E D IT E D B Y i S T EP H E N Mc GL IN C H EY, R OSIE WA LTE R S & C H R IS T IA N SC H E IN P FLU G International Relations Theory Tai Lieu Chat Luong This e-book is provided without charge via free download by E-International Relations (www. It is not permitted to be sold in electronic format under any circumstances. If you enjoy our free e-books, please consider leaving a small donation to allow us to continue investing in open access publications: http://www.info/about/donate/ i “In the plethora of textbooks on IR almost none depart from ‘playing it safe’, giving forms of instruction in the rudiments of established theories. The great breakout of this volume is its entire second half of proposing quite radical new ways of looking at the world.
The book is both ‘safe’ and ‘unsafe’ and in both it is sometimes witty in a way that students will savour – learning what IR is, and what it could be. A lovely book in which even the doyens of ‘old’ IR are sometimes bold.” – Stephen Chan OBE, Professor of World Politics, School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London. “This rich volume offers a highly accessible and exceptionally broad-ranging introduction to the field of International Relations theory. In 20 short chapters the book provides a highly readable and comprehensive overview of core theoretical frameworks ranging from ‘mainstream’ realism and liberalism all the way to queer theory and critical geography.
By placing each theory in context, and by providing a wealth of easily graspable examples, the book provides ‘one-stop shopping’ for the full range of theoretical frameworks and concepts – along with welcome attention to non-western perspectives. An excellent place to start.” – Mette Eilstrup-Sangiovanni, Senior University Lecturer in International Relations at Cambridge University. “This is a superb book. It offers a comprehensive listing that is imaginatively presented and enormously accessible.
Helpfully, too, it takes the form of a global conversation. IR theory at its sparkling best.” – Peter Vale, Professor of Humanities, University of Johannesburg; Professor of Public Policy and Global Affairs, Nanyang Technological University and Nelson Mandela Professor of Politics Emeritus, Rhodes University. ii International Relations Theory ED IT ED BY S T E PH EN M C GL IN C H EY, R OS IE WA LTE R S & C H R IS T IAN SC H E INP FLU G iii E-International Relations www.info Bristol, England 2017 ISBN 978-1-910814-19-2 (paperback) ISBN 978-1-910814-20-8 (e-book) This book is published under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC 4. You are free to: • Share – copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format • Adapt – remix, transform, and build upon the material Under the following terms: • Attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made.
You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. • Non-Commercial – You may not use the material for commercial purposes. Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission. Please contact info@e-ir.info for any such enquiries, including for licensing and translation requests.
Other than the terms noted above, there are no restrictions placed on the use and dissemination of this book for student learning materials/scholarly use. Production: Michael Tang Copy-editing: Gill Gairdner Cover Image: feedough via Depositphotos A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. iv E-IR Foundations Series Editor: Stephen McGlinchey Editorial Assistants: Michael Bolt, Eloise Cox, Gary Leigh and Farah Saleem. E-IR Foundations is a series of beginner’s textbooks from E-International Relations (E-IR) that are designed to introduce complicated issues in a practical and accessible way.
Each book will cover a different area connected to International Relations. This is the second book in the series, with more to follow. You can find the books, and many other learning materials, on E-IR’s Student Portal: http://www.info/students E-IR is developing our Foundations series as part of our mission to provide the best source of freely available scholarly materials for students of International Relations. Each book is available to buy in bookstores in paperback and, uniquely for textbooks, also freely accessible in web and PDF formats.
So, readers can have each book at their fingertips and on all their devices without any restrictions or hassle. Typically, textbook publishing is designed to appeal to professors/lecturers and, consequently, even the introductory books are intended less as an aid to the student and more to assist the instructor in the classroom. Our books are designed to meet the needs of the student, with the focus on moving readers from no prior knowledge to competency. They are intended to accompany, rather than replace, other texts, while offering the student a fresh perspective.
About E-International Relations E-International Relations is the world’s leading open access website for students and scholars of international politics, reaching over three million readers per year. E-IR’s daily publications feature expert articles, blogs, reviews and interviews – as well as student learning resources. The website is run by a non-profit organisation based in Bristol, UK and staffed by an all- volunteer team of students and scholars.info v Acknowledgements This book would not have been possible without the assistance of E-IR’s Student Review Panel. Members of the panel gave up their spare time to read drafts of each chapter and offer their thoughts on how they could be improved.
The panel comprised Laura Southgate, Matthew Koo, Constance Dijkstra, Loveleena Sharma, Daniel Golebiewski, Ljupcho Stojkovski, Max Nurnus, Jess Dam, Caroline Cottet, Jan Tattenberg, Matthew Ribar, Laura Cartner, Cameran Clayton, Phoebe Gardner, Ana Carolina Sarmento, Naomi McMillen, Kanica Rakhra, Dean Cooper-Cunningham, Jonathan Webb, Daniel Rowney, Janja R. Avgustin and Scott Edwards. The editors would also like to thank all members of the E-International Relations team, past and present, for their many acts of kindness in feeding back on ideas and providing a supportive climate for the book’s development. Finally, and most importantly, the editors would like to thank the authors of each of the chapters for working so hard on this project and helping us deliver such an excellent book.
vi vii International Relations Theory Contents GETTING STARTED WITH INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS THEORY Stephen McGlinchey, Rosie Walters & Dana Gold 1 PART ONE – ESTABLISHED THEORIES 1. REALISM Sandrina Antunes & Isabel Camisão 15 2. THE ENGLISH SCHOOL Yannis A. CONSTRUCTIVISM Sarina Theys 36 5.
