Praxis as a perspective on international politics

Abstract

Despite the effort of different paradigmatic debates within International Relations (IR), the research gap between IR theory and the practice of international politics is not shrinking. This is the underlying preoccupation and starting-point for Praxis as perspective on international politics (p. 1). To bridge this gap, the contributors elaborate on the work of the constructivist pioneer, Friedrich Kratochwil, and his concept of praxis (Praxis: on acting and knowing, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018; reviewed in International Affairs 95: 2, March 2019). Praxis is defined earlier on as the ‘social action here and now’ (p. 2). The book provides a detailed discussion of the background, rationale and issue areas in which praxis is being applied in theoretical and empirical research agendas. To this extent, the edited volume also debates Kratochwil's legacy in IR scholarship. The book has five parts and is divided according to thematic sections that embrace a variety of research issues: theorizing praxis and practices of theorizing; praxis and the law (including questions of policy-making and punishment); time, change and contingency (in biological and social contexts); theorizing as intervention (within academia and in the public sphere); and the idea of praxis (in relation to knowledge production and logics of inquiry). In terms of format, the contributions form a sort of book forum, but broader and deeper than those in journals. Overall, this structure has three benefits: it acts as a platform for intellectual debate; it offers individual discussions in each chapter; and it provides a contextual reading of Kratochwil's work on the idea of praxis. As the contributors explore Kratochwil's book in relation to their research interests, readers can see the links between the idea of praxis and other themes in IR and international law. Moreover, the book includes a response from Kratochwil himself, in which he reflects on the remarks made by the other 16 contributors.