IR Theory Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

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- IR Theory
- by Tamerlan Dadashov
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- IR Theory, Liberal Democracy, Non-Democratic Regimes, Democratic Peace Theory
- by Tim Dunne
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- Human Rights, IR Theory, R2P Responsibility to Protect

Although the existence of foreign fighters is nothing new in the inter- national arena, the phenomenon has not yet triggered a substantial reflection in International Relations (IR) theory. A relatively rare phenomenon before the 1980s, foreign fighters have so far received little attention under IR. This state of affairs began to change in the spring of 2014, when a jihadist armed group that incorporates an unprecedented number of foreign recruits—the Islamic State (IS)—proclaimed a ‘Caliphate’ spanning large portions of Syrian and Iraqi ter- ritory and captured global attention by widely circulating to the media all sorts of terror tactics and war crimes it systematically perpetrates. This chapter seeks first of all to bring foreign fighters into an IR analytical focus by identifying those trends that make them a discrete actor category distinct from insurgents and terror- ists. Second, it addresses some of the difficulties in grasping the question from an IR theory angle, beginning with transnational mobilisation and State sponsorship. Finally, it reflects on how foreign fighters are involved in State-making/un-making, and how this affects movements in the tectonics of the international system.

Action-sentences about states, such as 'North Korea conducted a nuclear test', are ubiquitous in discourse about international relations. Although there has been a great deal of debate in IR about whether states are agents or actors, the question of how to interpret action-sentences about states has been treated as secondary or epiphenomenal. This article focuses on our practices of speaking and writing about the state rather than the ontology of the state. It uses Hobbes' theory of attributed action to develop a typology of action-‐sentences and to analyze action-sentences about states. These sentences are not shorthand for action-sentences about individuals, as proponents of the metaphorical interpretation suggest. Nor do they describe the actions of singular agents, as proponents of the literal interpretation suggest. The central argument is that action-sentences about states are 'attributive', much like sentences about principals who act vicariously through agents: they identify the 'owners' of actions—the entities that are responsible for them—rather than the agents that perform the actions. Our practice of ascribing actions to states is not merely figurative, but nor does it presuppose that states are corporate agents.

The end of the Cold War led to intense debates about how change happens in international politics. In this article, we argue that practice theory has great potential for illuminating this question. Drawing on Vincent Pouliot’s empirical analysis of NATO-Russia relations after the end of the Cold War, we elaborate how change happens in and through practice. We show that post-Cold War security practices are inherently unstable, because there is a fundamental uncertainty about whether the Cold War is really over or whether the Cold War logic of bipolar confrontation still applies. Uncertainty about the meaning of the past destabilizes present practices and thus makes sudden and drastic change possible. To date, many contributions to the literature on international practices have, however, failed to grasp the inherent instability of practice. We argue that this failure is due to a particular conception of change that can be found in the works of Pierre Bourdieu. Through a close reading of Pouliot’s Bourdieusian analysis of post-Cold War politics, we demonstrate the limitations of such a perspective, notably that it is unable to grasp how change originates in practice.

- by Sebastian Schindler and +1
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- Social Change, International Relations, International Relations Theory, Practice theory
- by Rahul Mishra
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- International Relations, Southeast Asia, International Politics, Indian Politics

