Core module IR Seminars
Seminar 1: Perennial debates: Realism vs Idealism
Mearsheimer’s argument:
- Russia’s security interests were threatened → We should not have provoked Russia
- Putin follows incentives derived from state interests
- NATO/US/EU deviated from this
- Result = War
Pepinsky:
- Russia is not a great power → It is a declining power → Only claims global power status
- Cold War → USSR disintegrated & former allies joined NATO (Russia lost & West won)
- It is not NATO’s responsibility to protect Russia’s security interests
- Russia proclaiming priority over the logic of IR is idealist
- It was a strategic mistake on Russia’s part
- Blames Putin to protect Russia’s declining power
Waltz: Neo-Realism
- Causes of war → 1) Within man
- Men are irrevocably bad
- Man = The root of all evil → He is the root of war
- Wars can end because men can be changed
2) Structure of states
- Different forms of government
- Anarchy
- Absence of central political authority → War
- In the absence of order, there can be no enjoyment of
freedom
3) Structure of the state/international system
- Competition, balance, dominance
- Rosseau: Major causes of war = state system
- Preventive wars: If you do not strike when the moment is
favourable you may be struck later by others
Acharya:
Central question: Why is there no non-Western IR theory?
- Proposes a new Global IR → Greater inclusiveness and diversity in the discipline
- Recognises voices, experiences & values of all people
- Not only Western history → Not just West and the Rest
- Urges to rethink assumptions of theories
- Less territorially based → Encompass a range of actors and issues
- Leave exceptionalism behind → Tendency to present characteristics of a group as
homogeneous and superior
, Seminar 2: Realism vs Liberalism vs Marxism
● How should we conceptualise US hegemony?
○ Different views:
1) Dominance in material capabilities
- Economically, politically, militarily…
- Neorealist view
2) Liberalism & institutionalism
- US-led processes post WWII
- Had a big role in the creation of institutions
- IMF, NATO, WB
3) Acceptance of norms
- Democracy & free market capitalism
- Promoted by the US
Cox: Problem-solving vs critical theory
● Problem-solving theory:
○ Assumes existing order
- Takes the world as it finds it
- The world needs to function within this order
○ Goal: Optimal functioning of the existing order
- Fix problems within the order so the system runs smoothly
- Keeps things running how it has been
○ Ahistoric
- Focus on the present
○ Dominant in times of stability
● Critical theory: → Regarded as Marxist
○ Problematises existing order
- Criticises assumptions
- Questions who profits or is left outside of this → Haves vs have nots
○ Purpose
- Understanding how existing order was created
○ Deals with a changing reality
- Dynamic not static
- Therefore it must continually adjust concepts
○ History is important
- Concerned with the past & continuing historical change
- Look at development in society
○ Appears in times of uncertainty
Seminar 1: Perennial debates: Realism vs Idealism
Mearsheimer’s argument:
- Russia’s security interests were threatened → We should not have provoked Russia
- Putin follows incentives derived from state interests
- NATO/US/EU deviated from this
- Result = War
Pepinsky:
- Russia is not a great power → It is a declining power → Only claims global power status
- Cold War → USSR disintegrated & former allies joined NATO (Russia lost & West won)
- It is not NATO’s responsibility to protect Russia’s security interests
- Russia proclaiming priority over the logic of IR is idealist
- It was a strategic mistake on Russia’s part
- Blames Putin to protect Russia’s declining power
Waltz: Neo-Realism
- Causes of war → 1) Within man
- Men are irrevocably bad
- Man = The root of all evil → He is the root of war
- Wars can end because men can be changed
2) Structure of states
- Different forms of government
- Anarchy
- Absence of central political authority → War
- In the absence of order, there can be no enjoyment of
freedom
3) Structure of the state/international system
- Competition, balance, dominance
- Rosseau: Major causes of war = state system
- Preventive wars: If you do not strike when the moment is
favourable you may be struck later by others
Acharya:
Central question: Why is there no non-Western IR theory?
- Proposes a new Global IR → Greater inclusiveness and diversity in the discipline
- Recognises voices, experiences & values of all people
- Not only Western history → Not just West and the Rest
- Urges to rethink assumptions of theories
- Less territorially based → Encompass a range of actors and issues
- Leave exceptionalism behind → Tendency to present characteristics of a group as
homogeneous and superior
, Seminar 2: Realism vs Liberalism vs Marxism
● How should we conceptualise US hegemony?
○ Different views:
1) Dominance in material capabilities
- Economically, politically, militarily…
- Neorealist view
2) Liberalism & institutionalism
- US-led processes post WWII
- Had a big role in the creation of institutions
- IMF, NATO, WB
3) Acceptance of norms
- Democracy & free market capitalism
- Promoted by the US
Cox: Problem-solving vs critical theory
● Problem-solving theory:
○ Assumes existing order
- Takes the world as it finds it
- The world needs to function within this order
○ Goal: Optimal functioning of the existing order
- Fix problems within the order so the system runs smoothly
- Keeps things running how it has been
○ Ahistoric
- Focus on the present
○ Dominant in times of stability
● Critical theory: → Regarded as Marxist
○ Problematises existing order
- Criticises assumptions
- Questions who profits or is left outside of this → Haves vs have nots
○ Purpose
- Understanding how existing order was created
○ Deals with a changing reality
- Dynamic not static
- Therefore it must continually adjust concepts
○ History is important
- Concerned with the past & continuing historical change
- Look at development in society
○ Appears in times of uncertainty
