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Summary International relations lecture notes
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Final exam- Make sure to read the instructions!
- 3 main questions + several sub-questions
- You will be tested on
Your knowledge and understanding of the theoretical approaches
Relevant concepts and major assumptions of the theoretical approaches
Your ability to specify the similarities and differences of the theoretical
approaches
Your ability to reflect critically on these approaches
Your ability to apply them to and comment on international current or past
events
-
31.01.2022 Lecture 1
Power -> International Relations is all about power. State Power.
Exam -> Assumptions of theories, critiques, applying
The Capitalist World System
- Capitalism as central organizing principle of a hierarchical system
World views and Theories
- Help to manage the flood of information
Because of them, we notice certain things and ignore others.
- Our world views result from socialization, historical experiences, our societal
position, etc.
- IR theories are somewhat akin to world views.
The ‘Great Debates’ of IR
*Succession of theories
- Have served to organize and focus the discipline -> Structure of IR as discipline.
, - Help us understand why the theories look the way they do, penetrate their inner
logic and to work with them.
- Depending on which we privilege, we consider particular actors, structures and
processes to be important and decisive.
- Theories are children of today because things have changed.
Theories: A Characterization
- Abstract knowledge which …
Transcends observable facts and historical incidents;
Helps to identify the essential and typical patterns and the general
causes, effects, and relationships; what is typical/essential interactions
we see in IR?
Helps us to formulate general statements with respect to these patterns,
their causes, and effects;
May be speculative (e.g., predictions)
Selective functions of theories
Types of Theories
- Descriptive Theory
Describing the ‘typical’ and ‘essential’ -> What is?
- Causal Theory
Determine cause and effect; explain, predict, change; -> why are things are
the way they are? Why we see it?
- Normative Theory
Evaluate -> what is supposed to be?
Building Blocks of Theories: Actors
- Social actors:
Mostly corporate actors: e.g., states, IOs, NGOs, transnational corporations.
But increasingly individuals also are taken into account.
- Disposition
What interests do the actors have and how do they realize them?
Do they follow a rationalistic and instrumental logic based on a cost-
benefit calculation?
Or do they follow a logic of appropriateness and align their actions to
societal norms and rules?
How do the identities of the actors inform their interests?
Are interests assumed to be static or subject to change?
Building Blocks of Theories: Structures
- Social structure:
Determine relations between elements within a system.
Normative structures -> rules and norms
Regulative -> rules of behaviour
Constitutive -> membership within in particular system and position
Resource-based structures -> material, social or human resources
, Constrain or empower/enable actors. (e.g., when you have a nuclear
weapon, it can constrain or empower other actors)
- Degree to which actors and structures are presumed to interact, we can
distinguish between voluntaristic and deterministic theories.
Building Blocks of Theories: Processes
- IR theorists seek to understand and explain: Patterns of social interactions (e.g.,
cooperation, conflict, dependency, peace, etc.,)
- Processes transform behaviour into social interaction.
Mechanisms of social interaction may be, for example,
Strategic (e.g., interdependence)
Or normative (e.g., consens)
Building Blocks of Theories: Dynamics
- Feedback mechanisms of social interaction on …
Structure -> reproduction or change
Actors -> reinforcement or change of dispositions
Processes -> reproduction or change
- Dynamic mechanisms:
E.g., reinforcement, evolution, or cycles.
Theory Checklist
- What is a theory and what are the functions of theory?
- What are the building blocks of theory?
- What are the relevant patterns in international politics and what processes
transform behaviour into social interaction?
- Which dynamics are characteristic of international politics and how does the
international system evolve over time?
01.02.2022 Lecture 2
READINGS
Morgenthau’s Realist Theory (6 principles)
1. Politics is governed by objective laws which have roots in human nature.
- It is as such necessary to understand these laws and build a rational theory of
international politics. “These laws cannot be refuted and challenged. Taking
these as the basis, we can formulate a rational theory of International Politics;
Political Realism believes that international politics operates on the basis of
certain objective laws.”
2. National interest defined in terms of National power
, - This principle holds that nation always define and act for securing their national
interests by means of power. National interest is always secured by the use of
National power.
- Statesmen think and act in terms of interest defined as power, and the evidence
of history bears out this assumption.
- Little concern with Motives (futile and deceptive) and Ideological preferences
(the fallacy of equating the foreign policy of a statesman with ideological or
philosophical or political sympathies of the statesman).
- National interest and National power as the determinants of foreign policy.
3. Interest is always dynamic.
- Political realism believes in the universal validity of the concept of interest
defined in terms of power. The policies and actions of a nation are always
governed by national interest.
- However, the content of national interest is always changing in nature and
scope. It is not static. It changes with changes in political and social environment.
4. Abstract Moral Principles cannot be applied to Politics
- Political realism realizes that importance of moral principles but holds that in
their abstract and universal formulations these cannot be applied to state
actions.
- Realism believes that states are not expected to observe the same standards of
morality as are binding upon and observed by men.
5. Difference between Moral aspirations of a nation and the universal moral
principles.
- Political realism refuses to identify the moral aspirations of a particular nation
with the moral principles that govern the universe. It refuses to accept that the
national interests and policies of any particular nation reflect universally applied
moral principles.
6. Autonomy of International politics
- Morgenthau political realism accepts the autonomy of international politics as a
discipline. On the basis of the above five principles, it is ascertained by
Morgenthau that there exists a real and profound difference between political
realism and other approaches and theories.
Morgenthau’s The Balance of Power
- Balance of Power as universal concept
Two assumptions are at the foundation of all such equilibriums: first, that the
elements to be balanced are necessary for society or are entitled to exist
and, second, that without a state of equilibrium among them one element
will gain ascendancy over the others.
- Two main patterns of the Balance of Power: multiplicity and the antagonism of
its elements, the individual nations.
The pattern of Direct Opposition
The patten of Competition
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