International Relations Concepts Research Articles

UKRAINIAN NATIONAL FACTOR IN GEORGE F. KENNAN’S STRATEGIC THINKING ON THE USSR

This article highlights G. Kennan’s strategic views on Ukraine, and his recommendations regarding the Ukrainian national factor in the U.S. strategy. These issues were studied against the background of Kennan's strategic thinking on the USSR, and development of “containment” strategy, mostly in 1946–1952. The conclusions emphasize that the ultimate goals of “containment” in Kennan’s interpretation were to make the USSR abandon expansionist foreign policy, and to change its concept of international relations by means short of war. He believed that the threat from the USSR existed as long as the totalitarian regime was in power, and advocated for gradual and peaceful changes in the USSR towards liberalization and modernization. He rejected the idea of its disintegration, and recognized the right to secede only for the Baltic republics. He did not recommend any policies, and did not support any activities to promote independence of Ukraine. But he did not object to the revival of national life of some peoples, including Ukrainians, and development views among them that would help change Soviet conduct. Kennan viewed the USSR as “Russia”, and believed that the U.S. should build its policy on cooperation with Russians. His personal sentiments, that is love for Russian people and Russian culture, also influenced his policy recommendations. For him, Ukrainians and Russians were too close ethnically, and their economic activities were tightly intertwined. Therefore, Ukraine's secession could cause a negative reaction and consequences for Russians. He predicted that sooner or later Russia would challenge an independent Ukraine, and Ukrainians would be forced to turn to the United States for military support. For these reasons, he viewed the future of Ukrainians in a federal union with Russians in the “new Russia”. Some Kennan's conclusions remain relevant today, and his strategic thinking on Russia and Ukraine continues to influence a significant number of U.S. political scientists and politicians.

Understanding migration power in international studies

Abstract Where and how does power operate in the governance of international migration? Migrants and refugees are increasingly used for strategic purposes in international politics, but scholarship on this matter has yet to engage thoroughly with the central International Relations concept of power. This article draws on the thinking of Michael Barnett and Raymond Duvall to propose a well-rounded picture of the multiple forms of power in, through or against migration that are mobilized by states and other international actors. We thus conceptualize migration power across two relational dimensions: the nature of the social relations between the actors involved (interactive or constitutive) and the specificity of such relations (direct or diffuse). This leads us to distinguish between four complementary types of migration power—compulsory, institutional, structural and productive—and to identify the main causal mechanisms through which they operate. We argue that power in international migration governance is diffuse, wielded by a wide range of actors, unevenly spread across its different dimensions, and yet, deeply asymmetrical in its distribution along intersecting axes: namely global North vs South, as well as state vs non-state. Beyond academia, the recognition of this complexity can encourage more reflexivity in policy-making and more sensitivity among practitioners.

Brain worlds: information order and interwar intellectual cooperation

Information is ubiquitous in International Relations (IR), but typically gets treated as a self-evident epistemic resource. A burgeoning IR literature on the politics of knowledge resists such reification, but has not thus far examined information as such. Mobilising its constructivist premises in historical perspective, this article argues that information is not just an epistemic resource but also an ordering concept. The article examines its emergence in and around the interwar League of Nations Organisation for Intellectual Cooperation (OIC), a predecessor of UNESCO. It focuses on two notable but neglected proposals – Paul Otlet’s Mundaneum and H.G. Wells’ World Brain – which considered advances in microfilm storage and bibliography as opportunities to rethink global order. Worried about a crisis of ‘intelligence’ and reducing political conflict to information gaps, Otlet and Wells introduced systems that mimicked imperial global order: information could be organised, curated and shared to ‘diffuse the European mind’. To both, information was not just an epistemic resource but a means of global ordering. Crucially, promoting a world united by information was entirely compatible with infrastructurally reproducing an imperial division of the world by degrees of ignorance. League officials rejected the utopianism of these proposals but held on to the pacifying promise of information. Recovering this history shows how historical perspective allows us to contextualise artificially disembedded IR concepts and objects of governance. It also puts hopes for information as inherently pacifying into perspective: without considering the broader political embeddedness of information, such hopes risk leaving underlying hierarchies intact.

