Contemporary International Relations Theory Research Articles

Why the Quad is not NATO: the indo-American impediments to its intergovernmental structure

ABSTRACT In the post-COVID19 global order, rising geopolitical tensions in Eastern Europe and East Asia reflect the boiling tensions States face on multiple fronts. Within this, the United States is on two fronts as a major player and supporter of its allies that are directly facing hostility. Since the start of 2020, China’s hard, military power maneuvering in the South China Sea, deteriorating political relations with Japan and Australia, and the Himalayan standoff against India have seemingly further substantiated the need for the formulation of The Quad, a proposed quadrilateral arrangement with a varying mandate of operations. The proposed structure would constitute India, Japan, Australia, and the United States.The grouping has repeatedly been touted as not as “anti-China.” However Chinese interpretation of the mutual intent has equated them to being an “Asian NATO.” Keeping this in mind, I draw upon Duncan Snidal and Felicity Vabulas’ works on Informal Intergovernmental Organizations (IIGOs) and considers the inherent pitfalls that states may incur while negotiating through the contours of such a structure. Particularly in regards to strategic autonomy, asymmetry in resource contribution and control, and agreeing on a set of fundamental driving philosophies that are certain enough to tie the parties together for the foreseeable future. I focus on contemporary international relations theory, secondary research in the subject countries’ Indo-Pacific policies, and the more significant geopolitical trends of securitization in Asia.

Analysis of Transaction Volume and Stock Return on the Indonesia Stock Exchange

This study is intended to examine the Rupiah Exchange Rate, Inflation, Oil Price as part of macro fundamental variables and Return on Equity, Firm Size, Debt to Equity Ratio, Dividend Payout Ratio, Foreign Value as part of micro fundamentals on Stock Transaction Volume and its implications for Stock Returns. The objects in this study are automotive companies and their components listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange for the period 2011-2017 by using panel data regression in conducting the analysis. The variables in the first research model that have a significant effect are Rupiah Exchange Rate, Oil Price, Dividend Payout Ratio with a negative correlation to Stock Transaction Volume, while Return on Equity, Debt to Equity Ratio have a positive correlation. In the second research model. References Simpson, Christopher. (1988) BlowBack: America’s Recruitment of Nazis and its Effects on the Cold War. New York: Wheatland Corporation. "Israel Arms Control and Proliferation Profile." The Arms Control Association (July 2013). Goldblat, Jozef (2002). Arms Control: A Guide to Negotiations and Agreements (London: Sage Publications Ltd., 2004). Smith, Roger K. "Explaining the Nonproliferation Regime: Anomalies for Contemporary International Relations Theory," Spring 1987. International Organisation 41, no.2. 253. Jozef Goldblat, F. Barnaby, B. Jasani, and J. Rotblat ed.(2020). Nuclear Energy and the Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. 302. Londres: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Chari, P.R. (March 2011). "From CTBT to FMCT: India's Nuclear Debate." IPCS Issue Summary. Walsh, Jim (2005). Learning from Past Achievements: The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Future of Non-Proliferation (Stockholm, Sweden: Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission. 2013 "Fact Sheet: North Korea's Nuclear and Ballistic Missile Programs" by Kim, Duyeon. Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Center. "Israel Arms Control and Proliferation Profile." (2013) Association for Arms Control. New York: Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (2005). (2-27 May, 2005). Keller, William W. Janne E. Nolan (Winter 1997-98). Foreign Policy, "Proliferation of Advanced Weapons: A Threat to Stability." "Communication Received from Several Member States Regarding Export Guidelines for Nuclear Materials, Equipment, and Technology" (1978) February Circular INFCIRC/254 from the International Atomic Energy Agency. Rudney, Robert. and Anthony T.J. (1996). Beyond COCOM: A Comparison of Five National Export Control Systems and Their Implications for a Multilateral Non-Proliferation Regime Comparative Strategy 15, no. 1 (January/March 1996), pp. 41-57. Young, Oran R. (1986) "International Regimes: Toward a New Theory of Institutions," World Politics, vol. 106, p. 106. Tertrais, Bruno (ed) Henry D. Sokolski. Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College. Houston Wood (2008) Alexander Glaser and Scott Kemp, "The gas centrifuge and the proliferation of nuclear weapons," 61 Physics Today (3). Robert O. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye, Power and Interdependence (1977). Little, Brown, in Boston Bhonsle Rahul K. Ved Prakash and Kulwant Rai Gupta, (2007) "Indo-U.S. Civil Nuclear Agreement," Atlantic Publishers & Distrib. 33. India's economy is expanding faster than China's at present (2015) The Economist, nineteen February. Keohane In Power and Interdependence, Robert O. and Joseph S. Nye (2001) wrote "Realism and Complex Interdependence." 23. Robert O. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye, editors. New York: Longman. Stein, Arthur A., "Coordination and collaboration: regimes in an anarchic world," in International Regimes, edited by Stephen D. Krasner (New York: Cornell University Press, 1983), 117. International Responses to Technology: Concepts and Trends, by John Gerard Ruggie. Summer 1975 issue of International Organization, volume 29, number 3: 570 pages. The shrewdness of Andreas. Integrating Theories of International Regimes. Peter Mayer and Volker Rittberger, 2000. British International Studies Association, Review of International Studies, volume 26, number 1 (January), pages 3–33. Haas, Ernst (1980) "Technological Self-Sufficiency for Latin America: The OAS Contribution." Autumn 1980 issue of International Organization, number 4: 553. Jervis, Robert. "Security Regimes," in International Regimes, edited by Stephen D. Krasner, 186, Cornell University Press, New York, 1983. Keohane Robert 0. Lisa L. Martin (Summer, 1995). Institutionalist Theory's Prospects. International Security, volume 20, issue 1: 39-51. Has, Ernst B. (1983). "Words Can Hurt: Who Said What to Whom About Regimes," in International Regimes, edited by Stephen D. Krasner, New York: Cornell University Press, pp. 38-39. Rebecca Johnson. (2014) "Time warps in Nuclear Non-Proliferation." Liberal Democracy.

