Agenda Of International Relations Research Articles

Neoclassical Realism, Global International Relations, and the unheard echoes of Realist practices from the South

Neoclassical Realism popularised by including context into a structuralised worldview. However, far from a novelty, Global South scholars have been promoting similar Realist course corrections, reducing parsimony, and increasing explanation. This article compares Ayoob’s Subaltern Realism, Escudé’s Peripheral Realism, and Yan’s Moral Realism, showcasing how originality is displayed via hybridisation, mimicry, and denationalisation of ideas. There are two complementary goals: first, stress similarities and differences between these strands and Neoclassical Realism and, second, challenge the ongoing project of subsuming Realism to the Global International Relations agenda through Neoclassical Realism, as it has yet failed to incorporate these Global South ideas. I argue that acknowledging that these theories can promote core–periphery dialogue and instigate progress within the canon is essential for any Global North scholar interested in a ‘globalized Realism’. Finally, socioeconomic asymmetries and interdisciplinarity are central to building a Global International Relations Realism as well as recognising the persistent inequalities within International Relations knowledge production.

Participation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation in Enhancing African Police Personnel Peacekeeping Capacity

The peacekeeping became actual agenda of international relations due to increased number of internal conflicts with mass human rights violations in different regions of the world including Africa. The problems of ensuring peace and security have become priority for United Nations (UN) and regional organizations involved in constant search of conflict resolution best practices. Peacekeeping actors admitted the key role of law-enforcement agencies, and first of all the police, in ensuring security in conflict or post-conflict reconstruction. Therefore, the UN actively developing the strategy of police methods usage in peacekeeping operations. Because of this process, the number of member states contributing police contingents to the UN including formed police units increased. Joint activity of police officers from different countries with different education, professional experience and specialization requires high-quality training of candidates for peacekeeping operations. The purpose of this article is to analyze the needs of African police officers in professional development and the capabilities of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation in training of African police officers for the UN peacekeeping operations. The study is based on insights from non-participant observation, interviews and analyses of the UN official documents, policies and training materials. Actual Russian and foreign scientific publications were used. Results confirmed that Russian Federation has many years of experience in African policemen training for the UN peacekeeping operations. The promising areas of Russian Federation participation in the development of the peacekeeping potential of African police, along with the provision of standardized pre-deployment training based on the UN certified programs, can be training in the crime investigation methodology and the training of special police units of the UN member states.

The influence of framing on the governance of climate change adaptation and risk management at the local level: The cases of Upala in Costa Rica and San Francisco del Valle de Ocotepeque, Honduras

Climate change is one of the main global challenges of the 21st century. The international agenda has come a long way since the approval of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The international community has understood that the mitigation agenda will not be enough to address the problems associated with climate change and the latest international instruments have incorporated adaptation as a central issue in the response to it. States have been approving Nationally Determined Contributions within the framework of the Paris Agreement. In these contributions, the generation of public policy to promote adaptation at the national level has been established as a central element. However, a fundamental challenge of adaptation is that it must be studied and developed locally; therefore, national, and international instruments can stimulate and promote these processes. Nevertheless, it will be the local authorities and actors who will determine the progress of these processes.This article focuses on analyzing the influence of actors and their frames of reference in local planning processes and the integration of adaptation to climate change. We studied the cases of Upala, Alajuela in Costa Rica, and San Francisco del Valle de Ocotepeque in Honduras, to understand how these frameworks influenced the development of local public policies that integrated risk management and climate change adaptation measures.The results show that the referential frameworks of the actors influence how risk and climate change are understood and the assessment of the measures that were included in the local plan. Thus, using comparative case studies applied to countries is a key tool for analyzing international phenomena. Although adaptation is a locally led process, its study, practice, and instruments that facilitate its progress demand research processes that allow the different practices and associated problems to be compared internationally. From the international relations agenda, the study of these adaptation practices of different countries is a key tool in the study of the international agendas for adaptation and response to climate change.

Framings Influence on the Governance of Climate Change Adaptation and Risk Management at the Local Level: The cases of Upala in Costa Rica and San Francisco del Valle de Ocotepeque Honduras

