Theories of International Relations Third edition Scott Burchill, Andrew Linklater, Richard Devetak, Jack Donnelly, Matthew Paterson, Christian Reus-Smit and Jacqui True Tai Lieu Chat Luong Theories of International Relations This page intentionally left blank Theories of International Relations Third edition Scott Burchill, Andrew Linklater, Richard Devetak, Jack Donnelly, Matthew Paterson, Christian Reus-Smit and Jacqui True Material from 1st edition © Deakin University 1995, 1996 Chapter 1 © Scott Burchill 2001, Scott Burchill and Andrew Linklater 2005 Chapter 2 © Jack Donnelly 2005 Chapter 3 © Scott Burchill, Chapters 4 and 5 © Andrew Linklater, Chapters 6 and 7 © Richard Devetak, Chapter 8 © Christian Reus-Smit, Chapter 9 © Jacqui True, Chapter 10 © Matthew Paterson 2001, 2005 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
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International relations – Philosophy. Burchill, Scott, 1961– JZ1242.1⬘01—dc22 2005043737 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 Printed in China Contents Preface to the Third Edition viii List of Abbreviations ix Notes on the Contributors x 1 Introduction 1 Scott Burchill and Andrew Linklater Frameworks of analysis 1 Diversity of theory 2 Contested nature 5 The foundation of International Relations 6 Theories and disciplines 9 Explanatory and constitutive theory 15 What do theories of international relations differ about? 18 Evaluating theories 23 2 Realism 29 Jack Donnelly Defining realism 30 Hobbes and classical realism 32 Waltz and structural realism 34 Motives matter 40 Process, institutions and change 44 Morality and foreign policy 48 How to think about realism (and its critics) 52 3 Liberalism 55 Scott Burchill After the Cold War 55 Liberal internationalism: ‘inside looking out’ 57 War, democracy and free trade 58 Economy and terrorism 70 Conclusion 81 v vi Contents 4 The English School 84 Andrew Linklater From power to order: international society 89 Order and justice in international relations 93 The revolt against the West and the expansion of international society 98 Progress in international relations 103 Conclusion 108 5 Marxism 110 Andrew Linklater Class, production and international relations in Marx’s writings 112 Nationalism and imperialism 120 The changing fortunes of Marxism in International Relations 124 Marxism and international relations theory today 132 Conclusion 135 6 Critical Theory 137 Richard Devetak Origins of critical theory 137 The politics of knowledge in International Relations theory 140 Rethinking political community 146 Conclusion 159 7 Postmodernism 161 Richard Devetak Power and knowledge in International Relations 162 Textual strategies of postmodernism 167 Problematizing sovereign states 171 Beyond the paradigm of sovereignty: rethinking the political 181 Conclusion 187 8 Constructivism 188 Christian Reus-Smit Rationalist theory 189 The challenge of critical theory 193 Constructivism 194 Contents vii Constructivism and its discontents 201 The contribution of constructivism 205 Constructivism after 9/11 207 Conclusion 211 9 Feminism 213 Jacqui True Empirical feminism 216 Analytical feminism 221 Normative feminism 228 Conclusion 232 10 Green Politics 235 Matthew Paterson Green political theory 237 Global ecology 238 Ecocentrism 238 Limits to growth, post-development 239 Green rejections of the state-system 242 Objections to Green arguments for decentralization 246 Greening global politics? 248 Conclusions 254 Bibliography 258 Index 289 Preface to the Third Edition Like its predecessors, the third edition is intended to provide upper-level undergraduates and postgraduates with a guide to the leading theoretical perspectives in the field. The origins of the project lie in the development by Deakin University of a distance-learning course in 1995: early versions of several chapters were initially written for the course guide for this. The first edition of this book brought together substantially revised versions of these with new chapters on Feminism and Green Politics.
The second edition added a further chapter on Constructivism. None of those involved in the pro- ject at the outset guessed that the result would be quite such a successful text as this has turned out to be, with course adoptions literally all over the world. The third edition has again been substantially improved. For this edition, Jack Donnelly has written a new chapter on the varieties of Realism.
Jacqui True has produced what is virtually a new chapter on Feminism. Andrew Linklater’s chapter on the English School replaces the one on Rationalism which he contributed to the first and second editions. All chapters, however, have been revised and updated to reflect developments in the literature and to take account, where appropriate, of the significance of ‘9/11’ for theories of world politics. The third edition also includes a significantly revised introduction on the impor- tance of international relations theory for students of world affairs.