The Concept of International Relations in Taoist Thought

In today’s world, exchanges between different countries and regions are becoming more frequent. With the increase in exchanges, interests and disputes have also emerged. We have seen the beauty of mutually beneficial cooperation, but also the tragedy of war. Today’s international order is a sovereign state-centered system based on the Westphalian system and the final result of World War II. Various international cooperation organizations established after World War II have promoted exchanges and cooperation between different countries and regions, but we have to admit that most countries still treat each other as their competitors, and national strength is still the most important support for national behavior. With global warming, marine pollution, ecological disasters, transnational The emergence of a series of global problems such as crime requires us to reflect on whether this international exchange model centered on national interests can effectively deal with global problems, and whether we are too focused on human beings themselves and forget that we are part of nature. Taoist thought, especially the system with “Tao” as the core expounded by Lao Tzu in the “Tao Te Ching”, has great reference value for our understanding of nature and the relationship between man and nature. He expounded the way and norms of communication between countries with “Tao” as the core, opening up a new perspective for us to understand international relations. This article attempts to explore the concept of international relations in Taoist thought and provide reference for broadening the international relations theory based on Taoist ideas.

Linking Local Insights to Global IR: Locating Malaysian Contours and Contributions

This article traces the trajectories, theoretical propensities, and thematic insights underlying Malaysian scholarly thinking and writings about international relations (IR). It argues that while their contributions to the Global IR research program have been indirect and implicit, they are not insignificant. The contributions are not claims of exceptionalism but expressions of diverse experiences, perspectives, and narratives that are reflective of the contesting, yet recurring logics significant for understanding and explaining small- and medium-sized states’ behavior in an anarchical world. Three themes are particularly pertinent: (1) external policy choices are extensions of internal attributes; (2) small-state outlook on regionalism and multilateralism; and (3) middle-state alignment behavior. Local insights contribute to Global IR by enriching, expanding, and exporting national narratives and regional mindsets into thematic thrusts pertinent for making sense of similar cases elsewhere, thereby pluralizing the universality and inclusivity of IR concepts and theories.

Borrowing Absolute and Relative Gains to Science Diplomacy Conceptualization

Science diplomacy is an emerging concept in International Relations. But the existing traditional conceptualization of science diplomacy (science in diplomacy, diplomacy for science, and science for diplomacy) has optimistic scope and objective while ignoring the conflictual nature of international relations. This article argues borrowing relative and absolute gains can address the conceptual problem of science diplomacy. The borrowing presents a classification of science diplomacy into two types, prospective (using diplomacy to attain the maximum individual payoffs in science) and restrictive (using diplomacy to hinder others from advancing capabilities in science). By demonstrating it with Japan's science diplomacy in the inaugural meeting of Science and Technology in Society (STS) Forum and the first meeting of the East Asia Science and Innovation Area (e-ASIA) Joint Research Forum, this article found that the classification of science diplomacy as prospective and restrictive helps study the cooperative and competitive aspects of state actors' science diplomacy.

Populism at the UN: comparing Netanyahu’s and Abbas’s speeches, 2010–19

ABSTRACT Populism impacts policy choices and may contribute to fuelling crises and limiting the prospects for conflict resolution. This paper applies a multidimensional populism theoretical framework to compare quantitatively and qualitatively 18 speeches by Mahmoud Abbas and Benjamin Netanyahu at the United Nations General Assembly between 2010 and 2019. Our analysis shows that while both Abbas and Netanyahu use populist language—mostly focused on antagonistic, moral and idealised depictions of the ‘people’ and the ‘other’—the latter consistently displayed a greater density of populist references in his UN speeches over the period analysed. Netanyahu’s discourses were both more aggressive and exclusionary and made more allusions to religion and securitisation than those of the Palestinian leader. His framing essentialised the ‘us’ (‘the Jewish people’) as threatened by an ‘enemy’; what he called ‘militant Islam’. By contrast, Abbas referred more to borders as a requirement for statehood. Their different communicative frames and language suggest discrepant worldviews. Abbas’s speeches reflected a more ‘liberal’ conception of international relations, relying more on international cooperation, institutions, and regulation to resolve the Palestinian question, while Netanyahu conveyed a realpolitik stance and stressed his concerns with external threats and willingness to act unilaterally.