Climate change is one of the main global challenges of the 21st century. The international agenda has come a long way since the approval of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The international community has understood that the mitigation agenda will not be enough to address the problems associated with climate change and the latest international instruments have incorporated adaptation as a central issue in the response to it. States have been approving Nationally Determined Contributions within the framework of the Paris Agreement. In these contributions, the generation of public policy to promote adaptation at the national level has been established as a central element. However, a fundamental challenge of adaptation is that it must be studied and developed locally; therefore, national, and international instruments can stimulate and promote these processes. Nevertheless, it will be the local authorities and actors who will determine the progress of these processes.
 This article focuses on analyzing the influence of actors and their frames of reference in local planning processes and the integration of adaptation to climate change. We studied the cases of Upala, Alajuela in Costa Rica, and San Francisco del Valle de Ocotepeque in Honduras, with the aim of understanding how these frameworks influenced the development of local public policies that integrated risk management and climate change adaptation measures.
 The results show that the referential frameworks of the actors influence the way in which risk and climate change are understood and the assessment of the measures that were included in the local plan.Thus, using comparative case studies applied to countries is a key tool for analyzing international phenomena. Although adaptation is a locally led process, its study, practice, and instruments that facilitate its progress demand research processes that allow the different practices and associated problems to be compared internationally. From the international relations agenda, the study of these adaptation practices of different countries is a key tool in the analysis of the international agendas for adaptation and response to climate change.

"New Great Game" Conflict and Cooperation Area Georgia: Turkey and Russia in Competition

Georgia's inclusion in the agenda of international relations can be assessed from various angles. To properly understand the current situation in Georgia, it is necessary to first assess its knowledge of geopolitics, geoculture and geoeconomics. This study analyzes the political situation in the South Caucasus at the beginning of the XXI century, the process of bilateral and multilateral integration of the region's states and the conditions necessary for the implementation of this process, the place and importance of the region in the "New Great Game". The article also examines the difficult issues in the South Caucasus, the Turkish-Russian competition in the face of promising potential, and the place and importance of this competition in their regional policy. The results of the Azerbaijani-Armenian war were analyzed in the regional policy of Turkey and Russia. The article aims to explain the dynamics and development of the region, where, in addition to global actors, there is serious competition, including the countries of the region.

On the Relevant Tasks of Energy Law Monograph Edited by V.V. Romanova

The systematic study of energy law in the context of legal policy clearly indicates that energy industry issues today form the main agenda of international relations and, accordingly, their legal regulation at the national and international levels. For Russia, more than for any other country, the issues of energy industry in the global law order are of paramount importance. And, in light of the foregoing, the timeliness of the monograph Relevant Tasks of Energy Law edited by V.V. Romanova, is beyond doubt. It is Russian science that should become a generator of ideas for a new law order, including on issues of energy law. An essential condition for ensuring energy security in the “inner periphery”, including through legal means, should be the balance of the political interests of the state with the commercial interests of industrial and financial groups. To achieve this goal, a verified legal policy is required, ensuring a balance of market relations aimed at profit generation with the social security of the population, small and medium-sized businesses.

Vaccine (public) diplomacy: legitimacy narratives in the pandemic age

This paper examines how China, United States, the European Union, and Russia deal with the COVID crisis creating a legitimacy narrative to promote their political projects and values. The counter-pandemic measures include the use of public diplomacy tools and the novelty of the vaccine. The results show that presidential overexposure, tweets, and the language of emotion are strong arguments in building an agenda of international relations. This finding highlights the impact of COVID-19 on political leadership and public governance. Pandemics contributed to the deinstitutionalisation of public diplomacy. The paper offers a comparative view on the use of strategic narratives for foreign policy objectives. Political communication has performative effects on the international order to the extent to which an action has political consequences.

Самоопределение русинов: историко-правовые и социально-политические аспекты и перспективы осуществления

The acquisition of statehood by the Eastern Slavic peoples - Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians -actualized the issue of self-determination of another related community - Rusyns, who originally lived in Transcarpathia and on the territory of other countries. In the modern Ukrainian state, Rusyns are not classified as a separate (indigenous) people or national minority, they are regarded as part of the Ukrainian ethnos and are under the threat of targeted assimilation. The article aims to substantiate the right of the Rusyn people to be recognized as an ethnic minority, to search for an optimal model of its self-identification, and to determine its equal position in the family of Eastern Slavs, taking into account the political and legal reality. For a comprehensive characterization of the object of research, the authors analyze scientific and normative sources that reveal the historical and political prerequisites for the formation of the Rusyn people's ethnic identity, caused by its isolated and long-term presence in the environment of a foreign-speaking and other-confessional population. Based on general scientific, specific scientific and special research methods, in particular, on the fact of an established original culture, a stable way of life, a well-developed literary Rusyn language, maintained permanent cross-border relationships between communities of foreign countries, the authors infer that there is a sociocultural reality - the Rusyn people. This conclusion is confirmed by examples from foreign legislation that classify Rusyns as an ethnic minority different from Ukrainians and allow the official use of the Rusyn language in places of Rusyns' compact settlement at the level of local communities in several European countries. In addition, attention is focused on international documents on human rights, which reflect the approach that national self-identification is realized as a result of an ethos's own sociopolitical choice rather than on the basis of ideological or other expediency in relation to an ethnos from the outside. Recognition of Rusyns as a national minority in Ukraine is seen in the introduction of this item on the agenda of international relations, including the convening of an international conference on this topic. Self-determination of the Rusyn people can be carried out in the form of intrastate autonomy, by analogy with what happened earlier in Article 81 of the Versailles Treaty of 1919 by decision of the leading powers of the world. Here, according to the authors, the main role belongs to Russia, since apart from it there are no other influential actors in world politics capable of ensuring the rights of the kindred Rusyn people through the involvement of international human rights mechanisms and other opportunities.

