HEYWOOD, CHAPTER 3 – THEORIES IN GLOBAL POLITICS

Mainstream Perspectives

Realism

 global politics – power and self-interest

 power politics model of international politics
 Egoism ➕ anarchy = Power Politics 👊🏼

Two core assumptions

 People: essentially selfish & competitive; egoism – defining characteristic of human nature
o Egoism: concern for one’s own interest or wellbeing; selfishness; belief that one’s own
interests are morally superior to others
 State: system operates in a context of international anarchy; no authority higher than sovereign
state

Two divisions/schools of thought:

 Classical Realism – form of realism that explains power politics largely in terms of human selfishn-
ess/egoism
 Neorealism/Structural Realism – perspective on international politics that modifies the power
politics model by highlighting the structural constraints of the international system; focus on anarchy

Central assumptions || key themes

State egoism and conflict

o Machiavelli – humans = insatiable, savage; political life = inevitable strife, political leaders to
rule using cunning, cruelty and manipulation
o Hobbes – humans driven by non-rational appetites (aversion, fear, hopes, desire –
strongest: desire for power);
o state of nature: a society devoid of political authority and of formal checks on
individual; only way to escape is by creating state
o International ‘state of nature’: No form of world gov’t can be established
o State = most important actor in world stage; coherent & cohesive unit
o States – led by people who are inherently selfish; characteristics exhibit in state behavior
o International politics – inevitable competition and rivalry
o Ultimate concern: survival

Statecraft and national interest

o Statecraft: art of conducting public affairs, or the skills associated with statesmanship
o Six principles of Political Realism
 Politics governed by objective laws
 International Politics – interest in terms of power
 Forms and nature of state power will vary, but interest is consistent
 Universal moral principles don’t guide state behavior
  No universal moral principles
 Political sphere – autonomous; How does this policy affect the power of the nation?
o Concern about national interest: foreign policy goals, objectives or policy preferences that
supposedly benefit a society as a whole

International anarchy and its implication

o Defect of classical realism – couldn’t explain behavior at a level above state; limitation of
any endogenous/’inside-out’ theory
o Kenneth Waltz – three levels of analysis
 The Human Individual
 The State
 The International System
o Systems theory | neorealism – behavior of states in terms of the structure of the
international system; exogenous
 An approach to study that focuses on works of ‘systems’, explaining their operation
and development in terms of reciprocal interactions amongst component parts
o Reasons for Conflict
 Self-help – states must rely on their own resources to realize their interests
 A state’s reliance on its own capacities and resources, rather than external
support, to ensure security and survival
 Security dilemma – relationships amongst states characterized by uncertainty and
suspicion
 Building up the military (self-help) may be seen as hostile
 All states = enemies; insecurity
 The dilemma that arises from the fact that a build-up of military capacity for
defensive reasons by one state is always liable to be interpreted as
aggressive by other states
 Relative gains – maintaining/improving position relative to states
 Although all states may benefit from a particular action, each state is more
worried about whether other states benefit more than it does
 The position of states in relation to one another, reflected in the distribution of
benefits and capabilities between and amongst them

Polarity, stability, and the balance of power

o Balance of power – key in maintaining conflict

 Classical: product of prudent statecraft
 Neo: consequence of structural dynamics of international system (and of distribution
of power among states)
 Principal factor affecting balance of power & likelihood of conflict  no. of
great powers in int’l system
o Neorealism – Bipolarity = stability; reduced war vs Multipolarity = instability; greater
likelihood of war
 Polarity: existence w/in system of 1+ significant actors, or ‘poles’, which affect the
behavior of the other actors and shape the contour of the system itself, determining
its structural dynamics
o Offensive realists – primary motivation of states is acquisition of power; balance of power
breaks down = great likelihood of war
  Form of structural realism that portrays states as ‘power maximizers’, as there is no
limit to their desire to control the international environment
o Defensive realists – states prioritize security over power; reluctant to go to war, regardless of
int’l system dynamics
 Form of structural realism that views states as ‘security maximizers’, placing desire to
avoid attack above bid for world power

