International Political Theory Research Articles

The Idea of Competition in International Political Theory: Some Current Aspects of the Discussion

The Idea of Competition in International Political Theory: Some Current Aspects of the Discussion

A Conceptual Difficulty in Theories of International Politics

Hans Morgenthau’s theory of power realism is still popular. Professor J. Mearsheimer has now published a number of lectures spelling out the theory of structural realism for understanding the state. Can we account for the present wars with it?

Everyday immigration ethics: Colombia, Venezuela and the case for vernacular response

ABSTRACT In the last decade, Venezuelans have faced a range of challenges such that by 2023, nearly 7.2 million have fled, the vast majority hosted within the region. One country particularly stands out: Colombia has accepted over 2.5 million. Colombia’s behaviour does not appear motivated by legal obligations or universal ethical principles; it is hard to make sense of in terms of international ethical and political theory. Rather, Colombian state and society make reference to mundane, localised concepts of friendship, fraternity and the reciprocity of a shared history. Such everyday ethics is generally ignored in existing debates. I argue that immigration ethics could helpfully begin from concrete, everyday ethical behaviour rather than idealisation and abstraction. Instead of initially asking what states and societies should do regarding immigration, we could ask what do they already do, why and how? This article therefore explores how Colombian politicians and civil society actors understood their welcoming actions through an awareness of entangled histories, reciprocity, friendship and solidarity: everyday, vernacular ways in which responsibility-taking is rationalised and practiced. My argument is not that Colombia’s actions are normatively right, or an enactment of immigration justice. Rather, these actions were ambivalent: the messy, pragmatic result of negotiating different, competing responsibilities, principles and emotions. The results were imperfect, heavily gendered, but also unprecedented. Those advocating greater societal responsibility for immigrants would perhaps do best to look beyond the global north, shun the universal and start from local activities founded in vernacular, everyday ethics.

Analysis of the Theories and Scope of International Political Economy

This study aims to describe the application of international political economy theories, and analyze the scope of international political economy and its influence on the country's economy. The method used in this study is a qualitative method and a descriptive approach which produces a study of a phenomenon and describes it based on literature studies by utilizing various references from previous research. In this study, international political economy theories reveal the weaknesses of other theories, so that we can see and differentiate the extent of the strengths of these theories in explaining global economic trends. This illustrates how International Political Economy discusses the problem of development and change in statehood and the national economy is a very basic resource for the state and nation.

The International Political Theory of Dialogue of Civilisations: Philosophical Issues

Abstract Starting from a conception of dialogue as “fusion of horizons” inspired by Gadamerian hermeneutics this article aims to give a philosophical foundation to the argument for a dialogue of civilisations within a broad set of theoretical debates that have taken place in the fields of philosophy, political theory, and international relations. Such a discussion contributes to the international political theory of dialogue of civilisations as an argument for the construction of a multicultural peaceful international society against the background of our troubled contemporary global politics.

Welfare regimes in Asia: convergent or divergent?

While existing scholarship predominantly focuses on the evolution of welfare regimes in advanced Western economies, there has been limited investigation into the trajectories of such systems in the Asia-Pacific region. This study presents a nuanced analysis of welfare regimes in 20 Asian countries, examining their transformation since the 2000s through principle component analysis and clustering algorithms. Contrary to the predictions of comparative political economy and international political economy theories, the findings reveal that these nations neither exhibit a strict divergence in welfare patterns nor converge strictly towards market-driven commodification. Instead, they adopt a balanced approach, harmonizing elements of both commodification and decommodification. This flexibility allows them to navigate complex challenges, including productivity competition, external shocks, and internal inequality. The study suggests that this balanced approach may act as a positive feedback mechanism, enabling these countries to adapt to both global economic pressures and domestic social imperatives.

한·중 사료 속의 서부여 존재를 논함

After the death of King Daeso of Dongbuyeo(東夫餘), Buyeo of the Nak’s Kingdom, which was initially sealed by Goguryeo(高句麗) as Buyeo King, is not a lord belonging to the Goguryeo Yeonnabu(椽那部). It can be confirmed through Korean-Chinese historical records that it was a royal state with independent military, diplomatic, and trade rights. King Daeso's younger cousin, who surrendered to Goguryeo, was not a heir to the throne, so he was not eligible to surrender by sacrificing his country, so it can be seen as an exile with his followers. Goguryeo, which wanted to become a new hegemonic power, established a new Buyeo as a result of King Daemusin's strategic proposal to expand its power by turning the royal family of Dongbuyeo into a reliable ally. The relationship with Goguryeo can be seen as a bandwagon alliance if analyzed by modern international political relations theory (IR). Buyeo became a target of the enemy and suffered serious damage when it participated in Goguryeo's hegemonic war, and Goguryeo's discriminatory support for this became the background for Buyeo to break its alliance with Goguryeo and collude with Houhan(後漢). King Uigutae(尉仇台), who rejuvenated Buyeo, secured the Daebang(帶方) area with Gonsongang(公孫康), the son of Gongsondo(公孫 度), the Taishou of Liaodong(遼東太守), and move the capital. For this Buyeo, which was in the Liaoseo(遼西) area from the 1st to the early 4th centuries, I suggest that it is necessary to classify it as 'Seobuyeo(西夫餘)' for the systematic organization of Buyeo history research.

