure
How did Waltz define structure?
- The principles according to which countries are organised or ordered - By the differentiation of units and the specification of their functions - By the distribution of capabilities across units
What does Waltz’s structural realism suggest about the level of analysis and international structures?
- If we focus only on internal charateristscs of states, we are going to be forced back into description not explanation - The systemic level offers a simplicity that reductionist (i.e. second image) theories cannot offer - Structures work to keep outcomes in narrow confines - Structures affect behaviour in the system through socialisation of the actors and competition among them - We need to omit attributes of states and the interactions between the units - Interaction is an element of the units. To define structure we have to concentrate on how they stand in relation to each other - International political systems are individualist in origin, spontaneously generated and unintended
What does Waltz’s structural realism suggest about actor’s motivations and cooperation?
- Actors’ motivations are assumed, and for Waltz the main motivation is state survival not power - maximise security to balance power - In an anarchic world characteristics don’t matter - When referring to states as ‘like units’ he is claiming that they are ‘alike in the tasks that they face, though not in their abilities to perform them’. The differences are of capability not function - Overall, Waltz argues that cooperation is difficult, because security is threatened by your reliance on exports from another state - In the self help system, considerations of security subordinate economic gain to political interests
What is neo-liberalism?
- Can be seen as a structural response to neo-realism - Level analysis is also the system - Mostly influential proponent is likely Robert Keohane
What are the basic tenets of neoliberalism?
- Absolute gains are important
- The problem for cooperation is
that states can cheat to maximise
absolute gains
- The problem for cooperation is
- Anarchy is moderated by
interdependence - Security is not the only issue
- States are not the only relevant
actors- Transnational and non-state
actors also relevant - Such actors can reduce states
transaction costs making
cooperation easier
- Transnational and non-state
Who was Robert Keohane?
- Neo-Liberal
- After Hegemony (1984) and
Neorealism and Its Critics (1986) - Argues that realism does not
provide an adequate theory of
world politics
- After Hegemony (1984) and
What was Keohane’s critique of realism?
- It does not provide plausible and testable answers to questions about state behaviour - It is especially weak in accounting for change, especially where the sources of change lie in the world political economy or domestic political structures - Structural realists can be criticised for ignoring norms, institutions and change - He argues that realists have to go outside the bounds of core realist theory to fully provide explanation of their outcomes - Realists assume that power is always the same across any issue dimenstion - Keohane argues that modern history shows that the type of power focuses on by realists (military) does not always determine war outcomes as realists suggest that it should
What did Keohane say of the realist view of state’s motivations?
- No problem with the assumption that
states, at a minimum, seek self
preservation
- He does have a problem with the idea
that, at a maximum, they strive for
universal domination
- Reminiscent of Morgenthau’s
assumption about power seeking
- These two assumptions
(self-preservation and universal
domination) are not internally
consistentWhat did Keohane do in 1977?
- Keohane and Nye (1977)
- Introduces the concept of complex
interdependence
- Introduces the concept of complex
What are the characteristics of complex interdependence?
– According to Keohand and Nye…
- Multiple channels of connection (both
formal and informal) between societies
- Absence of hierarchy among issues
- Military security does not always
dominate the agenda
- Minor role of military force among
states with complex interdependence
or within a region
What of political processes under complex interdependence?
- According to Keohand and Nye…
- Linkages between unrelated issues
- Politics of agenda formation
important (both domestically and
internationally) - Multiple channels of contact affects
types of actors involved in
transnational relations
What was the second great debate?
- The 1960s and afterwards saw more interest in the philosophy of science as new empiracal tools became available - Often seen as a debate between the traditionalists and behaviouralists
What were the silent questions and issues in the second great debate?
- How do we know what we know about politics? - How do the methods of research affect (1) the kinds of questions we can ask and (2) the areas we chose to focus on - View of world: Complexity (unpredictability) vs uniformity (generalisability) - Research focus: trees (depth) vs forests (breadth) - Perspective: subjective (unobservable ideas, emotions, identity, culture) vs objective (quantifiable and measurable)
Who were the traditionalists?
- Often associated with such scholars
as Carr, Morgenthau, Waltz and Bull
- An “approach to theorising that
derives from philosophy, history and
law, and that is characterised above
all by the explicit reliance upon the
exercise of judgement and by the
assumption that if we confine
ourselves to strict standards of
verification and proof there is very
little significance that can be said
about international relations”
- Hedley Bull (1932-1985)
- The Anarchical Society (1977)Who were the behaviouralists?
- (aka positivism)
- Associated with scholars like Singer
(conflict), Schelling (game theory),
Bueno de Mesquita (selectorate theory) - Focus on patterns of behaviour
- And the gradual accumulation of facts
and knowledge - Hypotheses should be falsifiable
- Methods can be qualitative or
quantitative - Emphasis on understanding cause and
effect - Borrowed methods from math, stat,
econ, psych - J David Singer (1925-2009)