A Policy Perspective on Multilateral Export Control Regime (MECR): Theoretical Discourse

A Policy Perspective on Multilateral Export Control Regime (MECR): Theoretical Discourse

Platonic metaphysics and the ontology of international relations: A sketch

This article offers a reading of Plato in light of the recent debates concerning the unique ‘ontology’ of International Relations (IR) as an academic discipline. In particular, this article suggests that Plato’s metaphysical account of the integral connection between human individual, the domestic state and world order can offer IR an alternative outlook to the ‘political scientific’ schema of ‘levels of analysis’. This article argues that Plato’s metaphysical conception of world order can not only provide IR theory with a way to re-imagine the relation between the human, the state and world order, but also Plato’s outlook can highlight or even call into question the post-metaphysical presuppositions of contemporary IR theory in its ‘borrowed ontology’ from modern social science, which can in turn facilitate IR’s re-interpretation of its own ‘ontology’ as well as its distinct contributions to the understanding of the various aspects of the social world and human life.

Approaches in Energy Exclusive Security: Theories of Energy Security and the Dominance of Realism

Energy security is an important component of power politics, which explains the distribution of limited resources and the consequences thereof. Yet contemporary international relations theories tend to focus more on the “security” element when it comes to energy security and somewhat underplay the “power” component that lies behind it. This may limit their purchase and nuance in explaining contemporary and future energy security developments. This article offers an initial theoretical argument that reveals and emphasizes how energy changes and shapes power and security concepts and, thus, requires an improved conceptual model in international relations theory. I provide a conceptual overview of energy and security before adapting and empirically examining existing international relations theories (realism, neorealism, liberalism). I then conceptualize energy security within the scope of realism and aim to emphasize the specific importance of power that energy security theory and policy requires. To do so, I investigate the Energy Security Development Capability and identify the elements that could contribute to the advancement of energy security. I also note why realism is still seen as a dominant approach to understand energy security.Related ArticlesAsh, John. 2010. “New Nuclear Energy, Risk, and Justice: Regulatory Strategies for an era of Limited Trust.” Politics & Policy 38 (2): 255‐284. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2010.00237.xKhodr, Hiba, and Isabella Ruble. 2013. “Energy Policies and Domestic Politics in the MENA Region in the Aftermath of the Arab Upheavals: The Cases of Lebanon, Libya, and KSA.” Politics & Policy 41 (5): 656‐689. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12033Wood, Steve. 2009. “Energy Security, Normative Dilemmas, and Institutional Camouflage: Europe's Pragmatism.” Politics & Policy 37 (3): 611‐635. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2009.00187.x