Towards a Carbon-Neutral State: International Progress, National Risks, and Coping Strategies

Climate change is a major social, economic and environmental challenge facing all countries in the world today. It has increasingly become a priority on the agenda of international relations. This article outlines major developments in international climate action during and after the pandemic. The article identifies the global trends of carbon action on the countries’ agendas for sustainable development in the near future, including accelerate the implementation of mature zero-carbon solutions and promote zero-carbon technology. It then presents risks in tackling the global climate crisis collectively confronted by the international community at present, such as economic slowdown, energy security, carbon financing, price inflation, carbon barrier, carbon trading and carbon debt. With these common dilemmas in mind, the article sums up by proposing multiple possible directions towards reducing emissions and putting forward some community strategies for New Zealand to implement. These include promote the electrification of transportation and establish green infrastructure, consumption, financial, technology and industrial systems. This article aims to inform on the debate about current challenges in building a sustainable and resilient carbon-neutral state in the wake of global public crisis by analyzing global developing trends in addressing climate change, as well as to provoke thinking on potential options for government to enable net zero carbon and new energy future.

Engaging the “Animal Question” in International Relations

AbstractBy raising the “animal question” in International Relations (IR), this essay seeks to contribute not only to put animals and human–animal relations on the IR agenda, but also to move the field in a less anthropocentric and non-speciesist direction. More specifically, the essay does three things: First, it makes animals visible within some of the main empirical realms conventionally treated as the subject matter of IR. Second, it reflects on IR's neglect of animals and human–animal relations in relation to both how IR has been constituted as a field and the broader socio-cultural context in which it is embedded. Third, it explores various ways in which IR scholars can start incorporating and take animals and human–animal relations seriously in studies on international relations.

Crimen organizado: confrontando la perspectiva securitizadora con los aportes sobre state-crime collusion. Implicaciones disciplinares

Neste artigo oferecemos uma análise crítica sobre o que identificamos como a perspectiva securitizadora do crime organizado, que vem se fortalecendo na área de estudos de segurança e defesa na América Latina. Apesar de sua ênfase em um elemento próprio da ampliação da segurança – as ameaças transnacionais não-estatais em vez de conflitos militares interestaduais – argumentamos que ela continua ancorada na visão tradicional, estatista e militarista, própria da noção de segurança nacional. Ao mesmo tempo, chamamos a atenção para a conexão dessa perspectiva com a agenda das Relações Internacionais como disciplina. Em contrapartida, defendemos a necessidade de agregar contribuições da Ciência Política e da Sociologia, entre outras áreas, que permitam uma visão mais precisa da relação entre o crime e o Estado na América Latina. Especificamente, confrontamos a perspectiva securitizadora com a literatura sobre conluio Estado-crime (state-crime collusion) para mostrar o papel instrumental que as organizações criminosas desempenham na governança de territórios em países com déficitsdemocráticos e de desenvolvimento. Para ilustrar nosso argumento, recorremos às investigações sobre duas grandes organizações criminosas brasileiras: o Comando Vermelho e o Primeiro Comando da Capital.