هه‌ر له‌سه‌ره‌تاى دامه‌زراندنى ده‌وڵه‌تى توركیاى كۆمارى له‌ساڵى 1923 له‌سه‌ر ده‌ستى موسته‌فا كه‌مال ئه‌تاتورك تاوه‌كو ساڵى 1974، ده‌وڵه‌تى توركیا ڕێگربووه‌ له‌به‌رده‌م ماف و داخوازییه‌كانى كورد له‌و وڵاته‌. دواى نزیكه‌ى چوار ده‌یه‌ له‌ ڕووبه‌ڕووبونه‌وه‌ى نێوان توركیاو پارتى كرێكارانى كوردستان، له‌سه‌ره‌تاى ساڵى 2013 ئاگربه‌ستێكى ئاشتى له‌ نێوان توركیاو پارتى كرێكارانى كوردستان هاته‌كایه‌وه‌. به‌ڵام ته‌مه‌نى ئاگربه‌سته‌كه‌ زۆر كورت بوو، له‌دواى سه‌ركه‌وتنى پارتى دیموكراتى گه‌لان له‌ هه‌ڵبژاردنه‌كانى مانگى شه‌شى ساڵى 2015 ، ره‌جه‌ب ته‌یب ئه‌ردۆگانی سه‌رۆكی توركیا به‌ فه‌رمى كۆتایی به‌ ئه‌گربه‌ست هێنا له‌گه‌ڵ په‌كه‌كه‌دا به‌شێویه‌كى تاك لایه‌نه‌و به‌م شێوه‌یه‌ش جارێكى تر شه‌ڕو پێكدادان له‌ نێوان توركیاو پارتى كرێكارانى كوردستاندا ده‌ستیپێكرده‌وه‌، كه‌ هه‌ندێك كات به‌شه‌ڕى سیاسى ئه‌ردۆگان له‌دژى كورد ناوده‌برێت (1). ئه‌م توێژینه‌وه‌یه‌ به‌شێوه‌یه‌كى گشتى باس له‌ هۆكاره‌كانى شكستهێنانى پڕۆسه‌ى ئاشتى له‌نێوان توركیاو په‌كه‌كه‌ ده‌كات، دواتر لێكه‌وته‌ى جه‌نگى نێوان ئه‌و دوو لایه‌نه‌ ده‌خاته‌ڕوو. له‌كۆتاییدا لێكۆڵینه‌وه‌كه‌ گفتوگۆى داهاتووى ڕووبه‌ڕووبونه‌وه‌ى نێوان توركیاو په‌كه‌كه‌ ده‌كات.

- by Hawre Hasan Hama
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- Security Studies, IR Theory

While IR’s Eurocentric limits are usually acknowledged, what those limits mean for
theorizing about the international is seldom clarified. In The Global Transformation,
Buzan and Lawson offer a ‘composite approach’ that goes some way towards
addressing IR’s Eurocentrism, challenging existing myths about the emergence and
evolution of the international system and society. This paper seeks to push the
contribution made by Buzan and Lawson in two further directions: first, by
underscoring the need to adopt a deeper understanding of Eurocentrism; and second,
by highlighting how this understanding helps us recognize what is missing from IR
theorizing – conceptions of the international by ‘others’ who also constitute the
international. I illustrate this point by focussing on a landmark text on Ottoman
history, Ortaylı’s The Longest Century of the Empire.

- by Pınar Bilgin
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- International Relations Theory, IR Theory, Postcolonial IR
- by Sujata Ashwarya
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- Political Science, Cold War, Energy Security, Indian Politics

"The aim of this paper is to establish a political framework to mitigate the crisis propensity of power transitions in the international system. One approach that focuses on this phenomenon is Power Transition Theory, which warns that situations in which rising powers approach a (declining) hegemon often escalate into conflict or war. Specifically unsatisfied rising powers are expected to come into conflict with the dominant power and each other. Power Transition Theory, however, has only a limited view on the structure of the international order. It
overlooks the possibility of ruling the system by consensus rather than by coercion, highlighted by Liberal Hegemony Theory. Merging Power Transition Theory with liberal Hegemony Theory can reveal previously hidden opportunities to manage peaceful power transitions. In the light of the prolonged economic growth of countries like China and India this finding might prove to be crucial for the thinking of future world-order-governance politics."

- by Carsten Rauch and +1
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- International Relations, International Relations Theory, Political Science, International Politics

No phenomenon is arguably more central to the study of international relations (IR) than war. The history of armed conflict is deeply intertwined with the formation of virtually every nation-state and it was the very superiority of the modern territorial polity's mobilization of the war machine that ensured its historical dominance over other types of units. The exercise of armed force is still viewed today by states as their singular prerogative and the greatest calling they can make on their populations and, as realist scholars keep reminding us, the ever-present possibility of war always lurks in the background of international relations. Yet for all its centrality, the concept of war itself was until relatively recently rarely submitted to sustained scrutiny within IR scholarship. This is a paradox given the importance accorded to war within the modern academic discipline of IR at its foundation. Back then, figures such as E. H. Carr (2001) and Hans Morgenthau (1948) insisted on a clear-eyed recognition of the inherent propensity of states to employ bellicose means to further their interests as the surest way to avert, or at least mitigate, the evils of war. The original emphasis on war is hardly surprising given that the field established itself in the shadow of two world wars and a tense confrontation between American and Soviet superpowers. But it is precisely the weight of these historical conditions that gave scholars little reason to probe the concept of war in any great depth, so self-evident did it appear to them that it primarily referred to the kind of large-scale interstate conflict that had so dominated recent world affairs.