History and the International Order in Hegel’s Philosophy of Right

For a long time, the sections of the Philosophy of Right dedicated to the relations among states have been neglected by contemporary International Relations theories. However, especially since the end of the Cold War, this discipline has finally reconsidered Hegel’s theory, in particular by stressing two aspects: the thesis of an ”end of history” implied in it; and, more generally, the primacy of the state in international politics. This paper suggests a different interpretation. It argues that, in order to really understand Hegel’s theory of international relations, it is necessary to consider how it is related to the momentous changes that occurred in the wake of the French Revolution and to previous philosophical developments in the Age of Enlightenment. Indeed, the convergence of these two aspects in his own philosophy of history should suggest that, according to Hegel, by the early nineteenth century international politics had finally entered a new era in which states would still interact as the foremost actors, but would be bound nonetheless by an unprecedented awareness of their historical character.

Why Is There No Reactionary International Theory?

Why is there no reactionary international theory? International relations has long drawn on a range of traditions in political thought. However, no current, or even recent, major school of international-relations theory embraces reactionary doctrine. This is more surprising than some might assume. Reaction was once common in the field and is now increasingly common in world politics. In this note, we define reaction and show that no active and influential school of international-relations theory falls within its ideological domain. Nonetheless, reactionary ideas once deeply shaped the field. We identify two distinct kinds of reactionary international politics and illustrate them empirically. We argue that the current lack of reactionary international relations undermines the field's ability to make sense both of its own history and of reactionary practice. Finally, we offer some preliminary thoughts about why reactionary ideas hold little sway in contemporary international-relations theory.

American diplomatic history and international thought: a constitutional perspective

This essay offers a constitutional perspective on the American encounter with the problem of international order. Its point of departure is the American Founding, a subject often invisible in both the history of international thought and contemporary International Relations theory. Although usually considered as an incident within the domestic politics of the United States, the Founding displays many key ideas that have subsequently played a vital role in both international political thought and IR theory. The purpose of this essay is to explore these ideas and to take account of their passage through time, up to and including the present day. Those ideas shine a light not only on how we organize our scholarly enterprises but also on the contemporary direction of US foreign policy and the larger question of world order.

Weber’s tragic legacy

Weber’s corpus is characterized by four tensions: the epistemological between subjective values and objective knowledge, the sociological between social rationalization and irrational myths, the political among conflicting values, and the tragic between human conscience and worldly affairs. I explore how three of Weber’s successors struggled with these tensions. Theodore Adorno and Max Horkheimer, in the early postwar writings, sought to resolve them, as did Carl Schmitt—although in diametrically opposed directions. Hans Morgenthau sought to keep them alive but did not refine them. They remain very relevant to contemporary international relations theory.

Multipolarity and Ethics in Contemporary International Relations theory

Multipolarity and Ethics in Contemporary International Relations theory

A Foreign Policy Analysis Perspective on the Domestic Politics Turn in IR Theory

Over the last 25 years, there has been a noteworthy turn across major International Relations (IR) theories to include domestic politics and decision-making factors. Neoclassical realism and variants of liberalism and constructivism, for example, have incorporated state motives, perceptions, domestic political institutions, public opinion, and political culture. These theoretical developments, however, have largely ignored decades of research in foreign policy analysis (FPA) examining how domestic political and decision-making factors affect actors’ choices and policies. This continues the historical disconnect between FPA and “mainstream” IR, resulting in contemporary IR theories that are considerably underdeveloped. This article revisits the reasons for this separation and demonstrates the gaps between IR theory and FPA research. I argue that a distinct FPA perspective, one that is psychologically-oriented and agent-based, can serve as a complement, a competitor, and an integrating crucible for the cross-theoretical turn toward domestic politics and decision making in IR theory.

Hobbes's Contribution to International Thought, and the Contribution of International Thought to Hobbes

SummaryThe aim of this article is to explore in what respects Thomas Hobbes may be regarded as foundational in international thought. It is evident that in contemporary international relations theory he has become emblematic of a realist tradition, but as David Armitage suggests this was not always the case. I want to suggest that it is only in a very limited sense that he may be regarded as a foundational thinker in international relations, and for reasons very different from those for which he has become infamous. In the early histories of international thought Hobbes is a cameo figure completely eclipsed by Grotius. In early histories of political literature, the classic jurists were often acknowledged for their remarkable contributions to international relations, but Hobbes is referred to exclusively as a philosopher of a positvist ethics and absolute sovereignty. It is among the jurists themselves that Hobbes is believed to have made important conceptual moves which set the problems for international thought for the next three centuries. He conflates natural law and the law of nations, arguing that they differ only in their subjects—the former individuals, the latter nations or states. This entailed transforming the sovereign into an artificial man, not in the Roman Law sense of an entity capable of suing and being sued; rather, as a subject not party to a contract, but created by a contract among individuals who confer upon it authority. This subject is not constrained by the contractors, but is, as individuals were in the state of nature, constrained by the equivalent of natural law, the law of nations in the international context. Throughout, the methodological implications are drawn for modern historians of political thought and political philosophers who venture to theorise about international relations.