Theory of world politics: assessing the potential for transfer

In international studies, there are many borrowings from other disciplines at the level of metaphors, concepts, etc. In this regard, the question is raised about a possible reverse transfer, i.e. from the sphere of world politics to other scientific spheres, including not only socio-humanitarian, but also the natural sciences. The article analyzes a successful example of such a transfer given by R. Axelrod in the early 2000s, as well as subsequent attempts to theoretically validate the conditions for export from the field of international studies to other areas. Two approaches have been identified. Within the framework of the first approach, it is proposed to create an interdisciplinary theory, since international relations are able to integrate various humanitarian and social disciplines. The second approach allows for a “pluralistic” and “blurred” subject field of the theory of international relations, in which various theoretical and methodological lines can coexist and enter into discussion with each other (societal multiplicity), rather than remain isolated. It provides opportunities for its “export” to other scientific fields. A critical analysis of these approaches allows us to conclude that in both the first and second cases, the political focus of international research is lost. The article substantiates the subject area of world politics as the exertion of political influence in the international arena by state and non-state actors. Based on this, the authors of the article put forward a third direction. The essence of it is that the search for the possibility of exporting from international research to other scientific fields does not lie in the creation of an interdisciplinary theory, and not in the formation of a “blurred” subject field that ensures “societal multiplicity”, but in the similarity of the situations under consideration. The authors show that the degree of similarity of situations depends on a number of factors, including the behavior of actors/objects being in conditions that are relatively the same. Examples are given by comparing situations and theoretical concepts of international relations and world politics with situations and concepts in other scientific fields - meteorology, medicine, ethology. At the same time, the place of the “political” in other spheres is occupied by the dominant object/factor.

Measuring Arms: Introducing the Global Military Spending Dataset

Military spending data measure key international relations concepts such as balancing, arms races, the distribution of power, and the severity of military burdens. Unfortunately, missing values and measurement error threaten the validity of existing findings. Addressing this challenge, we introduce the Global Military Spending Dataset (GMSD). GMSD collates new and existing expenditure variables from a comprehensive collection of sources, expands data coverage, and employs a latent variable model to estimate missing values and quantify measurement error. We validate the data and present new findings. First, correlations between economic surplus and military spending are currently higher than at any point in the last two-hundred years. Second, updating DiGiuseppe and Poast’s (2018) analysis, we find larger substantive effects. Specifically, we find that the (negative) effect of a democratic ally on military spending is three times larger, and the (positive) effect of an increase in GDP is five times larger than previously estimated.

EU Defence Policy: Between Functionalism, National Interests, and Transatlantic Realities

Abstract Existing insights into recent defence integration, including against the backdrop of Russia’s war, largely stem from EU governance studies. Although these studies might not explicitly delve into the EU’s politico-strategic role, when combined with the broader framework of International Relations (IR), they imply the EU’s effective progression, at least relatively, as a defence actor. However, a closer analysis of certain key developments and transatlantic dynamics suggests a persistent lack in the political and strategic dimensions of EU defence policy. This disparity arises when IR concepts are tailored to fit the EU context in integration studies.