This book critically engages with NATO’s two main referent objects of security: civilisation and individuals. By rethinking the seemingly natural assumption of these two referent objects, it suggests the epistemological importance of an unconscious dimension to understand meaning formation and behaviour change in international security.
The book provides a historicised and genealogical approach of the idea of civilisation that is at the core of the Alliance, in which human needs, narratives, and security arrangements are interconnected. It suggests that there is a Civilised Subject of Security at the core of modern Western security that has constantly produced civilised and secure subjects around the world, which explains NATO’s emergence around a civilisational referent. The book then proceeds by considering the Individualisation of Security after the Cold War as another stage of the civilising process, based on NATO’s military operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo and Afghanistan.
https://www.palgrave.com/cn/book/9783319744087#aboutBook

- by Sarah Da Mota
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- Discourse Analysis, Psychoanalysis, NATO, International History

For international relations (IR) scholars, the story behind the ﬁgure of Udjahorresnet might seem as an obscure phase in international history. Yet the pre-Roman period is educative for testing constitutive IR
concepts such as the balance of power theory, international system, or soft power, which are still widely assumed to have become relevant only in the post-Roman context rather than in the ancient civilizations of
the Eastern Mediterranean preceding the Greco-Roman experience. This article proposes that insights from IR theory can oﬀer ancient historians and Egyptologists theoretical tools by linking empirical facts to patterns
rather than just unique events via conceptual analysis. Udjahorresnet as diplomatic ﬁgure is an important primary source to understand the transition of power from native Egyptian hands to the Achaemenid rule,
and thus it provides a case study where micro and macro levels of analyses ﬁnd fertile ground in a cross-disciplinary framework.

- by Luke Barnesmoore
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- Critical Theory, Social Theory, Number Theory, Probability Theory

This chapter of the Routledge Handbook of Latin American Security explores how the interaction between security dynamics and regional institutions has been studied so far in Latin America. The first section approaches the question from the vantage point of neoliberal institutionalism, and the second through neo-functionalist lenses. The final section summarizes the findings.

- by Luis L Schenoni and +1
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- Latin American Studies, International Relations, Political Economy, International Relations Theory

يتناول هذا البحث مساهمة النظرية النسوية في العلاقات الدولية

- by khaled almasri
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- IR Theory, International Security and Strategic affairs
- by Tatiana A Romanova
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- IR Theory

Scholars and policymakers currently lack systematic criteria for determining the credibility of China's foreign policy signals, which has produced widely divergent conclusions about its likely intentions. "China optimists" view China's cooperative signals as credible, while dismissing its non-cooperative behaviors as unrepresentative of its broader preferences. Conversely, "China pessimists" see China's cooperative signals as non-credible misrepresentation, and focus on China's recent "assertive" behavior. Drawing on theoretical scholarship on signaling and credibility in IR, this paper introduces general deductive criteria for assigning credibility to a rising state's foreign policy signals. It then applies these criteria to evaluate the specific Chinese signals that optimists and pessimists have cited in support of their respective positions. The analysis finds that both optimists and pessimists have overlooked multiple conditions that have reduced the credibility of China's cooperative and non-cooperative foreign policy signals alike. This implies that far more uncertainty about China's intentions is warranted than has been acknowledged on either side of the current debate.

This is the table of contents of my forthcoming book, Political Theology of International Order, Oxford University Press, 2020. It investigates presuppositions of international order that originate in medieval theology. The main argument is that international order understood in terms of individuals—either states or human beings—and artificial relations, established by the operation of an impersonal mechanism or the adoption of positive rules, is a worldly application of a theological pattern. The book uncovers these presuppositions as they emerged in a medieval dispute about the nature of God and the extent of his power and its traces their assimilation into modern politics and law.

- by William Bain
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- Intellectual History, History of Ideas, Political Theory, Medieval Theology

In recent years, scholars in the academic discipline of International Relations (IR) have become increasingly interested in practices and the everyday. As part of this trend, which is often referred to as IR's "practice turn," a broad spectrum of practice-theoretical approaches from sociology and social theory have been introduced to IR and further developed and transformed in response to the particular questions that the study of the international poses. While the various approaches to the study of international practices are far from forming one singular theory, they nonetheless share a many core concerns. These concerns include an emphasis on process, sensitivity for different forms of knowledge and learning, and an understanding of the world as performative and anchored in materiality. Practice theory in IR has been associated with several promises. Its proponents argue that it allows for inter-paradigmatic dialogue, to better conceptualize social change, to get closer to the everyday activities of those involved in international politics, to re-appreciate materiality, and to develop forms of analysis resonating with practitioner communities. The goal of this article is to familiarize the reader with the major studies that draw on and develop practice-theoretical concepts in IR. The article introduces, first, the core programmatic texts, overviews, and collections that give shape to the practice turn in IR as a research program. Second, it presents a range of distinct approaches to international practice theory. Finally, it highlights a range of thematic areas that have featured prominently in discussions of the practice turn in IR.

