
International Relations, Political Theory and the Problem of Order : Beyond International Relations Theory?.
Title:
International Relations, Political Theory and the Problem of Order : Beyond International Relations Theory?.
Author:
Rengger, N. J.
ISBN:
9780203983454
Personal Author:
Physical Description:
1 online resource (259 pages)
Series:
New International Relations
Contents:
Book Cover -- Half-Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Series editor's preface -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Order in the history of political thought -- The 'evolution of the problem of order' -- Order, sovereignty and modernity -- International relations theory and world order -- Contemporary International Relations theory in contest -- Contemporary international theory and the problem of order -- The argument of the book -- Notes -- 1 Balance -- Classical realism: 'moral realpolitik' and the balance of power -- Origins -- Framework -- Neo-realism: the inevitability of the balance of power -- Waltz' theory -- The inevitability of the balance of power -- The developing neo-realist agenda -- Neo-realism, order and balance -- The revisionists -- Buzan and Little: theory meets history -- Spegele: evaluative political realism -- Murray: pragmatic Augustinianism -- Realism, balance and order: an interrogation -- Notes -- 2 Society -- International society and international relations -- International society: a critique -- 'Constructivist' theory -- Constructivist accounts of society and order -- International order versus world order -- towards a critical-or 'constructivist'-international society? -- Conclusion: beyond international society? -- Notes -- 3 Institutions -- Liberal politics, liberal institutions and liberal order -- The liberalism of fear -- Constitutional liberalism -- Individualism -- Cognitive liberalism -- Institutionalism, cosmopolitanism and the forms of liberal 'order' -- The liberalism of fear and the dialectic of order -- Aron's liberalism -- Aron and international relations -- Aron and order -- The liberal democratic peace -- The thesis stated -- Some redefinitions -- The ideology of the status quo? -- The liberal democratic state as hegemon: a justification?.
Peace, hegemony and liberal international theory -- Liberal (and neo-liberal) institutionalism -- Critique -- Conclusion -- Notes -- 4 Emancipation -- The critical turn in twentieth-century thought -- The Frankfurt school and critical theory -- Gramsci and hegemony -- Feminist critique and critical theory -- Emancipation and critical theory in international relations -- The 'achievements of critical theory'? -- Historical materialism -- 'Gramscian' IR theory -- Negative dialectic? -- Emancipation, critique and ambiguity -- Conclusion: strategic 'emancipation', 'tactical ethics' and world order -- Notes -- 5 Limits -- Deconstruction, post-structuralism and political criticism in IR theory -- Post-Nietzschean thought and International Relations -- Post-structural political criticism and the problem of order -- Elshtain: the limits of/to order -- The limits of political criticism -- Notes -- Epilogue -- From IR theory to international political theory -- International political theory and naturalistic social science -- From international political theory to cosmopolitan political theory? The 'order of ends' -- Global 'order' and cosmopolitan 'ends' -- Notes -- Select bibliography -- Index.
Abstract:
At the turn of the millennium, and now after the fall of the Berlin wall, the best way to map the trajectories of contemporary international relations is hotly contested. Is the world more or less ordered than during the cold war? Are we on the way to a neo-liberal era of free markets and global governance, or in danger of collapsing into a new Middle Ages? Are we on the verge of a new world order or are we slipping back into an old one? These issues are amongst those that have dominated International Relations Theory in the late 1980s and 1990s, but they have their roots in older questions both about the appropriate ways to study international relations and about the general frameworks and normative assumptions generated by various different methodological approaches. This book seeks to offer a general interpretation and critique of both methodolgical and substantive aspects of International theory, and in particular to argue that International Relations theory has seperated itself from the concerns of political theory more generally at considerable cost to each. Focussing intially on the 'problem of order' in international politics, the book suggests that International Relations theory in the twentieth century had adopted two broad families of approaches, the first of which seeks to find ways of 'managing' order in international relations and the second of which seeks to 'end' the problem of order. It traces three specific sets of responses to the problem of order within the first approach, which emphasize 'balance', 'society' and 'institutions' and outlines two responses within the second grouping, an emphasis on emancipation and an emphasis on limits. Finally, the book assesses the state of International Relations theory today and suggests an alternative way of reading the problem of order which generates a different trajectory for theory in
the twenty first century.
Local Note:
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2017. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.
Genre:
Electronic Access:
Click to View