Is there a "timeless wisdom" to realism?
Author | : Markus Minning |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : |
Release | : 2008 |
Genre | : |
ISBN | : 9783640094554 |
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Author | : Markus Minning |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : |
Release | : 2008 |
Genre | : |
ISBN | : 9783640094554 |
Author | : Steve Smith |
Publisher | : Cambridge University Press |
Total Pages | : 388 |
Release | : 1996-06-13 |
Genre | : Philosophy |
ISBN | : 9780521479486 |
This book provides a major review of the state of international theory. It is focused around the issue of whether the positivist phase of international theory is now over, or whether the subject remains mainly positivistic. Leading scholars analyse the traditional theoretical approaches in the discipline, then examine the issues and groups which are marginalised by mainstream theory, before turning to four important new developments in international theory (historical sociology, post-structuralism, feminism, and critical theory). The book concludes with five chapters which look at the future of the subject and the practice of international relations. This survey brings together key figures who have made leading contributions to the development of mainstream and alternative theory, and will be a valuable text for both students and scholars of international relations.
Author | : Markus Minning |
Publisher | : GRIN Verlag |
Total Pages | : 9 |
Release | : 2008-03-19 |
Genre | : Political Science |
ISBN | : 3638021572 |
Essay from the year 2007 in the subject Politics - Other International Politics Topics, University of Sheffield (Department of Politics), language: English, abstract: I argue that there is no ́timeless wisdom ́ to realism, because in my opinion wisdom has nothing to do with realism. If realism is a timeless theory, then it should be viewed differently from the concept of wisdom. Both will be discussed in the following essay. Before we can fully answer the question if there is a ́timeless wisdom ́ to realism, we should focus on the meaning of wisdom. The term wisdom has a varity of different meanings and implications in depending on your particular point of view. If you search the online lexicon encarta, you find for instance explanations of “Western philosophic theories on wisdom”, “wisdom in Chinese philosopic tradition”, mythological definitions of wisdom and there exist other understandings of wisdom. (encarta. 13.11.07) Probably the political scientists have another meaning of wisdom in their mind than the psychologists. For this essay the definition of wisdom will be the one used in the encarta dictionary. It declares wisdom as “the ability to make sensible decisions and judgments based on personal knowledge and experience.” (encarta dictionary. 13.11.07) When we use this definition, which is of course mainly used to describe the behavior of human beings rather than a political theory, it is very doubtful to describe someone who sees power politics and e.g. the use of war merely as a political instument, as a sensible being. From a realist viewpoint states are “self-help agents” which only see their own interests and carry it through in an anarchic world order. (Doyle et al., 1997, p. 165) In regard to Machiavelli and Hobbes, humans are born bad. Carr and Morgenthau assume that the mankind learned by sociological factors to be self-maximizers. (Brown, 2007) Realist politics is power politics. Morgenthau claims that “power may comprise anything that establishes and maintains the control of man over man. Thus power covers all social relationships which serve that end, from physical violence to the most subtle psychological ties by which one mind controls another.” (Morgenthau, 1948, p. 11) Does this sound sensible? The focus on realism is rather power politics, conflict and war in which the values of cooperation, peace and progress are focused in the theories of liberalism. (Jackson et al, 2003 ) Of course, if we want to be 100 per cent correct, we also have to define the meaning of sensible decisions making, which is used in the definiton of wisedom. This would be the right way to work scientificly.
Author | : S. Molloy |
Publisher | : Springer |
Total Pages | : 195 |
Release | : 2006-02-04 |
Genre | : Political Science |
ISBN | : 1403982929 |
Challenging the received notions of International Relations theory about a central tradition - Realism - Molloy demonstrates how a belief in a mode of theorization has distorted Realism, forcing the theory of power politics in IR into a paradigmatic strait-jacket that is simply inadequate and inappropriate to the task of encompassing its diversity.
Author | : Konstantinos Kostagiannis |
Publisher | : Springer |
Total Pages | : 223 |
Release | : 2017-09-21 |
Genre | : Political Science |
ISBN | : 3319596292 |
This book recovers the history of realist theorization on nationalism and the nation-state. Presented in a sequence of snapshots and illustrated by examples drawn from the foreign policy of great powers, this history is represented by four key realist thinkers. It uses the centrality of power in realism as a starting point to claim, contrary to conventional wisdom about realism, that for realists the state is better understood not as a political unit outside history but rather as a manifestation of power unfixed in time. It also claims that the process of gradual impoverishment of the concept of power from classical to structural realism had profound implications for realism, as what the latter gained in parsimony it lost in analytical purchase. As a result, elaborate understandings of nationalism and its relation to the state are replaced by one-dimensional approaches. In order to offer meaningful engagement with foreign policy, neorealists often have to resort to the recovery of some of the complexity of classical realist accounts.