Liberalism

 Ideology of the industrialized West

Neoliberalism
o perspective on int’l politics that remodeled liberalism in light of the challenge of realism,
particularly neorealism; emphasis on scope for cooperative behavior w/in int’l system
while not denying its anarchic character

Democratization
o transition from authoritarianism to liberal democracy, reflected in the granting of basic
freedoms and political rights, the establishment of competitive elections and introduction
of market reforms/

 Central Theme – harmony or balance amongst competing interests

 Natural equilibrium in economic life
 World affairs shaped by competition among states – int’l system decentralized (like
realism)
 Competition w/in system conducted in larger framework of harmony
 Internationalism
 Interdependence liberalism
o Commercial liberalism – belief in virtues of free trade
 Free trade: system of trade between states not restricted by tariffs or other forms
of protectionism (p. 87)
 Republican liberalism
 Liberal institutionalism

Critical Perspectives

Marxism, neo-Marxism and critical theory

 Based on materialist conception of history – belief that economic factors are

the ultimately determining force in human history
 History driven forward through a dialectical process in which internal
contradictions w/in each “mode of production”, reflected in class conflict, lead to
social revolution and construction of a new and higher mode of production
 process characterized by series of historical stages & end with
establishment of classless commie society
 (primitive  Asiatic ) Slavery  feudalism  capitalism (socialism 
communism )
 Capitalist development – transnational character
 Desire for profit drives capitalism to strive to tear down every barrier to
intercourse and to conquer the whole earth for its market – Marx
 Lenin: imperialism – essentially economic phenomenon, reflecting domestic
capitalism’s quest to maintain profit levels through the export of surplus capital
 Uneven development
 tendency within capitalist economy for industries, economic sectors and
countries to develop at very different rates due to the pressures generated
by the quest for profit, competition and economic exploitation
 Neo-Marxism
 updated and revived form of Marxism, rejecting determinism, the primacy
of economics and privileged status of proletariat
 Dependency theory
 neo-Marxist theory that highlights structural imbalances within
international capitalism that impose dependency and underdevelopment
on poorer states and regions
 World-systems theory – world economy best understood as interlocking
capitalist system which exemplifies many features that characterize national
capitalism; structural inequalities based on exploitation and tendency toward
instability and crisis rooted in economic contradictions
 Interrelationships between the core, the periphery and semi-periphery
o Core: North; Periphery: South; Semi-peripheral – economically
subordinate to core but also take advantage of periphery
 Immanuel Wallerstein; approach to world history and social change that
suggest a world economic system in which some countries benefit while
others are exploited
 Critical theory – Frankfurt School critical theory;
 Gramsci – capitalist class system upheld by ‘hegemony’ of bourgeois
ideas and theories
o Hegemony – leadership/domination; capacity of bourgeois ideas
to displace rival vies and become ‘common sense’ of the age
 Ascendancy or domination of a system over others; for
Marxists, hegemony implies ideological domination
 Frankfurt: attempt to extend the notion of critique to all social practices
by linking substansive social research to philosophy
o Cox and Andrew Linklayer, applying critical theory to int’l pol
in three (3) ways
 Critical theory underlines linkage between knowledge and
politics, emphasizing extent to which theories and
understandings are embedded in a framework of values
and interests – theoretical reflexivity
 Theoretical reflexivity: An awareness of the
impact of the values and presuppositions that a
theorist brings to analysis, as well as an
understanding of the historical dynamics that have
helped to fashion them.
 Explicit commitment to emancipatory politics: concerned to
uncover structures of oppression and injustice in global
politics in order to advance cause of indiv or collective
freedom
  C.T questioned conventional association w/in int’l theory
between political community and state, in so doing opening
up possibility of more inclusive, and maybe even
cosmopolitan, notion of political identity