A theory’s time perspectives: contributing to a theory’s inadequacy

Theories can either have something to say about the future or provide foundations for making judgments about the future. In either case, however, a theory remains inadequate for obtaining insights about the future which no amount of advancements in information access and quality or methodologies can overcome. This article suggests that inadequacy persists and cannot be completely overcome because of the long-term and short-term time perspectives embedded within a theory. Using illustrative examples of time perspectives from Morgenthau’s theory of international politics, this article illustrates and analyses how long-term and short-term time perspectives within a theory delimit claims or judgments about the future made within or derived from a theory. Subsequently, readers gain insights on how to conceptualise long-term and short-term time perspectives, methods for identifying and differentiating between time perspectives within a theory and the distinct work time perspectives perform within a theory when multiple time perspectives are present.

Neoclassical Realism as a Theory for Correcting Mistakes: What State X Should Do Next Tuesday

Abstract Neoclassical realism has carved a unique niche by offering a theoretically derived and empirically rich foreign policy analysis framework. Over the years, it has branched out as a theory of mistakes (Type I), a theory of foreign policy (Type II), and a theory of international politics (Type III). This article proposes another challenge to consolidate its offer of a progressive research agenda to position it as a theory for correcting mistakes. The theory of mistakes version differentiates ideal from actual foreign policy. The ideal corresponds to foreign policy that follows the pressures and incentives of the international system; structural realism, the basis for this optimal baseline, is here viewed as a normative theory. If there is a gap between the ideal baseline and the actual outcome, then foreign policy is sub-optimal and therefore costly. According to neoclassical realists, this is the result of the intervention of domestic political processes hijacking foreign policy. It follows that pointing out how to reduce the distorting impact of these domestic variables should help steer foreign policy toward optimality. By identifying the negative consequences that follow from a sub-optimal foreign policy, a theory for correcting mistakes also opens the door to developing prescriptions to manage the inevitable fallout.

Building the pluriverse with care

The decolonial concept of the pluriverse challenges the idea of a single world with different paradigms, and instead points to a matrix of multiple distinct yet connected worlds. In so doing, the pluriverse highlights radical ontological and epistemological difference and the implications of such difference for politics. Care and the Pluriverse: Rethinking Global Ethics, my own contribution to decolonial scholarship in international political theory, focuses specifically on the question of how to build a pluriversal ethics. This article engages with Kimberly Hutchings, Fiona Robinson, and Vivienne Jabri’s commentaries on the book, and ultimately argues that vulnerability can serve as a generative meta-ethical orientation for building the pluriverse with care.

What Drives Nuclear-Aspiring States? The Cases of Iran and North Korea

What Drives Nuclear-Aspiring States? The Cases of Iran and North Korea

Alexander Wendt’s “Social Theory of International Politics”: A Realist Critique

Since its publication, Alexander Wendt’s Social Theory of International Politics has become nearly synonymous with the constructivist school in the study of International Relations. Despite its innovative methodological approaches and bold challenges to neorealism’s hegemonic prevalence in the field, Wendt’s social theory faces issues on both theoretical and empirical grounds. With respect to the former, this critical evaluation of the social theory focuses primarily on Wendt’s neglect of causal questions in the examination of state formation as well as his omission of the psychological and sociological levels of analysis in the examination of cultural development. With respect to the latter, the evaluation focuses on instances in which the historical record contradicts Wendt’s proposed distinction between the Hobbesian culture of the past and the Lockean culture of the present as well as on instances in which international socialization and the establishment of commonly observed ideas and norms have not proven effective in preventing the exercise of power politics among states.

The Use of Popular Songs and Cartoons in Teaching Introduction to International Relations and Comparative Politics

Abstract The use of popular culture as a teaching tool is often overlooked in teaching introductory-level political science courses. In recent years, advocacy for the inclusion of popular culture in the classroom has increased due to studies that highlight the benefits of such application in combination with other teaching methods. This paper argues that the incorporation of popular music and cartoons as a combined auxiliary teaching tool is an efficient way to increase students’ understanding of theoretical concepts at multiple levels and to encourage them to think unconventionally. Relating political science paradigms and theories to popular culture makes them accessible to a broad spectrum of students and ensures that students become more engaged in the classroom. Students may also be more likely to apply theoretical concepts to real-life events. In this paper, we share our observations of using popular songs and cartoons as supplementary teaching materials and methods to explain theories of international relations and comparative politics.

