LEC 1: introduction Flashcards
how does booth describe international relations?
we are all children of international relations, where we are born, our language and culture is all shaped by how international relation shave unfolded in the past
what is the international?
- the most rigourous defintion of the international is relationships between nations
however in practice it involves terroist gorups, NGOs and transnational corporations
what are the origins of international relations
the merging of a multitude of subjects all concerning the international (law, history, geography ect)
what questions does international relations ask?
big questions like
why can someone from sweden access 160+ countries visa free whereas someone from pakistan can only visit 30
what issues does IR cover?
- international order who has the capacity to call the shots?
- issue of soverignty: all states are soveign domestically but not internationally
- internations between economics, and military creating power
- causes of international conflict and co-operation
- role of culture, religion and the rise of identity policity
what are IR theories?
- they are lenses which make you see the world in a different way. depending on what you are analysing
- visisual representations of the world not accurate descriptions
- some theories empahsis some things and hide others so must be looked a critically
why are IR theories useful?
- help us to understand the world
- leads you to questioning the world
- develop a multi-dimentional understanding of international politics
- critically assess your own assumptions
- group ideas together to establish patterns and see differences between events
dunne et al defintion of a theory
framework or knowledge which we engage and give meaning to the world
gerico et al definition of theory
groups of ideas to explain some empirical phenomenon
what is theorising?
making assumptions and then attaching logical arguments to tho assumptions to answer a question and help understand things
using knoedlge of the worls and logical processes
what are explainatory theories?
explain an outside reality
what are critical theories?
not only explain but criticised social systems
what are consecutive theories?
attempts to understand a reality to which they also belong
for example theories about childhood in mongolia are possiblee to make but you have to understand if you have not been a child in mongolia before oyu need to recognise there will be limitations to your findings
what are normative theories?
a body of work which adresses the moral dimentions of international relations and the wider questions of meaning and interpretation within the discipline
what ways do we learn international relations theories?
- history of boxes
- ## fight club history
what is the history of boxes
divided international relations into schools of thought (liberealism, realism ect)
each theory having its own hisotry, heros and villans
what are the key foundations of realism?
- main actors are states
- human nature is selfish and therefore states are lead by. selfish leaders who are trying to maximise their national interest
- goal is stability and this is aachieved through a balence of power
what are self help systems in realism
the idea that there is no supari-national authaurity to protect states they can only rely on themsleves, ehnce military expansion
what are the foundations of liberalism?
- main actors are states but alos multi-national corporations and international organisations
- beleif that there is a potential for progress in the world
- international co-orportation
- military. power isnt the only typ eo fpower
- states dont all act the same as states actions are shaped by their different political systems
- stability comes from countries who have layers of interdependence
- international law is importantn
foundations of social constructivism
- social reality is constucted by agents
- the social world and its actors are neither natural or given but open to change
- relaist/marxist assumptions are too fixed
- states behave in a way that reproduces anarchy. (Wendt)
problems with history of boxes
- these boxes dont follow a chronological order and doesn’t take into consideration how and why theories were made
- simplifies complex ideas
- limited to 5-7 boxes
what is. fight club hsitory
- there have been 4 IR debates between ideologies and each time there has been a winner and looser
- debates are the basis of theoretical evoultion of IR as a dsicplinee
what were the fight club history debates
liberalism v realism
theory v behaviorism
neorealism v neoliberalism
positivist approachs v post positivist alternatives