The internet has developed into the number one port for communication and information. With the millions of websites available, search engines play a vital role in filtering information online. Over time, both search engines and technical equipment have been changing: web-enabled devices have been getting smaller, new search engines were launched, new search features added, and the presentation of the search results has undergone modifications. Users have been changing their search habits, too, they have been getting more experienced in searching the web. Analytical search engine studies, e.g. logfile analyses, are numerous. User-focused studies of search engine behavior and user satisfaction, on the other hand, are still rare. However, certain scenarios, such as exploratory searches, and the users' subjective satisfaction may not be captured in those analyses. Nonetheless, the users' subjective opinions and skills eventually decide upon the achieved search performance and the success of a search engine. The last user-focused search engine studies in Germany are from more than a decade ago. This study investigates user search engine behavior and satisfaction from the perspective of internet users in Germany. An survey was conducted to learn about search engine usage frequency, preferred search engines, and priorities for search engine selection, and to assess specific search habits, such as preferred search query language, customization of the search engine language settings, and the necessity for repetitive searches and query rephrasing as perceived by the users. The survey also evaluated the users' satisfaction with the search results in general, the search results on the first page, as well as the results retrieved with German versus English search queries. Where possible, the paper compares the findings with the user-focused studies from 2003 and 2005.

- by Annegret M. Gross
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- Information Systems, German Studies, Information Science, Information Retrieval
- by Adrian Pabst
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- Political Theory, IR Theory

ABSTRACT
Peripheral Realism postulates that the interstate system is not “anarchic” (in the Waltzian sense) but imperfectly hierarchic. States do not have the same functions. There are states that rule (the ones with rule-making capabilities, which are the first to break their own rules), states that obey (the majority of states, including highly developed ones without apocalyptic military capabilities) and states that rebel (rogue or pariah states). In this brief anthology of three essays, we examine the interstate hierarchies that set the rules after the two world wars, and during the events leading to the end of the Cold War, 1989-91. Secondarily, we also take a peek at the hierarchical mechanisms that governed in a previous historical period, culminating with the Congress of Vienna of 1815.
The most important normative conclusion is that in the hierarchies prevailing in the last century there has been an excess of "strategic constraint" that has made the world increasingly insecure. It well may be that the challenge posed by a rebel state like North Korea should be neutralized with the use of nuclear weapons, in such a way as to use the atomic oligopoly in order to preserve the atomic oligopoly. As Bertrand Russell put it, back in 1945, it may well be “humanity’s last chance”.
RESUMEN
Tal como postula el Realismo Periférico, el orden interestatal no es anárquico (en el sentido usado por Waltz) sino imperfectamente jerárquico. Los Estados no poseen las mismas funciones. Hay Estados que mandan (son los que establecen las reglas del juego, y también los que las quiebran con mayor frecuencia), Estados que obedecen (la gran mayoría, incluso los altamente desarrollados sin capacidad militar apocalíptica), y Estados que se rebelan (Estados paria, o canallas). En esta breve compilación de tres ensayos, pasamos revista a las jerarquías interestatales que sentaron las reglas de juego después de las dos guerras mundiales, y durante el rápido desenlace de la Guerra Fría en 1989-91. Secundariamente, se analizan también los mecanismos jerárquicos que gobernaron en la etapa anterior, que culminó con el Congreso de Viena de 1815.
La conclusión normativa más importante es que existe, en las jerarquías vigentes en el último siglo, un exceso de “strategic restraint” que ha hecho al mundo cada vez más inseguro. El desafío presentado por un Estado rebelde como Corea del Norte quizá debería ser neutralizado con el uso de armas atómicas, de manera de usar el oligopolio nuclear para preservar al oligopolio nuclear. Como dijo Bertrand Russell en 1945, puede ser que sea “la última oportunidad de la humanidad.”

