Contemporary International Theory Research Articles

Theorizing the history of women's international thinking at the ‘end of international theory’

AbstractThroughout the 20thcentury, women were leading intellectuals on International Relations (IR). They thought, wrote, and taught on this subject in numerous political, professional, intimate, and intellectual contexts. They wrote some of the earliest and most powerful theoretical statements of what would later become core approaches to contemporary international theory. Yet, historical women, those working before the late 20thcentury, are almost completely missing in IR's intellectual and disciplinary histories, including histories of its main theoretical traditions. In this forum, leading historians and theorists of IR respond to the recent findings of the Leverhulme project on Women and the History of International Thought (WHIT), particularly its first two book-length publications on the centrality of women to early IR discourses and subsequent erasure from its history and conceptualization. The forum is introduced by members of the WHIT project. Collectively, the essays suggest the implications of the erasure and recovery of women's international thought are significant and wide-ranging.

Theorizing the history of women's international thinking at the ‘end of international theory’

AbstractThroughout the 20thcentury, women were leading intellectuals on International Relations (IR). They thought, wrote, and taught on this subject in numerous political, professional, intimate, and intellectual contexts. They wrote some of the earliest and most powerful theoretical statements of what would later become core approaches to contemporary international theory. Yet, historical women, those working before the late 20thcentury, are almost completely missing in IR's intellectual and disciplinary histories, including histories of its main theoretical traditions. In this forum, leading historians and theorists of IR respond to the recent findings of the Leverhulme project on Women and the History of International Thought (WHIT), particularly its first two book-length publications on the centrality of women to early IR discourses and subsequent erasure from its history and conceptualization. The forum is introduced by members of the WHIT project. Collectively, the essays suggest the implications of the erasure and recovery of women's international thought are significant and wide-ranging.

Engagement or dismissiveness? Intersecting international theory and global health

ABSTRACTInternational relations theorists and global health politics scholars largely fail to communicate with one another. We argue that drawing on insights from classic and contemporary international theory more explicitly will positively augment the study of global health politics. This paper highlights four major theoretical orientations in the international relations literature (realism, neoliberal institutionalism, constructivism, and feminism) and discusses how an understanding of these perspectives can strengthen our understanding of global health policy.

The poverty of exceptionalism in international theory

This article is about the politics of ‘the exception’ and the role of ‘exceptionalism’ in contemporary international theory. The concept of ‘the exception’ was coined by Carl Schmitt and has in recent years become an inspiration for international relations theorists and foreign policy analysts, especially when engaging with issues such as great power politics, humanitarian intervention and the war against terrorism. It is concluded that attempts to apply Schmitt’s concept of ‘the exception’ seldom are persuasive and sometimes even contradictory to Schmitt’s theory. When dealt with out of context, ‘the exception’ becomes just an expression about something else. It is shown that there are other ways of handling the kind of political problem observed by Schmitt than what he and his followers are offering.

The role of key stakeholders in the bottom-up planning processes of Guangzhou, China

The interplay between key stakeholders in urban development is one of the key concerns in contemporary international theory on urbanism and planning. This paper seeks to contribute to this concern, addressing the interplay between three key stakeholders (the state, the market and society) in the bottom-up planning processes of Tangxia Village, a typical ‘village in the city’ in Guangzhou, China. The mosaic spatial structure of Tangxia Village has been produced and overlapped by different planning processes, each created by various key stakeholders. The socio-spatial structure of the traditional rural settlement formed the basic layer of Tangxia Village, while newly added layers have resulted largely from the intertwining of regulated city development and unregulated self-development. Recently, a bottom-up process has generated a wide range of attention, as it has functioned very well in reshaping the space in Tangxia Village. This paper concludes that the integration of bottom-up processes and micro-strategies would strengthen the performance and efficiency of redevelopment strategies for Tangxia Village.