Unmasking International Relations in the Times of War in Africa: Beyond Rhetoric, Reality and Trust

This paper unmasks the concept of international relations using the lenses of realist school of thought. Relations of nation states towards each other, and with international organisations, including sub national entities is what international relations (IR) is all about (Antunes and Camisao, 2018; Adams, 2003; Wendt, 1992; Axelrod and Keohane 1993). The significance of IR in the contemporary world, as it were in the past cannot be overemphasized. It seeks to comprehend the roots of war and the preservation of peace both stemming from the nature and exercise of power within the global system. To this effect, the discipline of international relations comprises of numerous theories, each attempting to explain the power relations and the resultant behaviour of nation states on the international scene. Of particular interest to this article is how the realism theory of IR enhances the prospects of cooperation within the international environment and the realists’ main obstacles to achieving cooperation in international development. As one of the many theories in the IR discourse, Realism claims to explain the reality of international politics. Realists believe that sovereign states are the principal actors on the international political system, having at their disposal justifiable actions or tools for the protection of their interests. Proponents of realism argue that states are unitary and rational actors of importance seeking to secure their survival through reliance on their own means even if it meant war (Glaser, 1994; Brown, 2007; Milner, 1992).Drawing from secondary sources of data and using a desk top review approach, this study found that realists come close to explaining the actual happenings on the IR scene i.e. the survival of the state at all costs, also called the ethics of responsibility rather than by moral principles as other theorists argue. Realism as a school of thought in the IR discourse has generated a significant volume of debate and criticisms igniting valuable insights and remains an important analytical tool for stakeholders in IR.

The Relevance of Fiqh Siyasah Dauliyah and Religion as Indonesian Soft Power in International Relations

This study aims to discuss Indonesia's efforts to use moderate Islam as its new identity in global politics, especially after the events of 9/11. One of the Indonesian efforts is pursued through inter-faith and inter-civilizational dialogue. This research is library research with qualitative methods. The approaches used are historical, political, and Islamic perspectives in contemporary international relations studies, namely Fiqh Siyasah Dauliyah. The study results show that there are two main relevancies between the inter-faith and inter-civilizational dialogue with the principles concept of international relations based on fiqh siyasah dauliyah. First, diversity in Islam is stated as part of God's plan for the benefit of mankind. In this context, the various inter-faith and inter-civilizational dialogues organized by Indonesia are necessary conditions for promoting peace, tolerance, harmony, and religious coexistence in the world today. Second, the concept of dialogue between civilizations and between religions is based on the study of textual analysis and historical interpretation of the Al-Quran and As-Sunnah. In this case, the Al-Quran shows various examples of dialogue, one of which is contained in the Al-Quran Surah An-Nahl verse 125 which asks Muslims to show the best courtesy and wisdom when arguing with people of other religions. 
 
 Keywords: inter-faith dialogue; fiqh siyasah dauliyah; moderate Islam.

The Monroe Doctrine: Republicans’ Perspective in the Formation Years of the Versailles-Washington System

The Monroe Doctrine occupies a unique place in the US history. It became one of the key foreign policy documents of its time and provided the basis for a wide variety of interpretations of the United States’ role and goals in the international arena at turning points of world history. One of these moments was the turn of the 1910s−1920s, when a new Versailles-Washington order of international relations was emerging. In the US public discourse, this period was marked by intense debates between supporters of the Democratic President V. Wilson and his isolationist opponents. Both Republicans and Democrats constantly referred to the Monroe Doctrine, on the one hand, to justify their own views on US foreign policy in the new conditions, and, on the other hand, to refute the arguments of their political opponents. The controversy surrounding the Monroe Doctrine has been reflected in publications in periodicals and analytical journals, as well as in cartoons. Studying these materials, it is possible to trace the evolution of the approaches of American politicians, experts, editors, and journalists to the Monroe Doctrine. The arguments of the Republicans against the ‘internationalist’ interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine that emerged in the face of the changing global context after the First World War are of particular interest. The study shows that at the initial stage of discussions (1920), the Monroe Doctrine was used by the Republicans primarily to criticize W. Wilson’s concept of international relations in general and his position on the League of Nations in particular. At the next stage (1921−1923), the debate focused around the need to revise the Monroe Doctrine itself, that aroused due to new trends in the development of international relations in the Far East and, in particular, because of the increasing competition between the United States and Japan. The author identifies several main approaches to the interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine formulated during the public debate in 1921−1923. It is shown that, despite significant divergences of view, both isolationists and internationalists eventually came to broader interpretations of the Monroe Doctrine, recognizing the need to extend its principles to the entire Asia-Pacific region.