Last but not least, the whole book has been redesigned, consistency between chapters in style and presentation has been improved, and a consolidated bibliography has been added with Harvard references replacing notes throughout. As with the earlier editions, our publisher, Steven Kennedy has been keenly involved in every stage of the production of this book. We are grateful once again for his unfailing commitment and wise counsel. Thanks also to Gary Smith of Deakin University and Dan Flitton for their contributions to earlier editions.
Above all we would like to thank our co-authors for their hard work and forbearance. SCOTT BURCHILL ANDREW LINKLATER viii List of Abbreviations APEC Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation CND Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (UK) FDI Foreign direct investment GAD Gender and development GPT Green political theory ICC International Criminal Court ICJ International Court of Justice IO International organization ILO International Labour Organization IMF International Monetary Fund IPE International Political Economy IUCN International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources MAI Multilateral Agreement on Investments MNC Multinational corporation NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization NGO Non-governmental organization NTB Non-trade barrier OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development SAP Structural adjustment policy (IMF) TNC Transnational corporation UNCED United Nations Conference on Environment and Development UNDP United Nations Development Programme WCED World Commission on Environment and Development WHO World Health Organization WMD Weapons of mass destruction WTO World Trade Organization WID Women in international development ix Notes on the Contributors Scott Burchill is Senior Lecturer in International Relations, Deakin University, Australia. Richard Devetak is Lecturer in Politics, Monash University, Australia. Jack Donnelly is Andrew W.
Mellon Professor of Political Science, University of Denver, USA. Andrew Linklater is Woodrow Wilson Professor of International Politics, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK. Matthew Paterson is Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Ottawa, Canada. Christian Reus-Smit is Professor of International Relations, Australian National University, Australia.
Jacqui True is Lecturer in International Politics, University of Auckland, New Zealand. x Chapter 1 Introduction SCOTT BURCHILL AND ANDREW LINKLATER Frameworks of analysis The study of international relations began as a theoretical discipline. Two of the foundational texts in the field, E. Carr’s, The Twenty Years’ Crisis (first published in 1939) and Hans Morgenthau’s Politics Among Nations (first published in 1948) were works of theory in three central respects.
Each developed a broad framework of analysis which distilled the essence of international politics from disparate events; each sought to provide future analysts with the theoretical tools for understanding general patterns underlying seemingly unique episodes; and each reflected on the forms of political action which were most appropriate in a realm in which the struggle for power was pre-eminent. Both thinkers were motivated by the desire to correct what they saw as deep misunder- standings about the nature of international politics lying at the heart of the liberal project – among them the belief that the struggle for power could be tamed by international law and the idea that the pursuit of self- interest could be replaced by the shared objective of promoting security for all. Not that Morgenthau and Carr thought the international politi- cal system was condemned for all time to revolve around the relentless struggle for power and security. Their main claim was that all efforts to reform the international system which ignored the struggle for power would quickly end in failure.
More worrying in their view was the dan- ger that attempts to bring about fundamental change would compound the problem of international relations. They maintained the liberal inter- nationalist world-view had been largely responsible for the crisis of the inter-war years. Many scholars, particularly in United States in the 1960s, believed that Morgenthau’s theoretical framework was too impressionistic in nature. Historical illustrations had been used to support rather than demonstrate ingenious conjectures about general patterns of international relations.
In consequence, the discipline lagged significantly behind the study of Economics which used a sophisticated methodology drawn from the natural sciences to test specific hypotheses, develop general 1 2 Introduction laws and predict human behaviour. Proponents of the scientific approach attempted to build a new theory of international politics, some for the sake of better explanation and higher levels of predictive accuracy, others in the belief that science held the key to understanding how to transform international politics for the better. The scientific turn led to a major disciplinary debate in the 1960s in which scholars such as Hedley Bull (1966b) argued that international politics were not susceptible to scientific enquiry. This is a view widely shared by analysts committed to diverse intellectual projects.
The radical scholar, Noam Chomsky (1994: 120) has claimed that in international relations ‘historical conditions are too varied and complex for anything that might plausibly be called “a theory” to apply uniformly’ (1994: 120). What is generally know as ‘post-positivism’ in International Relations rejects the possibility of a science of international relations which uses standards of proof associated with the physical sciences to develop equivalent levels of explanatory precision and predictive certainty (Smith, Booth and Zalewski 1996). In the 1990s, a major debate occurred around the claims of positivism. The question of whether there is a world of difference between the ‘physical’ and the ‘social’ sciences was a crucial issue, but no less important were disputes about the nature and purpose of theory.
The debate centred on whether theories – even those that aim for objectivity – are ultimately ‘political’ because they generate views of the world which favour some political interests and disadvantage others. This dispute has produced very difficult questions about what theory is and what its purposes are. These questions are now central to the discipline – more central than at any other time in its history. What, in consequence, is it to speak of a ‘theory of international politics?