Social constructivism

 Constructivist approach – belief that there is no objective social or political reality

independent of our understanding of it
 Social world – exists inside, as a kind of inter-subjective awareness
 People construct the world in which they live and act according to those
constructions
 Holds that interactions between agents and structures are always
mediated by ‘ideational factors’ (beliefs, values, theories, and
assumptions)
o affect how agents see themselves and how they understand and
respond to the structures within which they operate
 Alexander Wendt: Anarchy is what the state makes of it.
 State behavior not determined by the structure of int’l system but by how
particular states view anarchy
o Some: threatening and dangerous; others: freedom and
opportunity
 Anarchy of friends vs anarchy of enemies
 State’s self-identity and how it views fellow states
 Nations – subjective entities, defined by their members through a
particular set of traditions, values and sentiments
 Fluidity of world politics: as nation-states and other key global actors
change their perception of who/what they are, their behavior will change.
 Criticism – fails to recognize extent to which beliefs are shaped by social,
economic, and political realities

Poststructuralism

 Postmodernism
 An intellectual tradition that is based on the belief that truth is always
contested and plural; sometimes summed up as ‘an incredulity towards
metanarratives’
 All ideas and concepts are expressed in language which itself is enmeshed in
complex relations of power
 link between power and systems of thought – discourse/ discourses of power’
 Discourse: Human interaction, especially communication; discourse may
disclose or illustrate power relations.
 knowledge is power
 Jacques Derrida: There is nothing outside the text
 Growing influence on int’l relations theory
 Draw attention to fact that any political event will always be susceptible to
competing interpretations
  Classical poststructuralist approach to exposing hidden meaning in particular
concepts, theories, and interpretations – deconstruction
 Deconstruction: A close reading of philosophical or other texts with an eye
to their various blindspots and/or contradictions.
 Criticism – relativism, hold different modes of knowing are equally valied & reject
idea that even science can distinguish truth and falsehood
 Post-positivist approaches – critical theory, constructivism, poststruc,
feminism  these approaches question belief of objective reality separate
from beliefs, ideas and assumptions of the observer

Feminism

 Empirical feminism – challenges ‘sexist’ exclusion of women and women’s

issues from conventional analysis; conventional approaches to int’l pol focus
exclusively on male-dominated bodies and institutions
 Analytical feminism – exposed extent to which the theoretical framework of
global politics is based on gender biases that pervade its key theories and
concepts; applies constructivism and poststructuralism
 Gender: A social and cultural distinction between males and females,
usually based on stereotypes of ‘masculinity’ and ‘femininity’
 Power politics premised on masculinist assumptions about rivalry, competition
and inevitable conflict, arising from tendency to see the world in terms of
interactions amongst series of power-seeking autonomous actors

Green politics

 Central theme: notion of intrinsic link bet. Humankind and nature, sometimes
linked to Gaia hypothesis
 Mainstream / reformist green thinking – develop balance bet. Modernization &
econ growth, and need to tackle envi degradation
 Key theme: sustainable development
 Radical – balance bet. Humankind and nature will only be restored by radical
social change
 Eco-socialists – env crisis bc capitalist economic system – commodified nature
and draws it into sys of markt xchge
 Eco-feminist – env critique of male power, domination over women leads to dom
ov nature
 Deep ecologists – only paradigm change will end env degr
 green ideological perspective rehecting anthropocentrism and prioritizes
maintenance of nature; associated with values such as bio-equality,
diversity and decentralization
 paradigm change – adoption of rad new philo and moral perspec based
on rad holism than conven mechanistic and atomistic thinking
 radical holism: The belief that the whole is more than a collection of
parts; holism implies that understanding is gained by recognizing the
relationships amongst the parts.
Postcolonialism

 Expose cultural dimension of colonial rule, establishing legitimacy of non-western

and anti-western ideas (sometimes), cultures and trads
 Edward Said (Eddy Speaketh ™) – orientalism; highlight extent to which west
cultural and political hegemony over rest of world (orient particular) maintained
thru elaborate stereotypical fictions belittling demeaned non-west ppl and culture
 Cultural biases generated by colonialism do not only affect and subjugate former
colonized people
 Continuing impact on western states that assume mantle of ‘international
community’ in claiming the authority to ‘sort out’ less favoured parts of the
world
o Humanitarian intervention = Eurocentrism
 Eurocentrism: The application of values and theories
drawn from European culture to other groups and peoples,
implying a biased or distorted viewpoint.
o Forcible intervention on “humanitarian grounds”  continuation of
colonialism by other means
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