Between (ir)responsibility and (in)appropriateness: Conceptualizing norm-related state behaviour in the Russian war against Ukraine

Abstract The Russian war against Ukraine has challenged fundamental norms such as sovereignty, non-interference and the prohibition of the use of force. It has led to diverse reactions from the international community. Only very few states sided with Russia, some states remained neutral, while the vast majority condemned the attack and supported Ukraine in its right to self-defence. Thus, although there is no legal obligation, many states display behaviour that goes beyond diplomatic support. They support Ukraine financially and even deliver weapons to support Ukraine in its right to self-defence. In this article, we conceptualize different types of actors’ behaviour in world politics. We distinguish between responsible, irresponsible, appropriate, and inappropriate behaviour. We apply this typology to states’ reaction to the Russian war against Ukraine. The typology enables us to analyse the variation of the responses with reference to norms and responsibility, two core concepts of International Relations (IR) Theory and global politics. Counterintuitively as it might seem, we argue that the support of Ukraine with weapons can be categorized as responsible behaviour as it displays an over-fulfilment of the right to self-defence norm, which leads to the emergence of a new norm: the responsibility to support norm.

The Struggle of the Great Powers between Maintaining Hegemony and Recreation of a New World Order from the Lens of the Balance of Power Theory

Balance of power is a crucial concept in international relations, driving decision-makers to confront US unilateralism. However, President Xi sees President Putin as the master key to the erosion of the Western-centric world order; therefore, the strategic partnership between Russia and China is not an emergency partnership; Mutual cooperation is constructed based on the leaders’ convictions and joint activities allow them to reset the balance of power as well as, form a new multipolar world order centered on the UN’s true purposes and principles. Yet, it seems the founding myth of emerging economies has faded and the BRICS countries’ are experiencing their geopolitical moment; the group attempting to establish themselves as a representative of the global South and as an alternative to existing West financial and political institutions.

When leaders disappoint: rejection and denial of leadership roles in international politics

International leadership failure by states is an underdeveloped concept in International Relations. Existing approaches commonly equate leadership with hegemony, arguing that leadership success and failure are contingent on primacy or shared material interests among states. In this article, we introduce a role theoretical approach, which defines international leadership as a social role that emerges from shared expectations among states pertaining to leadership purpose, group cohesion and time horizon. Accordingly, leadership failure occurs when role expectations between states diverge and states are unable to generate commensurate role-taking via alter-casting. Four leader-follower constellations can be distinguished: leadership enactment, denial, rejection and vacuum. The paper utilizes this theoretical heuristic to understand two cases of leadership failure. The first case involves Brazil’s attempted leadership role in response to the Latin American migration crisis following the political crisis in Venezuela. The second case examines Indonesia’s attempted leadership role in the South China Sea dispute. The empirical findings contribute to existing work on hegemony and leadership in international relations theory by showing that leadership failure comes in different variants and these variants are contingent on shared role expectations and alter-casting capacity of states involved.

Decolonising Politics and International Relations Classrooms: Reflections from the “Field”

International Relations (IR) is a discipline founded upon and shaped by colonialism and Eurocentrism. Its Eurocentric tropes and myths distort the discipline's historiography and its perceptions of why and how it was founded, and for what purpose, such that race and colonialism are eliminated from mainstream discussions of disciplinary history and IR's main themes, concepts, and theories. This is reproduced in both the teaching and research of IR. Focusing on the former, this paper reflects on my experiences as the convenor of a course on colonialism. This is a second year, core course in the Politics and IR program at UNSW Sydney. The explicit purpose of the course is to contribute to decolonising UNSW's Politics and IR curriculum by centring Indigenous perspectives of colonialism and IR, critically interrogating the racism and Eurocentricity of Politics and IR, and exploring how colonialism shaped the world we live in and continues to inform our world and our lived, everyday experiences. This paper explores the concepts and theory informing the pedagogical praxis employed in the course, this praxis itself, and critically reflects on the achievements, challenges, and pitfalls of actively attempting to contribute to decolonising the IR classroom within Australia's settler colonial context.