Author | : Ken Booth |
Publisher | : Cambridge University Press |
Total Pages | : 272 |
Release | : 1998 |
Genre | : History |
ISBN | : 9780521667838 |
This book uses the agenda of E. H. Carr, and most obviously extends the title of his classic book The Twenty Years' Crisis, as the point of departure to discuss aspects of the world historical crisis from the end of the First World War until the end of the 1990s. This crisis - identified by 80 years of destructive wars, inequalities in life chances, and today's casualities of the global political economy - has shaped both the practices of international politics and the way they have been conceptualised and reconceptualised by specialists in International Relations. A distinguished group of contributors have written about the development of the academic discipline of International Relations in the inter-war years, the Cold War and post-Cold War eras; ethics, power and nationalism; the conditions of peace and the roles of law and peaceful change; and finally, considering future prospects, about globalization and the end of the old order.
Author | : W. David Clinton |
Publisher | : LSU Press |
Total Pages | : 343 |
Release | : 2007-07-01 |
Genre | : Political Science |
ISBN | : 0807149217 |
The tradition in international relations theory known as realism has often been associated with the Cold War. The contributors to this intriguing volume argue, however, that realism remains a profound and relevant perspective on contemporary international politics. They point out that classical realism is based on concepts that were elucidated long before the Cold War began and are not confined by its boundaries. Further, they believe that insights of the realist tradition can provide valuable guidance in our contemporary world. W. David Clinton and ten scholars of foreign policy reexamine the work of thinkers spanning twenty-five centuries who have contributed to the development of realism across the ages. In their essays, the authors consider two key questions: What makes these thinkers "realists"? And how is their work relevant to the modern, post--Cold War world? These essays take a fresh look at such canonical thinkers as Thucydides, Augustine, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Hume, Burke, Carr, Niebuhr, and Morgenthau. Countering the widespread belief that realism has nothing left to offer, this collection demonstrates that continuities remain in the political world -- and that the ideas rooted in realism are too important and too useful to ignore. While there are obvious differences among the political philosophers whose works are considered here, they share a common concern about human limitations and the possible dangerous consequences of ignoring those limitations. Each in his own way, these classic thinkers discuss the need for prudence to counter the ever-present threat of tragedy resulting from our innocent, hopeful, or self-righteous efforts for perfection. These provocative essays demonstrate that though a realist understanding of the nature of international relations is at least as old as Thucydides, it is also as contemporaneous as the most recent headline.
Author | : Valerie Morkevičius |
Publisher | : Cambridge University Press |
Total Pages | : 274 |
Release | : 2018-01-25 |
Genre | : Political Science |
ISBN | : 1108245994 |
Just war thinking and realism are commonly presumed to be in opposition. If realists are seen as war-mongering pragmatists, just war thinkers are seen as naïve at best and pacifistic at worst. Just war thought is imagined as speaking truth to power - forcing realist decision-makers to abide by moral limits governing the ends and means of the use of force. Realist Ethics argues that this oversimplification is not only wrong, but dangerous. Casting just war thought to be the alternative to realism makes just war thinking out to be what it is not - and cannot be: a mechanism for avoiding war. A careful examination of the evolution of just war thinking in the Christian, Islamic, and Hindu traditions shows that it is no stranger to pragmatic politics. From its origins, just war thought has not aimed to curtail violence, but rather to shape the morally imaginable uses of force, deeming some of them necessary and even obligatory. Morkevičius proposes here a radical recasting of the relationship between just war thinking and realism.
Author | : Asle Toje |
Publisher | : Manchester University Press |
Total Pages | : 284 |
Release | : 2024-07-30 |
Genre | : Political Science |
ISBN | : 1526186071 |
Realism is making a comeback in Europe. This book brings together a new generation of realist scholars. It provides a rigorous survey for specialists seeking to understand the dynamics of international relations in a time of change. The volume thus seeks to explore the European dimension to neoclassical realism. The hope with this book is that it will spark a debate that, in time, might lead to the re-emergence of a distinctly European realist school which draws on the roots of the historical, non-American realist tradition, benefiting from insights in the liberal-constructivist paradigm. Through detailed case studies, the book illustrates that power and influence remain fruitful, even indispensable variables through which to understand the formation of foreign policy.
Author | : Matthew Specter |
Publisher | : Stanford University Press |
Total Pages | : 409 |
Release | : 2022-02-08 |
Genre | : History |
ISBN | : 150362997X |
In The Atlantic Realists, intellectual historian Matthew Specter offers a boldly revisionist interpretation of "realism," a prevalent stance in post-WWII US foreign policy and public discourse and the dominant international relations theory during the Cold War. Challenging the common view of realism as a set of universally binding truths about international affairs, Specter argues that its major features emerged from a century-long dialogue between American and German intellectuals beginning in the late nineteenth century. Specter uncovers an "Atlantic realist" tradition of reflection on the prerogatives of empire and the nature of power politics conditioned by fin de siècle imperial competition, two world wars, the Holocaust, and the Cold War. Focusing on key figures in the evolution of realist thought, including Carl Schmitt, Hans Morgenthau, and Wilhelm Grewe, this book traces the development of the realist worldview over a century, dismantling myths about the national interest, Realpolitik, and the "art" of statesmanship.