International theory in a post-paradigmatic era: From substantive wagers to scientific ontologies

Concerns about the end of International Relations theory pivot around at least three different issues: the fading of the ‘paradigm wars’ associated with the 1990s and early 2000s; the general lack of any sort of ‘great debate’ sufficient to occupy the attention of large portions of the field; and claims about the vibrancy of middle-range theorizing. None of these are terribly helpful when it comes to assessing the health of International Relations theory. We argue that international theory involves scientific ontologies of world politics: topographies of entities, processes, mechanisms, and how they relate to one another. Understood this way, the state of International Relations theory looks strong: there is arguably more out there than ever before. Ironically, this cornucopia helps explain concerns regarding the end of International Relations theory. In the absence of a ‘great debate,’ let alone ways of organizing contemporary International Relations theory, this diversity descends into cacophony. We submit that three major clusters of international theory are emerging: choice-theoretic, experience-near, and social-relational. These clusters map onto two major axes of contention: (1) the degree that actors should be treated as autonomous from their environment; and (2) the importance of thickly contextual analysis. These disputes are both field-wide and high-stakes, even if we do not always recognize them as such.

The Human Condition of Politics: Considering the Legacy of Hans J. Morgenthau for International Relations

Classical realism and Morgenthau in particular have recently experienced a revived interest in International Relations (IR). The evolving debate has helped to contextualise and reconstruct Morgenthau's thought which until now had been misrepresented in structural realist and early poststructuralist interpretations. However, despite all of its achievements, we have yet to draw more attention to Morgenthau's contribution to contemporary IR theory. To contribute to the closing of this research gap this article considers a set of questions which Morgenthau himself asked at the beginning of his career as its conceptual framework. It is argued that Morgenthau was particularly concerned with the dehumanisation of socio-political life in modern democracies evoked through processes of ideologisation, technologisation, and scientification, which he countered by focusing on a re-introduction of the human factor to politics. This demonstrates that Morgenthau's work is a rich source for IR theory because his intellectual agenda was driven by concerns similar to what we find in poststructuralism.

The Art of the Intelligence Autopsy

Although intelligence postmortems are a common practice in the aftermath of intelligence failure, little is known about how they are conducted. This article explores the methodology employed by Robert Jervis in intelligence postmortems that followed the fall of the Shah of Iran in 1979 and the formulation of the 2002 Iraq national intelligence estimate that warned of the possibility that Iraq had restarted its nuclear program. The analysis reveals the challenges faced by scholars as they attempt to assess why analysts failed to offer accurate estimates and the way contemporary international relations theory can be applied to the realm of policy. The findings of the postmortems also shed light on areas where additional collaboration among scholars and analysts can advance the art of intelligence analysis.

Tackling invisible frontiers of global justice: an extension of Sen’s ‘Comparison View of Justice’ into IR

A central challenge of Amartya Sen’s comparative view of justice is to bring cultural diversity to bear on conceptualizing global justice, which includes building bridges across cultures that enable effective action, and rendering compatible the most beneficent of Rawlsian (or transcendental) intentions with irreducible cultural diversity. For social scientists meeting this challenge requires, first, taking account of variation of social practices in the social construction of meaning, and second, uncovering invisible frontiers of global justice that remain hidden due to conceptual or empirical oversight. The latter is especially true for contemporary International Relations (IR) theory, which assumes state actors to be the main interlocutors in the global realm, and thus precludes consideration of micro-level forms of inter-national relations (understood as interaction among all types of actors that takes place across country borders and that bears traits of national identity). Alternatively, Sen’s micro-perspectival approach offers a welcome support for pluralist approaches that both appreciate non-state access to contestation in the international arena, and account for the meaning-in-use of fundamental norms (democracy, rule of law, human rights) in different cultural and inter-national contexts.