Before the Nation-State: Civilizations, World Orders, and the Origins of Global International Relations

Abstract The dominant perspectives on International Relations (IR) focus on the rise of the Western civilization and the global expansion of the European Westphalian system as their starting point. This leads to a narrow Eurocentric understanding of IR that obscures the role and contribution of other civilizations to the evolution of world order. However, during the last 5000 years, many civilizations have risen, fallen, and survived. This essay focuses on five world orders that made their mark before the “rise of the West” or the advent of European colonialism around roughly the 16th century AD: Near Eastern, Indian, Chinese, Islamic, and Indian Oceanic. A study of classical civilizations and world orders can help IR scholars to more fully engage history and reshape the study of IR theories and concepts in several ways. It helps us to understand, and if necessary, challenge, the dominance of certain key ideas that claim to be universal and have been taken for granted as such. Moreover, studying IR from a historical–civilizational perspective opens the door to understanding both material and ideational relationships among states and societies. It also encourages a shift in IR thinking from the conventional state-centric category of the “international system” to the broader framing of world order.

ASEAN ECONOMIC DYNAMICS: ECONOMIC SOCIETY, OPPORTUNITY, AND CHALLENGE IN DISRUPTION ERA IN INDONESIA 2015-2020

The global economy keeps the wheels of the economy turning and countries are starting to assemble regional groups to keep up with the flow. The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) is a form of realization of the free market in Southeast Asia that was born from the cross-regional association of countries. This article describes the dynamics of the economy in ASEAN which includes the economic community, its opportunities, and challenges. This article is examined using one of the concepts of international relations, namely regionalism integration. Because in this study the author sees the AEC phenomenon as an idea formed with an integral geographical background in the Southeast Asian region. The AEC's orientation is to form a highly competitive economic area with many policies, consumer protections, and various agreements to create competitive economic conditions. This article is reviewed through qualitative research methods sourced through books, scientific articles, news, and others.

Transiting From the East to the ‘Core’ West of Europe: Slovakia’s Ontological Liminality After the Outbreak of 2022 Russia’s War on Ukraine

This article examines the effects of the outbreak of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine in February 2022 on the reconstruction of the notion of ‘Eastern Europe’ in Slovak political discourse and the subsequent re-definition of Slovakia’s political subjectivity vis-à-vis the contested notion of the ‘East’. It aims to advance the application of ontological liminality concept in international relations integrating it with post-structuralist and post-colonial insights on identity formation. I seek to shed light on how Slovakia negotiates its liminal position of being ‘the East of the Western Europe’ under the new geopolitical and discursive realities. Drawing on the concept of ontological liminality and post-colonial notion of master, my principal argument suggests that Slovakia aspired to demonstrate its capability to define the normative meaning of EUrope as one of its ‘core’ members positioning itself as a superior European state, a ‘master’ in relation to Ukraine. Although, on Slovakia’s mental map, the notion of ‘East’ assumes a far-away position it escaped long time ago, at the same time ‘East’ with the tinge of orientalism has been constructed as an indispensable subject position that the future newcomers to EUrope carry when they are pursuing their transition to the West. Based on hierarchically underpinned discursive self-positioning of Slovakia, ‘East’ is thus made a pre-liminal attribute which post-communist countries let go when beginning their transition to/through the Central Europe that ultimately emerges as an intermediary post-colonial spatial and discursive setting where liminals undergo the ritual of becoming genuinely EUropean.