Strategic approach to film marketing in international setting

This paper represents the strategic aspects of the film marketing through an analysis of contemporary international theory and practice. The analysis is based on the basic principles of the film marketing and film product development. Application of marketing principles in the film industry under the new business conditions is only a prerequisite, but no more a guarantee of success. From the point of view of marketing managers, success must be ensured by the strategic approach, which is addressed in the paper. Given that the most successful marketing activities depend on the marketing mix strategies, a novel approach to film marketing mix was one of the main focuses of the paper. Attention of a separate chapter is focused on film marketing mix, taking into account technology impact on film marketing. .

Europe's intergovernmental NGO: The OSCE in Europe's emerging security structure

The OSCE is little understood outside diplomatic circles, but has a unique and increasing role in encouraging European peace and stability. The article highlights the OSCE's historical development and its more recent role in the European security structure. The OSCE mission in Latvia, tracking the country's language and citizenship issue, is illustrative of the organization's unusual charter. A second section attempts to fix the OSCE within the context of contemporary international theory and the developing literature on nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). With a broad but thin mandate, the organization manages regime activity left over from NATO and EU disinterest or immobility and, with its extensive grassroot efforts at problem‐solving, functions much like an NGO. OSCE success may lie in the combination of regime and NGO attributes, allowing it to move easily both within and outside of formal governmental structures.

Why States Act through Formal International Organizations

States use formal international organizations (IOs) to manage both their everyday interactions and more dramatic episodes, including international conflicts. Yet, contemporary international theory does not explain the existence or form of IOs. This article addresses the question of why states use formal organizations by investigating the functions IOs perform and the properties that enable them to perform those functions. Starting with a rational-institutionalist perspective that sees IOs as enabling states to achieve their ends, the authors examine power and distributive questions and the role of IOs in creating norms and understanding. Centralization and independence are identified as the key properties of formal organizations, and their importance is illustrated with a wide array of examples. IOs as community representatives further allow states to create and implement community values and enforce international commitments.

Immanuel Kant, Cosmopolitan Law and Peace

Two centuries ago Immanuel Kant published one of his most celebrated political writings, To Perpetual Peace. A Philosophical Project. He introduced cosmopolitan law, which has puzzled various generations of scholars. This concept is examined by way of a comparison of Kant's contemporary international theories. It is argued that it plays a crucial role in Kant's system of International Relations. While on the one hand cosmopolitan law safeguards a state's sovereignty vis-à-vis other states, on the other it is an innovation which allows the international community to monitor the internal affairs of its members. The concept can be seen as a forerunner of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, sharing with it the idea that some rights have a universal value even if they are not actually protected by any secular institution.

Postmodernism, ethics and international political theory

A group of writers have taken up Nietzsche's hammer against the constructions of contemporary international theory. Postmodern approaches problematize the dominant understanding of international relations as a world of sovereign states which demarcate inside from outside, order from anarchy, identity from difference. More generally, they challenge the notion of sovereignty as an ahistorical, universal, transcendent concept, be it applied to the sovereign state, the sovereign individual or a sovereign truth. Sovereignty and the dichotomies regulated by its power are mechanisms of domination and closure which limit the play of political practice. It is the aim of these writers to hammer away at these limitations, opening space for plural and diverse practices in world politics.

Quasi-states, dual regimes, and neoclassical theory: International jurisprudence and the Third World

Decolonization in parts of the Third World and particularly Africa has resulted in the emergence of numerous “quasi-states,” which are independent largely by international courtesy. They exist by virtue of an external right of self-determination— negative sovereignty—without yet demonstrating much internal capacity for effective and civil government—positive sovereignty. They therefore disclose a new dual international civil regime in which two standards of statehood now coexist: the traditional empirical standard of the North and a new juridical standard of the South. The biases in the constitutive rules of the sovereignty game today and for the first time in modern international history arguably favor the weak. If international theory is to account for this novel situation it must acknowledge the possibility that morality and legality can, in certain circumstances, be independent of power in international relations. This suggests that contemporary international theory must accommodate not only Machiavellian realism and the sociological discourse of power but also Grotian rationalism and the jurisprudential idiom of law.

Contemporary International Theory and the Behaviour of States

Contemporary International Theory and the Behaviour of States