Building Castles in the Sand: A Review of Ancient Chinese Thought, Modern Chinese Power

This article reviews Ancient Chinese Thought, Modern Chinese Power (Princeton University Press, 2011). The key concept argued in the volume is ‘humane authority’ or moral authority (wang dao), as opposed to hegemony (ba dao).1 Daniel Bell suggests in the introduction that Yan Xuetong, the main author, is a political realist because his analysis is about ‘the way the political world actually works, not just an ideal’.2 Nevertheless, ‘A Note on the Translation’ highlights that the term ‘wang’ in ‘wang dao’ represents ‘the political ideal of pre-Qin [classical3] thinkers’.4 Indeed, as the book title suggests, Yan’s analysis relies on ‘ancient Chinese thought’ rather than ancient Chinese history. Without solid grounding in history, the analysis of ‘humane authority’ largely falls into the realm of the ideal. This article first analyzes the disjuncture between ancient Chinese thought and ancient Chinese history. It then reviews the analysis of effective governance that is central to the establishment of moral authority. It also examines the volume’s efforts to draw lessons from ‘ancient Chinese thought’ for ‘contemporary International Relations (IR) theory’ and ‘modern Chinese power.’ Because the understanding of ‘ancient Chinese thought’ is unhistorical and that of IR theory is untheoretical, the authors’ attempts to develop new theoretical insights and policy recommendations are no more fruitful than building castles in the sand. While this volume should be applauded for introducing ‘ancient Chinese thought’ to the IR discipline, it falls short in delivering the promises.

The theory of postmodernism as a contemporary international relations theory

The theory of postmodernism as a contemporary international relations theory

Leo Strauss and International Relations: The politics of modernity's abyss

This article argues that an engagement with the political philosophy of Leo Strauss is of considerable value in International Relations (IR), in relation to the study of both recent US foreign policy and contemporary IR theory. The question of Straussian activities within and close to the foreign policy-making establishment in the United States during the period leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq has been the focus of significant scholarly and popular attention in recent years. This article makes the case that several individuals influenced by Strauss exercised considerable influence in the fields of intelligence production, the media and think tanks, and traces the ways in which elements of Strauss’ thought are discernible in their interventions in these spheres. It further argues that Strauss’ political philosophy is of broader significance for IR insofar as it can be read as a securitising response to the dangers he associated with the foundationlessness of the modern condition. The article demonstrates that the politics of this response are of crucial importance for contemporary debates between traditional and critical IR theorists.

Understanding State Responses to Forced Migration

Forced Migration and Global Politics. By Betts Alexander. West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. 216 pp., $28.96 paperback (ISBN 978-1-4051-8031-3). Refugees, the State and the Politics of Asylum in Africa. By Milner James. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2009. 235 pp., $95.00 hardcover (ISBN 978-0-230-21504-7). Seeking Asylum: Human Smuggling and Bureaucracy at the Border. By Mountz Alison. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2010. 208 pp., $25.00 paperback (ISBN 978-0-8166-6538-9). These three books look at different aspects of the global forced migration crisis, and all ultimately aim to increase understanding of the complex processes within and between states in attempts to manage the forced movement of people across borders. Forced migration is a central problem of international relations (IR) in a globalized world, increasingly exacerbated by the growing disparities between the Global South and the Global North. Forced migration and asylum-seeking simultaneously challenge and reinforce the very idea of state sovereignty: the forced migrant symbolizes both the difficulties modern states face in controlling the flows of people across their borders and the continuing ability of states to make decisions about who they exclude and include. The discourses and the realities of forced migration are often situated geographically at the borders between states and conceptually around the blurry edges of sovereign control. They involve new forms of state-making and border-policing, and subsequently new geographies of power. At its core, forced migration is about the complex relationships between states, international systems, and individuals in attempts to address a global problem. Each text reviewed here addresses this complex relationship in depth and with insight. Each author, however, places the emphasis on different aspects of the relationship and uses different analytic tools. Forced Migration and Global Politics by Alexander Betts is a comprehensive and clearly structured analysis of forced migration in terms of IR theory. Betts systematically addresses key classical and contemporary IR theories and applies each to the problem of forced migration. Betts has two aims here that are mutually reinforcing: to deepen understandings of forced migration by situating it within a variety of IR approaches and to expand debates around IR theory itself by applying its frameworks to a new empirical field. These aims are successfully achieved across the book and done …