Agents, Structures and International Relations

Agents, Structures and International Relations PDF Author: Colin Wight
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139460269
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 287

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Book Description
The agent-structure problem is a much discussed issue in the field of international relations. In his comprehensive 2006 analysis of this problem, Colin Wight deconstructs the accounts of structure and agency embedded within differing IR theories and, on the basis of this analysis, explores the implications of ontology - the metaphysical study of existence and reality. Wight argues that there are many gaps in IR theory that can only be understood by focusing on the ontological differences that construct the theoretical landscape. By integrating the treatment of the agent-structure problem in IR theory with that in social theory, Wight makes a positive contribution to the problem as an issue of concern to the wider human sciences. At the most fundamental level politics is concerned with competing visions of how the world is and how it should be, thus politics is ontology.

Agents, Structures and International Relations

Agents, Structures and International Relations PDF Author: Colin Wight
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139460269
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 287

Get Book Here

Book Description
The agent-structure problem is a much discussed issue in the field of international relations. In his comprehensive 2006 analysis of this problem, Colin Wight deconstructs the accounts of structure and agency embedded within differing IR theories and, on the basis of this analysis, explores the implications of ontology - the metaphysical study of existence and reality. Wight argues that there are many gaps in IR theory that can only be understood by focusing on the ontological differences that construct the theoretical landscape. By integrating the treatment of the agent-structure problem in IR theory with that in social theory, Wight makes a positive contribution to the problem as an issue of concern to the wider human sciences. At the most fundamental level politics is concerned with competing visions of how the world is and how it should be, thus politics is ontology.

International Relations in a Constructed World

International Relations in a Constructed World PDF Author: Vendulka Kubalkova
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317467418
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
Explores the application of constructivist theory to international relations. The text examines the relevance of constructivism for empirical research, focusing on some of the key issues of contemporary international politics: ethnic and national identity; gender; and political economy.

Agents, Structures and International Relations

Agents, Structures and International Relations PDF Author: Colin Wight
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description


The State and International Relations

The State and International Relations PDF Author: John M. Hobson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521643917
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
This book, first published in 2000, provides an overview of theories of the state found in International Relations.

Social Theory of International Politics

Social Theory of International Politics PDF Author: Alexander Wendt
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107268435
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
Drawing upon philosophy and social theory, Social Theory of International Politics develops a theory of the international system as a social construction. Alexander Wendt clarifies the central claims of the constructivist approach, presenting a structural and idealist worldview which contrasts with the individualism and materialism which underpins much mainstream international relations theory. He builds a cultural theory of international politics, which takes whether states view each other as enemies, rivals or friends as a fundamental determinant. Wendt characterises these roles as 'cultures of anarchy', described as Hobbesian, Lockean and Kantian respectively. These cultures are shared ideas which help shape state interests and capabilities, and generate tendencies in the international system. The book describes four factors which can drive structural change from one culture to another - interdependence, common fate, homogenization, and self-restraint - and examines the effects of capitalism and democracy in the emergence of a Kantian culture in the West.

Causation in International Relations

Causation in International Relations PDF Author: Milja Kurki
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139470760
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 291

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Book Description
World political processes, such as wars and globalisation, are engendered by complex sets of causes and conditions. Although the idea of causation is fundamental to the field of International Relations, what the concept of cause means or entails has remained an unresolved and contested matter. In recent decades ferocious debates have surrounded the idea of causal analysis, some scholars even questioning the legitimacy of applying the notion of cause in the study of International Relations. This book suggests that underlying the debates on causation in the field of International Relations is a set of problematic assumptions (deterministic, mechanistic and empiricist) and that we should reclaim causal analysis from the dominant discourse of causation. Milja Kurki argues that reinterpreting the meaning, aims and methods of social scientific causal analysis opens up multi-causal and methodologically pluralist avenues for future International Relations scholarship.

Structure, Agency and the Internal Conversation

Structure, Agency and the Internal Conversation PDF Author: Margaret Scotford Archer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521535977
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
Explores the relationship between structure and agency through human reflexivity and the internal conversation.

International Relations

International Relations PDF Author: Manuela Spindler
Publisher: Verlag Barbara Budrich
ISBN: 3866495501
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
The book is written for active learners – those keen on cutting their own path through the complex and at times hardly comprehensible world of THEORY in International Relations. To aid this process as much as possible, this book employs the didactical and methodical concept of integrating teaching and self-study. The criteria for structured learning about IR theory will be derived from an extensive discussion of the questions and problems of philosophy of science (Part 1). Theory of IR refers to the scientific study of IR and covers all of the following subtopics: the role and status of theory in the academic discipline of IR; the understanding of IR as a science and what a ""scientific"" theory is; the different assumptions upon which theory building in IR is based; the different types of theoretical constructions and models of explanations found at the heart of particular theories; and the different approaches taken on how theory and the practice of international relations are linked to each other. The criteria for the structured learning process will be applied in Part 2 of the book during the presentation of five selected theories of International Relations. The concept is based on ""learning through example"" – that is, the five theories have been chosen because, when applying the criteria developed in Part 1 of the book, each single theory serves as an example for something deeply important to learn about THEORY of IR more generally.

A Relational Theory of World Politics

A Relational Theory of World Politics PDF Author: Yaqing Qin
Publisher:
ISBN: 1107183146
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 415

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Book Description
A reinterpretation of world politics drawing on Chinese cultural and philosophical traditions to argue for a focus on relations amongst actors, rather than on the actors individually.

Explaining and Understanding International Relations

Explaining and Understanding International Relations PDF Author: Martin Hollis
Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand
ISBN: 9780198275893
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
Are the workings of the international world to be explained scientifically, or are they to be understood through their inward meaning? In Explaining and Understanding International Relations philosopher Martin Hollis and international relations scholar Steve Smith join forces to analyse the dominant theories of international relations and to examine the philosophical issues underlying them. The book has three parts. In the first the authors review the growth of the discipline since 1918, pose the 'level of analysis' problem of whether to account for a sytem in terms of its units or vice versa, and contrast the demand of scientific method with those of interpretative understanding. In the second they apply the contrast to four factors often cited in accounting for international behaviour - the international system, the state, bureaucracies, and decision-making individuals. Rival accounts of the games nations play are offered in readiness for the final part, where the authors propose a theoretical agenda, air their differences, and invite readers to take sides. By tackling deep theoretical issues with lucidity and verve this book will excite debate among theorists and students of international relations while also engaging thought about the philosophical character of the social sciences.