Jane Addams’s Feminist Pragmatism and International Political Thought

While pragmatism as a philosophy and intellectual movement has been gaining inroads in international ethics and international political theory scholarship, feminist pragmatism is not yet as widely regarded. This paper explores the intellectual contributions of feminist pragmatism to international political thought, particularly Jane Addams’s social ethics which is largely overlooked in the literature on women’s contributions to international normative theory. Here I add to efforts to reconsider Addams as a thinker that was concerned with the multiplicity and diversity, features of social life that make a foundational premise of international normative thought. In the paper, I explore how feminism and pragmatism challenge ideas about normatively constitutive communities. The nexus of the two philosophies come clearly in Addams’s progressive communitarianism and her ideas on the significance of settlement to social ethics. In addition to Addams’s pacifist thought and international humanism, I argue that her practice in Hull House draws attention to the site as a normatively significant category. The paper casts Hull House as an international social space that sustained social connections, instrumental to social ethics. Hull House serves as an exemplar that can inform further thinking about the international community and more democratised global governance structures.

Editorial introduction: Punctuated equilibrium, multiple streams, environmental governance, and many more

Editorial introduction: Punctuated equilibrium, multiple streams, environmental governance, and many more

The United States-The People's Republic of China relations: A systemic level impact analysis

Are the United States (the US)- the People's Republic of China (the PRC) relations inevitably headed for war? The US-the PRC relations constitute one of the most interesting topics in terms of international political studies. Precisely for this reason, the study of political relations between the US and the PRC is of the great importance in terms systemic level of the international political studies. The main purpose of this study is to show that the relations of the US and the PRC, as two influential acting units at the level of systemic international politics, are of competitive cooperation. In this study, Popperian falsification method was used in the context of political, economic and cultural data revealed by bilateral relations. The definition of the inevitably dragged into a war by the US-the PRC with a historicist perspective also brings with it an important problem in terms of international political studies. This point also creates an important opportunity to discuss the explanatory capacity of international political theories. Considering the Structural Realist Theory in the US-the PRC case, it is seen that military, economic and social relations are important in terms of influencing the structure as much as the formation of the structure. The US-the PRC relations, it is seen that a competitive cooperation structure has emerged rather than a process leading to war.

Authorship and individualization in the digital public sphere

Authorship and individualization in the digital public sphere

Analyzing the Reasons for Formulating the Belt and Road Initiative

The discussion over the impetus behind the Chinese government's actions in the realm of international relations has become more intense since the 1970s when China began the platform of reform and opening up. Based on The related literature, there are different kinds of opinions related to this issue. On the one hand, according to some academics, China's foreign policy is intended to showcase its tremendous might and begins with its own interests. According to particular academics, the foreign policy of the Chinese government focuses on cultural inclusiveness and takes social consensus as a central starting point. By using the example of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to illustrate the variables influencing the formation of China's foreign policy, this study primarily examines the factors that influence foreign policy in China. Besides, the International relations (IR) theory and political heuristic theory will be used to carry out the discussion. The methodology of this paper will rely on secondary data to study the different views of the academic community and propose a foreign policy that China could adopt in the future.

About the Contributors

About the Contributors

The Power and Restraint of Waltzian Neorealism

Kenneth Waltz constructed a pure theory of international politics by isolating structural from unit-level causes. Today’s return of great-power politics signals the persistent relevance of Waltz’s notion of patterns and regularities driven by structural-systemic forces. We have entered an unbalanced bipolar world, in which America still exceeds China in every important category of national power but the gap is narrowing. The relative-power trajectories of the two sides now frames the structural dynamics of their relationship, and how others perceive and calculate their strategic competition. No longer occupying a position of “primacy” either globally or in the Asian Pacific region, the United States now tends to exaggerate, not underestimate, the perceived threat from China in the economic and security realms. More broadly, the world is transitioning from hegemonic order to global disharmony and a restored balance of power—what I refer to as a “Dissent” phase of history. In this phase, disruption of global stability comes not only from the emergence of a counter-hegemonic alliance, which begins to voice its dissatisfaction with the status-quo order and underlying social purpose. It also comes from the hegemon itself, which behaves in ways that undermine its own order—an order that it now sees as not only unprofitable but a drain on its wasting assets through sponging allies and the exorbitant costs of delivering global public goods.