MARXISM Maïa Pal 42 6. CRITICAL THEORY Marcos Farias Ferreira 49 7. POSTSTRUCTURALISM Aishling Mc Morrow 56 8. FEMINISM Sarah Smith 62 9.
POSTCOLONIALISM Sheila Nair 69 10. TOWARDS A GLOBAL IR? Amitav Acharya 76 Contents viii PART TWO – EXPANSION PACK 11. GREEN THEORY Hugh C. GLOBAL JUSTICE Alix Dietzel 91 13.
QUEER THEORY Markus Thiel 97 14. SECURITISATION THEORY Clara Eroukhmanoff 104 15. CRITICAL GEOGRAPHY Irena Leisbet Ceridwen Connon & Archie W. ASIAN PERSPECTIVES Pichamon Yeophantong 117 17.
GLOBAL SOUTH PERSPECTIVES Lina Benabdallah, Victor Adetula & Carlos Murillo-Zamora 125 18. INDIGENOUS PERSPECTIVES Jeff Corntassel & Marc Woons 131 19. A CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVE ON REALISM Felix Rösch & Richard Ned Lebow 138 20. THE ‘ISMS’ ARE EVIL.
ALL HAIL THE ‘ISMS’! Alex Prichard 145 REFERENCES 153 NOTE ON INDEXING 166 ix International Relations Theory Contributors Victor Adetula is Head of Research at the Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala, Sweden and Professor of International Relations and Development Studies at the University of Jos, Nigeria. Amitav Acharya is Distinguished Professor of International Relations and the UNESCO Chair in Transnational Challenges and Governance at American University, USA. Sandrina Antunes is an Assistant Professor at the Department of International Relations and Public Administration at the Universidade do Minho, Portugal and a Scientific Fellow at the Center for the Study of Politics, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. Lina Benabdallah is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Wake Forest University, USA.
Isabel Camisão is an Assistant Professor of International Relations at the University of Évora, Portugal. Irena Leisbet Ceridwen Connon is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Human Geography at the University of Dundee, UK. Jeff Corntassel is an Associate Professor and Director of Indigenous Governance at the University of Victoria, Canada. He is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation.
Alix Dietzel is a Lecturer in Global Ethics at the University of Bristol, UK. Dyer is an Associate Professor of World Politics at the University of Leeds, UK. Clara Eroukhmanoff is a Lecturer in International Relations at London South Bank University, UK. Contributors x Marcos Farias Ferreira is a Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Lisbon and Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Centro de Estudos Internacionais, Portugal.
Dana Gold is a PhD candidate at the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada. Richard Ned Lebow is a Professor of International Political Theory at King’s College London, UK, Bye-Fellow of Pembroke College, University of Cambridge, UK and the James O. Freedman Presidential Professor (Emeritus) of Government at Dartmouth College, USA. Stephen McGlinchey is Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of the West of England, Bristol and Editor-in-Chief of E-International Relations.
Aishling Mc Morrow is a Lecturer in International Relations at Queen’s University Belfast, UK. Meiser is an Assistant Professor in Political Science at the University of Portland, USA. Carlos Murillo-Zamora is a Professor at the University of Costa Rica and the National University of Costa Rica. Sheila Nair is Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Northern Arizona University, USA.
Maïa Pal is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at Oxford Brookes University, UK. Alex Prichard is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Exeter, UK. Felix Rösch is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at Coventry University, UK. Christian Scheinpflug is Lead Editor of E-International Relations and a columnist at the Santiago Times.
xi International Relations Theory Archie W. Simpson is a Teaching Fellow in Politics and International Relations at the University of Bath, UK. Sarah Smith is visiting Assistant Professor in Gender Studies at Central European University, Budapest. She has also held lecturing posts at Monash University, Swinburne University of Technology and Australian Catholic University, Melbourne.
Stivachtis is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the International Studies Program at Virginia Tech, USA. Sarina Theys is a Contributing Lecturer in the Politics Department of Newcastle University, UK. Markus Thiel is an Associate Professor of Politics & International Relations and Director of the EU/Jean Monnet Center of Excellence at Florida International University, USA. Rosie Walters is a PhD candidate at the University of Bristol, UK and an Editor-at-Large of E-International Relations.
Marc Woons is a Doctoral Fellow with the Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek – Vlaanderen (Research Foundation – Flanders) and the Research in Political Philosophy Leuven (RIPPLE) Institute at the University of Leuven in Belgium. Pichamon Yeophantong is a Lecturer in International Relations and Development at the University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney), Australia. 1 International Relations Theory Getting Started with International Relations Theory S T E P HE N M C GL IN C H E Y, R OSIE WALTE R S & D A N A GOLD Before we go forward you should know that this book is available in e-book, PDF, web and paperback versions. While we know that many will use the digital versions of the book, we encourage you to buy a paperback copy as well if you are able.
A growing body of research offers strong evidence that it is more effective to study from paper sources than from digital. Regardless of how you engage with the book, we hope it is an enjoyable read. You can order the paperback version of this book in all good bookstores – from Amazon right down to your local bookstore – and digital versions are always freely available on the E-International Relations Students Portal: http://www.