Summary Oxford International Relations (Politics 214) Finals Revision Notes
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Grado
International Relations (214)
Institución
Oxford University (OX)
These are the revision notes which I used to sit the IR paper for my PPE Finals in 2021. The topics covered are: IR theories (realism, liberalism, constructivism, English School), the UN, Globalisation, Ethnonationalist conflict, and the Clash of Civilisations (Huntington).
I achieved a First ov...
Tom Barnes Finals Revision Notes
Tutor: Edward Howell
Tuesday 8th June 2021
Acknowledgements:
Rob Harris.
,Tom Barnes
Trends in IR
Empirical trends in IR
Some post-Soviet states saw very violent transitions, and more generally, intra-state war has
overtaken inter-state war in frequency.
Huge increase in global terrorism, particularly since the start of the Syrian civil war.
Proliferation of international law, through mechanisms such as: Chemical Weapons Convention
(1993), WTO (1995), Ottowa treaty (1997), Kyoto Protocol (1997), Paris Agreement (2015), Treaty on
the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (2017).
Growth of regional institutions like the EU (major expansion in 2003), ASEAN expansion, NATO
expansion, NAFTA (1994), African Union (2001).
Growth of UN authorised interventions (Kuwait 1990, Somalia 92-5, Croatia and Bosnia 92-5, NATO
bombing of Yugoslavia 1999).
General trends in IR
Movement away from traditional Westphalian notion of sovereignty, balance of power, and big
power politics, towards globalisation, whereunder states are so interdependent that notions of
sovereignty make less sense.
Coinciding with the decline of state sovereignty, has been the rise of humanitarian intervention and
R2P as a norm – states are concerned with what happens to individuals in other states.
Greater power of non-state actors (NGOs and TNCs).
World has moved to unipolarity, from bipolarity (Cold War), and before that multipolarity (up to
WW1).
9/11 was transformative, ending the US’s willingness to simply coexist with local elites, who they
now feared were encouraging terror. This was complicated by the Middle East’s central role in the
global economy due to its natural resources, and the Arab Spring, which destabilised the region and
created a power vacuum.
The inter-state war has fallen in prevalence. Was once the main security problem, but security is
now understood to mean existential threats to individuals and groups, coming from a diverse range
of sources including environmental and health crises, migration, and civil war.
- Copenhagen School (e.g. Buzan/Weaver) who combine elements of realism and
constructivism, argue that these new, ostensibly different, threats have become securitised.
Issues which seem like globalisation issues are being turned into power issues. For example,
the argument made by the West that developing countries need to take their share of the
burden for slowing climate change is also about maintaining relative power balances.
- Some even argue that we are returning to old-style geopolitics, given the prevalence of
terror attacks, military interventions, growing nationalism, expansionism (Russia, China), and
the relative decline of the US relative to Russia and China.
,Tom Barnes
o Unconvincing – US is not really in decline, these threats are less about conventional
power than ever before.
Narratives of Post-Cold war history
Fukuyama end of history/US hegemony/New World Order
- In 1990 Bush declared a ’new world order’ represented by US dominance and leadership,
the rule of international law, and the end of ideology as the key world problem (replaced by
economic development)
- Fukuyama agreed, saying that liberal democracy and free markets had won.
Layne disagreed, arguing there was a ‘unipolar illusion’
- UN and other powers are nearly irrelevant, just bandwagoning around the US
- Danger the US would withdraw (as seen partly under Trump)
- US could provoke balancing against it (China perhaps)
o Although not clear we are seeing this – relative stability in East Asia
Deng in 1988 suggested that the world was moving towards the Asian century, and the inevitable
return of multipolarity, given that China, India and Japan contain 1/3 of the world’s population.
- Argued that the Western narrative of the inevitable victory of liberal values and
individualistic capitalism was mistaken
- Obama’s pivot to Asia arguably recognises the importance and truth of this, and represents a
US attempt to contain it
Hedley Bull’s ‘new medievalism’
- The rise of non-state actors and fluid norms has reduced the traditional impact of states
- Plurality of actors creates legitimation crisis for states, who struggle to control social change
, Tom Barnes
Theoretical Approaches to IR
Types of IR theories
Mapping theory
- Aims to capture the different paradigms we use to understand IR. A theory organises a field
systematically, and establishes a coherent set of related concepts
Positivist theory
- Says we can look out at the world, state hypotheses, proposes empirical tests, and present
findings to advance the debate
Interpretive theory
- What matters is not objective third person accounts, but rather how the actors themselves
understand the world around them and their place in it (following Weber)
Normative theory
- Tells us what we should do, what ends we should pursue, what rules we should obey
Critical theory
- Our ideas and theories are part of what we are studying, and so we need to critically reflect
on them. Large parts of IR cannot be understood in the usual analytical approach of causal
explanation.
Realism
Background
- Realism has been around since Thucydides back in 400BC, who as searching for an
explanation for the Peloponnese War.
- The basic belief is that international politics is necessarily a field of conflict between states
seeking power.
- Came out on top in the first great debate in IR, on the causes of WW1
- Parsimonious, aiming to be reductive
- Group of theories (neorealism, classical realism, balance of power, security dilemma) so is
really an adjective.
Key Claims
The state is unitary, rational, and self-interested
- The sovereign state is the principal actor in IR and acts as a coherent unit, to rationally
maximise its material interests.
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