La gobernanza regional de la cooperación Sur-Sur en América Latina

La cooperación Sur-Sur se ha consolidado como una modalidad complementaria a la tradicional cooperación Norte-Sur que, en la práctica, se ha materializado como un instrumento para el intercambio de ideas, políticas y experiencias, que se ejecuta entre países en desarrollo que tienen, o creen tener, elementos políticos, históricos y socioeconómicos afines. Sus orígenes se remontan a la década de los cincuenta, y desde entonces, la estructura ideológica que le ha dado forma ha estado influenciada por ideas y hechos que se interrelacionan a partir de distintas narrativas construidas por los estados, subrayando intereses comunes sobre el lugar que ocupan dentro de la arquitectura de la cooperación al desarrollo. A lo largo del siglo XXI, dicha modalidad ha ido ganando mayores espacios de concertación y negociación como un instrumento político de los países en desarrollo que se sustenta en los principios de horizontalidad, solidaridad, reciprocidad e independencia. Desde un enfoque regional, América Latina, por ejemplo, ha favorecido la creación de instrumentos técnicos que, desde la conceptualización hasta el registro de datos, han llevado a la creación de estructuras normativas para la ejecución de la cooperación Sur-Sur. En esa línea argumentativa, desde un enfoque social constructivista de difusión de ideas, normas y prácticas, este artículo analiza de manera descriptiva y explicativa cómo la región ha fortalecido la práctica de la cooperación Sur-Sur a partir de la identificación de problemáticas comunes y discursos encaminados a definirla desde las estructuras ideacionales. El objetivo de este artículo es entender el proceso de formación de la gobernanza regional de la cooperación Sur-Sur en América Latina, para lo cual, se analiza el rol de la Secretaria General Iberoamericana desde cuya institucionalidad, los países de la región fortalecen la difusión de prácticas e ideas que podrían significar avances para la construcción de una gobernanza global de la cooperación Sur-Sur.

‘Peaceful change’ in International Relations: a conceptual archaeology

AbstractAs the so-called liberal international order has come under duress, the problem of ‘peaceful change’ has reappeared on the agenda of International Relations (IR), mainly in a realist guise drawing upon E.H. Carr and Robert Gilpin's renditions of the problem. Making a conceptual archaeological intervention, this paper recovers long-neglected multidisciplinary debates on ‘peaceful change’ taking place in the tumultuous interwar period. It concurs that peaceful change is an IR problem par excellence, central to academic debates in the burgeoning interwar discipline, but also a more complex conceptual figure than posterity portrays it. The paper explores the debates between negative and positive conceptions of peaceful change, between political, legal-institutional and communitarian mechanisms of peaceful change, and different policies of peaceful change, particularly its troubled relationship to appeasement. The paper concludes that the interwar debate on peaceful change, while highly embedded in its context, does offer IR an alternative and more aspirational perspective on the problem of power and order transitions.

Derechos humanos y exportación legal de armas: Estados Unidos y Alemania frente a la crisis mexicana

Se examina la forma en que Alemania y Estados Unidos han adaptado sus leyes y políticas de control de exportación de armas cortas y ligeras (SALW, por sus siglas en inglés) frente a México, país que pasa actualmente por una severa crisis de derechos humanos. A partir de entrevistas efectuadas en Alemania y Estados Unidos, así como de reportes oficiales y bibliografía secundaria, el artículo identifica que mientras Alemania ha retraído sus exportaciones de SALW a México, las empresas estadounidenses continúan exportando prácticamente sin restricciones. El texto presenta contribuciones a dos debates académicos: el estudio de la participación de actores no estatales en el proceso de toma de decisiones en política de exportación de armas y el examen de cómo las normas internacionales afectan el comportamiento y las prácticas de los Estados nacionales, un tema clave en la agenda constructivista de las Relaciones Internacionales.

RUSSIA AND BRICS: SOME TRENDS AND PROSPECTS

At present, existing institutions of global governance, such as the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, are increasingly unable to cope with the tasks entrusted to them. The question is about the need to create alternative tools. And the BRICS group, which has established itself as an organization with a fast-growing economy, a reformer of international relations, can become one of them. BRICS is today an international political organization of leading countries with developing economies. The growing economic power of participating countries, their place in the world economy, a large population and rich natural resources form the basis of their influence on the international arena. This association has all the possibilities for forming an agenda of international relations, in view of the fact that the countries of the "five" are participants of the G20 and the United Nations, and Russia and the PRC are permanent members of the UN Security Council. The article analyzes the Russian position in the BRICS. Its engagement with countries belonging to the international organization. The authors analyze the priorities that need to solve it. In order to maintain an effective dialogue at the international level. Marked prospects of BRICS countries in the current global system. It identified some of the fundamental long-term factors that contribute to the rapprochement of the States Parties. Showing positive trends of further cooperation between the countries included in this alliance. Russia is now experiencing another crisis because of the situation with the West, so the BRICS for Russia is an attempt to take a worthy place in the system of international relations and use the association for the benefit of its own modernization of the economy.

Reading comics for the field of International Relations: Theory, method and the Bosnian War

This article draws attention to a medium that has escaped the attention of International Relations scholars: comics. Comics are combinations of text and drawings and they come in a variety of formats: as newspaper strips, as stories printed in magazines and as long narratives presented in free-standing books. Comics have been central to how generations of children have encountered foreign places and comics artists have successfully captured public attention, with comics offering explicit engagements with foreign policy events. Theoretically, comics provide a unique combination of text and images through which central questions on the research agenda of International Relations scholars working on visuality, practices and intertextuality can be pursued. Drawing on comics scholarship, this article presents a theoretical framework aimed specifically at analysing comics as international relations. Methodologically, it provides criteria for the selection of comics under study and a case study of three comics en...