- by Carlos Escudé
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- Second World War, First World War, Nuclear Non-Proliferation Policy, IR Theory

This book emphasizes on the comparative study of theoretical as well as hypothetical issues of structural realism of international relations theory vis-à-vis those of systemic geopolitical analysis. Are they scientific fields evolving in parallel, but with common philosophical and cognitive roots? Could they be used as complementary theoretical tools or their relation is disjunctive and contrapuntal? When decoding the core hypotheses of structural realism and systemic geopolitical analysis, an effort takes place for the sake of the central scientific aim; i.e. the untainted descriptive analysis without ontologically groundless claims.
The debate on interstate relations and the framework, on which these are structured, is long-term with its philosophical background detected at the juxtaposition between those referring to “sein” and the others expressing the “sollen”. The modern version of the afore-mentioned dialectic is related with scholars in multiple – in many different ways – scientific fields. This research struggles to explain the converging and diverging points between the neorealist approach of international relations theory and the systemic geopolitical analysis.

- by Markos Troulis
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- International Relations, Epistemology, International Relations Theory, Geopolitics

E.H. Carr was one of Europe’s preeminent thinkers in the field of international affairs. Yet his contribution to International Relations theory is continually questioned. Realists depict Carr as a quintessential realist; revisionists draw from his wider corpus to qualify his contribution. Although not inaccurate, the revisionist literature is incomplete as it neglects a number of Carr’s diplomatic histories. Refocusing on these, especially the manner in which traces of Ranke’s the primacy of foreign affairs tradition are evident, this paper points to a more conservative and less critical Carr. Utilising an interpretivist framework, this shift in traditions of thought is explained by the dilemmas Carr faced. Although works of history rather than theory, the paper contends that Carr’s diplomatic histories remain relevant, particularly with regard to the embedded criticism of realpolitik they contain. This realisation is made evident through a reading of Carr in parallel with the concept of tragedy.

- by Keith Smith
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- IR Theory, Realism, Classical Realism

Una lectura que muestra la utilización de las teorías de RRII. El libro cubre diversas teorías de relaciones internacionales, desde racionalistas al constructivismo, con algunas aportaciones teóricas novedosas. Cada capítulo analiza el caso de la intervención en Libia desde su propio cuerpo teórico, especializado en algunos actores o en general. Lectura obligatoria del estudiante y profesor del curso de Teorías de RRII.

- by Jessica De Alba-Ulloa
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- Constructivism, Realism (Political Science), IR Theory, Libia
- by Onur Erpul
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- IR Theory

Are rising authoritarian powers such as China and Russia converging towards or challenging the normative structures of the liberal international order? This article argues that scholarship on norm contestation provides a fruitful theoretical avenue for addressing this question. It finds, however, that this literature has problematically tended to either overlook or externalize power dynamics from norm contestation. The article therefore proposes and develops a power political approach to norm contestation that, informed by a realpolitik sensibility, more explicitly and consistently makes power central to the analysis. A power political perspective conceptualizes norm contestation as the expression of battles for influence in world politics that take place at the ideational level and through symbolic instruments. It understands these struggles as occurring in the context of an international system profoundly marked by conflicting interests, cultural pluralism, hierarchical structures, and power asymmetries. This power political lens is then used to identify four modes of contestation Russian and Chinese actors are engaged in: liberal performance, liberal mimicry, civilizational essentialization, and counter-norm entrepreneurship. It empirically explores how these contestatory practices express themselves at different intensity levels-applicatory, meaning, and validity-and display specific power political logics-fragmenting and integrative-with the goal of undermining the ideational hegemony of liberal Western-based actors and structures in world politics, and advancing alternative non-liberal visions of domestic and international order. Along with contributing to the literature on norms, this paper also makes a broader intervention in current debates about rising powers and the future of the liberal international order

- by Gregorio Bettiza
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- China, Russia, IR Theory, Emerging Powers

The World War I marked dramatic changes in international political landscape as evidence by the catastrophic costs of the Great War and an increasing role of the U.S. in world stage. In the immediate aftermath of the war, the U.S and other victorious nations, established the League of Nations. The primary goal of the League was to prevent any future world wars, sustain world peace as well as promote international cooperation.
This article investigates the significance of the League of Nations, influenced by liberalism, on the development of international system during the interwar period. Labelled as “Utopianism” from the realist camps according to its failure to prevent the outbreak of the World War II; nevertheless, this article argues that the creation of the League reflects a significant breakthrough of the very first institutionalized international politics of the 20th century. More importantly, even the League’s actual performance was disappointing in preventing another devastating war, its legacies as well as the spirit of liberalism live on.

