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Lecture notes International Relations
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Notes of the lectures from 2024. There is almost no slide text, so the information is from what the professor said.
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Lecture 2IR as an academic discipline? A historical introduction
Roots of IR
- Ancient empires (Roman, Persian, etc.)
- Silk Road
- Peace of Westphalia (started state sovereignty)
- Expansion of empires (England, France, USA)
• Security Dilemma: “A structural notion in which the self-help attempts of states to
look after their security needs tend, regardless of intention, to lead to rising
insecurity for others as each interprets its own measures as defensive and measures
of others as potentially threatening” (Hurz 1951: 7)
- Congress of Vienna
• Establish balance of power: ‘[…] some kind of power equilibrium between states
in an international system, manifesting itself in either multipolarity or bipolarity.
This situation differs from other possible outcomes, including hegemony or full
imperialization’ (S,M,J, 2022: 377)
• System of diplomacy
- 20th century
• Rise of Modern Nation state
• Industrial Revolution
• Decline of old empires
• World War I
Origins of IR as an academic discipline
Theorizing IR
- Why we need theory?
• ‘We need theories to make sense of the blizzard of information that bombards us
daily’ (Stephen M. Walt, 1998)
• Making sense of complexity
- What is a theory?
• Theory is an abstraction of reality
• Derived from ‘logic’/empirical observation (or both)
• Helps us to explain/understand a social phenomenon
• Which we can test with more ‘logic’/empirical observation
, - ‘No single approach can capture all the complexity of contemporary world politics.
Therefore, we are better off with a diverse array of competing ideas rather than a
single theoretical orthodoxy. Competition between theories helps reveal their strength
and weaknesses and spurs subsequent refinements, while revealing flaws in
conventional wisdom’ (Stephen Walt, 1998: 30)
- Ontology: the study of nature of things
• The world is primarily determined by:
➢ Structure or agency
➢ Material factors (money → measurable) or ideational factors (culture →
immeasurable)
- Epistemology: the study of nature of knowledge
• Social scientific investigation is:
➢ Objective or subjective
Origins of IR as an Academic Discipline: the first phase
Characteristics of Utopian Liberalism
- Wilsonianism
• Fourteen points
• International organization (→ League of Nations)
- Idealism
• War is irrational
- Internationalism
• ‘It is the conviction that, through a rational and intelligently designed international
organization, it should be possible to put an end to war and to achieve permanent
peace. The claim is not that it will be possible to do away with states and states
people, foreign ministers, armed forces and other agents and instruments of
international conflict. Rather, the Claim is that it is possible to tame states and
states people by subjecting them to appropriate international organizations,
institutions, and laws’ (S.M.J, 2022:37)
• Kellog-Briand Pact (no more war as instrument of power → failed)
- View on humans: human beings are good
- View of history: history is moving towards progress
- Goal of IR: should have normative claims
- Level of analysis (drivers of IR): individuals, groups, organizations, nation states
- Perception of IR: positive (win-win)
- Perception on power: power not important (also soft power)
- Causes of war: non-democratic regimes, irrational leaders, secret diplomacy,
expansionist nationalism, militarism
, - Policy prescriptions: respect international law, international institutions,
democratization
- Relation between national and foreign policy: clear relation → mutually interacting
- Historical tradition: Locke, Kant, Wilson
Origins of IR as an Academic Discipline: the first phase and the crisis of Utopian Liberalism
- Political problems: fascism, Nazism, failing of League of Nations
- Economical problems: economic crises
- ‘They (liberal utopians) simply made unverified assumptions about human behaviour
and, on the strength of these, drew up visionary schemes of ideal communities in
which men of all classes would live together in amity, sharing the fruits of their
labours in proportion to their needs…But the solution propounded by them had no
logical connection with the conditions which created the problem. Once more, it was
not the product of analysis, but of aspiration’ (E.H. Carr, 1939)
- ‘International order’ and ‘international solidarity’ will always be slogans of those who
feel strong enough to impose them on others
Lecture 3
IR Theories: Realism
A Realist World
- “The struggle for power is universal in time and space and is an undeniable fact of
experience. It cannot be denied that throughout historic time, regardless of social,
economic and political conditions, states have met each other in contests for power…
nobody has yet shown how their state of mind can be re-created on a worldwide scale
so as to eliminate the struggle for power from the international scene. … International
politics, like all politics, is a struggle for power. Whatever the ultimate aims of
international politics, power is always the immediate aim.” (Hans J. Morgenthau,
1948)
- “Geopolitics didn’t return; it never went away. The arc of history bends toward
delusion… Now as ever, great-power politics will drive events… That means the
course of the coming century will largely be determined by how China and United
States manage their power resources and their relationship” (Stephen Koktin, 2018)
- “The key to understanding international politics is not the behavior of good guys and
bad guys, but rather the anarchic nature of the international system” (John J
Mearsheimer, 2001)
Elements of Realist thought
- Human nature
- Struggle for power
- Cyclical view of history
Realism versus Idealist (Utopian Liberals)
- View of humans
• Idealist: good
• Realist: bad
- View of history
• Idealist: progressive, humans much impact
• Realist: not necessarily progressive, cyclical, humans not much impact
- Goal of IR
, • Idealist: cooperation, integration
• Realist: integration impossible, so survival and security
- Level of analysis
• Idealist: individuals, nations, international organizations
• Realist: state
- Perception of IR
• Idealist: positive, win-win
• Realist: negative, zero-sum game
- Perception of power
• Idealist: power not necessarily defined in material sense (soft power)
• Realist: different forms of power, military power most important
- Causes of war
• Idealist: non-democratic regimes, irrational leaders, secret diplomacy, expansionist
nationalism, militarism
• Realist: it’s natural, anarchical state of international relations, kind of state doesn’t
matter
- Policy recommendations
• Idealist: respect international law, international institutions, democratization
• Realist: change is hard to achieve, act realistic, balance of power
- Relation between domestic and foreign policy
• Idealist: mutually interacting
• Realist: different sphere, shouldn’t interfere with each other
- Historical tradition
• Idealist: Locke, Kant, Wilson
• Realist: Thucydides, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Morgenthau
Key developments of Realist thought
- Thucydides (Athens, 460-400 BC)
1. The structure of the international system affects relations between states
2. IR is characterized by conflict
• Justice doesn’t have a place in state system
• States are unequal, so couldn’t be treated as equals
• Only survival of state matters
• Power politics
• Next hegemonic war?
➢ Hegemonic wars are a historical continuity since days of Thucydides
➢ US vs. China?
- Machiavelli (Florence, 1469-1527)
• Power and deception:
➢ “Survival of the state by any means necessary”
• “A prince (…) cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good,
for in order to maintain the state he is often obliged to act against his promise,
against charity, against humanity and against religion. And therefore, it is
necessary that he have a mind ready to turn itself according to the way the winds
of fortune and the changeability of [political] affairs require (…) as long as it is
possible, he should not stray from the good, but he should know how to enter into
evil when necessity commands.”
• Power politics
• Responsibility of ruler is independence of the state
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