Constructivism has failed to shift the IR agenda from that which older dominant schools determined. A discussion.

Georgia Giannakarou University of Cambridge, UK ABSTRACT Whether Constructivism is considered a solid paradigm or just an approach in International Relations (IR) Domain – a verdict which is quite too soon to be reached, I suppose, it is undoubtedly a well-promising school of thought in IR. And whether Constructivism has failed to shift the IR agenda from that which older dominant schools determined or not, it is more than evident that this constitutes a still open question in both research and academic areas. In the first part of this essay, I refer to the rise and evolution of Constructivism from the 1980s up to date highlighting its origins and its core principles, while in the second part, more attention is been given to its dynamic dialogue with other dominant schools of IR and Political Science. The scope of this essay is to illuminate a great number of arguments already made both against and in favor of Constructivism, as presented in a certain variety of papers and works in the wider field of IR. Furthermore, this illumination is being held under the light of a dual source, provided by the prominent IR Theory and the International Security sub-field. A third part of this essay is devoted to the latter. I conclude that Constructivism’s power lies in its ‘weaknesses’, namely its interpretation of world politics through culture and identity , especially in the currently world instability caused by the global identity crisis and spreading ISIS radical fanaticism.

International Relations from the South: A Regional Research Agenda for Global IR

Mainstream international relations (IR) has been built as an extension of imperial concerns. Thus, a restricted focus, even a self-styled demarcation was born: ĺetat cest moi . This organizational boundary-setting left behind a good deal of the way the discipline evolved in other areas of the world. In this sense, Latin America has been caught between North–South and Western–non-Western traditions, emerging with questions, problems, and challenges different from those of European and North American scholars. Throughout history, Latin-American IR studies have been marginalized from Western mainstream IR approaches, being a theory adopter but not a theory exporter. However, Latin-American IR is not new. We can trace its roots to the nineteenth century when the processes of nation-building arose as a result of the end of the European occupations. Since then, an idea of region started to develop and, with it, several shared approaches to IR emerged. This article aims to bring the Latin-American IR agenda on regionalism into light both in terms of issues and traditions, challenging the conventional wisdom about the sources of IR theory and proving evidence that Latin-American scholars and policymakers made notable contributions that flourished on the edges of the mainstream.

Foreign policy analysis, globalisation and non-state actors: state-centric after all?

This paper is concerned with Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA) and non-state actors (NSAs). Globalisation has brought NSAs back on the agenda of International Relations (IR). As a result of globalisation, we witness at least some shift of authority from the state to NSAs (the extent of which remains debated). Although most of the empirical studies focus on ‘domestic’ issues, there are good reasons to assume that foreign policy is equally affected by this trend. Not only are NSAs autonomous actors in world politics, they are also increasingly involved in the making of states’ foreign policies. In this article, we ask to what extent FPA, IR's actor-centric sub-field, has taken into account this growing importance of NSAs. Given FPA's criticism of seeing the state as a unitary actor, one would expect FPA scholars to be among the first within IR to analyse decision making involving NSAs. However, a closer look reveals that FPA remains focused mainly on state actors, while ignoring private, transnational and international ones. Thus, FPA remains in a way state-centric. We close with an outline of possible directions for further FPA research.

Technology and Global Politics: The Modern Experiences of Bertrand Russell and John H. Herz

As questions of technology and world government are returning to the agenda of International Relations (IR), there is a risk that technology is approached in a simple, instrumentalist manner. Beginning from an overview of the overwhelmingly instrumental approaches to technology lodged in the dominant traditions of IR, the article revisits the post-war decades when scholars thought profoundly about the impact of technology on global politics. Combining the history of (international) political thought, IR theory, and Science and Technology Studies (STS) the article examines the relationship between technology and politics, authority, and liberty in the thought of Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) and John H. Herz (1908–2005), which leads to the unearthing of a sophisticated and complex set of ideas. Particularly during the nuclear revolution, these figures developed global visions in which the interrelations among technology, security, democracy, sustainability, and freedom were critical. Russell and Herz's approaches to technology and (global) politics are insightful and relevant for IR's attempt to re-engage with technology: by anticipating contemporary critical and reflexive approaches to technology, they can help bridge the fields of IR and STS and open new avenues for research. The Large Technical Systems (LTS) approach within STS is used to exemplify this possibility.