- by Thapiporn Suporn
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- Liberalism, IR Theory, The League of Nations, WWII

The term "cable," as used in the context of diplomacy, is ambiguous. It denotes both a message and its technological messenger. Telegraph wires were used around the middle of the nineteenth century to connect the capitals of Europe. The network soon expanded, and by 1870, with the laying of submarine cables, fast-traveling telegraphic messages could be sent between Britain, Continental Europe, North America, the Middle East, and India. Through these cables, diplomatic posts communicated with their ministries back home. But the term "cable" also came to denote the message that was sent by telegraph. In this chapter I use this ambiguity as an entry point for an exploration of what the new materialist turn can bring to Diplomatic Studies. I will demonstrate how at three particular points in history the cable, as both diplomatic message and technological messenger, made a difference to how things played out. To make sense of this, one needs to be perceptive of the myriad ways in which meaning and materiality intertwine in the making of what we call diplomacy. What is called for is, in other words, a material-semiotic analysis of diplomacy...

- by Roland Bleiker
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- Critical Theory, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Political Sociology
- by Engin Sune
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- Critical Theory, International Relations, Marxism, IR Theory

In the classical meaning, the international society consisting of sovereign states plays a role of an international environment in the international system. Taking into consideration the dynamic transformation in the world politics after the Cold War, globalization, the strengthened international interdependence in its vertical, as well as horizontal realms, and the institutionalization of international social and political spheres fuels the discussion about the future of the international society, its inner structural changes, common norms, values, and rules. Th e thesis of the paper is the claim that the changes in international state-society reflecting the dynamic of world politics and the global trends do change the character of the international society, but do not change its essence. A growing and seemingly lasting process is strengthening the role of culture and identity in shaping the new structure of the international society.

- by Agnieszka Bryc
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- Foreign Policy Analysis, IR Theory

Hans Morgenthau’s Scientific Man vs. Power Politics appeared one year after he received tenure at the University of Chicago. Thus,
the monograph demarcates the beginning of Morgenthau’s career in
the United States, to which he had emigrated nine years earlier. Three main aspects
seem important for understanding this work. The first is Morgenthau’s
bewilderment about American political culture and, as he perceived it, its cheerful
optimism about the betterment of politics, society, and humanity in general. The
second aspect is the nature of the argument: Scientific Man is a dogmatic tract, an
attempt to hammer home certain philosophical positions—positions that were
largely unpopular in the U.S. social sciences in the s (and later)—rather
than a reflective scholarly elaboration of certain philosophical commitments.
The third is Morgenthau’s place between two academic cultures: Morgenthau’s
language in his American writings partly stems from, but also tries to leave behind,
his European academic socialization. The monograph thus reflects the author’s
peculiar situation, as he inhabits two sometimes crucially different
semantic and cultural contexts, but fails to bridge or broker them.

- by Hartmut Behr
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- International Relations, Hans Morgenthau, IR Theory, Positivism

This article argues that an engagement with the political philosophy of Leo Strauss is of considerable value in International Relations (IR), in relation to the study of both recent US foreign policy and contemporary IR theory. The question of Straussian activities within and close to the foreign policy-making establishment in the United States during the period leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq has been the focus of significant scholarly and popular attention in recent years. This article makes the case that several individuals influenced by Strauss exercised considerable influence in the fields of intelligence production, the media and think tanks, and traces the ways in which elements of Strauss’ thought are discernible in their interventions in these spheres. It further argues that Strauss’ political philosophy is of broader significance for IR insofar as it can be read as a securitising response to the dangers he associated with the foundationlessness of the modern condition. The article demonstrates that the politics of this response are of crucial importance for contemporary debates between traditional and critical IR theorists.

- by Luke Barnesmoore
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- Critical Theory, Philology, Sociology, Social Theory

This volume addresses the ethics of war in an era when non-state actors are playing an increasingly prominent role in armed conflict. Central to this concern is the issue of whether, or under what conditions, non-state actors can be said to have the 'authority' to participate in war. The contributors therefore explore and analyze the problems with, and possibilities for, incorporating non-state actors into the traditionally state-centric moral vocabulary about war—namely, the just war tradition.

- by Brent Steele and +1
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- International Security, Just War, IR Theory, Non-state actors

Scheda analitica realizzata nell'ambito del corso di Relazioni Internazionali della prof.ssa Ruth Hanau Santini, che tratta dell'articolo di Alexander Wendt "L'anarchia è ciò che gli stati ne fanno" che ha aperto le porte al... more