Immanuel Kant awoke with a sense of something having changed radically overnight. First, the conf... more Immanuel Kant awoke with a sense of something having changed radically overnight. First, the confusion and incapacity that had dogged him these past few years had lifted and he felt restored to the full extent of his intellectual powers. Those powers led him to his second insight of the morning: he was not in his bed and judging by the flora and fauna that surrounded him, nor was he in his house. Quickly, he rose to his feet. That rascal Lampe was no doubt behind this practical joke, Kant fumed, but then he remembered that Wasianski had already dismissed Lampe. Perhaps this was his idea of revenge? Whatever the motivation of whoever had placed him in this strange position, Kant realized that his motivation was fairly clear and simple: to return home and to resume his ordered existence. With his powers newly restored, it was time to finally complete the project of unifying and systematizing all the threads of his philosophy.
This chapter examines the political theology that underpins Immanuel Kant’s theorization of Inter... more This chapter examines the political theology that underpins Immanuel Kant’s theorization of International Relations (IR) in his seminal essay, Toward Perpetual Peace. The chapter presents three reasons why a political-theological reading of Kant is necessary. First, Kant’s texts rely upon theological ideas: Kant’s constant invocation of providence, radical evil, God (in various roles) and the afterlife play important roles in his systematic inquiry into IR. Removing these central elements from the complex series of intersecting and connecting ideas and concepts that compose the architectonic structure of Kant’s thought has serious implications for both Kant’s theorization of global political problems and his solutions to those problems. The second reason is to explore the extent to which Kant’s wider oeuvre and his IR works interrelate: particularly in Toward Perpetual Peace, in which elements of Religion Within the Bounds of Mere Reason, the three Critiques, Idea for a Universal Hi...
Daniel Kenealy and Sean Molloy outline the 'Chequered' path(s) to Brexit that the PM migh... more Daniel Kenealy and Sean Molloy outline the 'Chequered' path(s) to Brexit that the PM might take. They argue that the choice is between a soft and ambiguous exit or a hard and unattainable one. The unsatisfactory nature of each option may lead to the unravelling of both, and the implications may be enormous for the UK, they conclude.
This article pursues an original line of inquiry by placing E.H. Carr in direct relation with his... more This article pursues an original line of inquiry by placing E.H. Carr in direct relation with his contemporary, Max Horkheimer. Although Carr is often cited as a progenitor by realists and critical theorists, these invocations of ancestry rarely go beyond passing references to Carr in presentist terms—i.e., how he relates to their present-day projects. By means of an extensive engagement with Horkheimer and Carr, the article reveals a shared commitment to ideology critique directed at bourgeois civilization. The article demonstrates that Carr's epistemology, critique of the harmony of interests, complex treatment of utopianism, and theorization of social transformation all have their counterparts in Horkheimer. The recovery of Carr's depth and sophistication as a theorist by means of a comparison of his positions with those of Horkheimer shows that at the time of its composition The Twenty Years’ Crisis was a cutting-edge exercise in critique by a theorist working on an ambi...
Primarily known as a pioneer of International Relations (IR) theory, Hans Morgenthau also wrote o... more Primarily known as a pioneer of International Relations (IR) theory, Hans Morgenthau also wrote on a series of other political themes. Especially prominent in his later career is a concern with the right and duty of a theorist to exercise academic freedom as a critic of government power and, especially in this particular case, of US foreign policy. For Morgenthau the responsibility to hold governments to account by reference to the ‘higher laws’ that underpin and legitimize democracy in its truest form was a key function of the theorist in society. Dissensus and healthy debate characterize genuine democracy for Morgenthau who was perturbed by what he perceived to be a worrying concern with conformity and consensus among the political and academic elites of Vietnam War era America. This article investigates the theoretical and philosophical commitments that explain why Morgenthau felt compelled to oppose the government of his adopted state and the consequences of his having done so. ...
believed, and foreign policies adopted, and would be expected to make the strongest possible case... more believed, and foreign policies adopted, and would be expected to make the strongest possible case for such “inferences” regardless of their actual source. Nevertheless, these are striking numbers that skeptics of private diplomacy’s effectiveness will have to take seriously. In Chapter 9, Trager further analyzes these data and finds that 89% of the public threats that are referred to in the Confidential Print from 1900–1914 were believed reasonably credible by British officials, while 76% of private threats were. For offers, the numbers are 69% and 64%, respectively. Thus, while public threats and offers are somewhat more frequently believed credible (in line with the audience cost hypothesis), private statements also have high credibility. It is not completely clear from Trager’s analysis the extent to which private threats/offers in isolation are believed credible, i.e., without public threats/offers or other signals reinforcing them. Trager also uses these data to conduct empirical tests of a number of the hypotheses derived from the theoretical models. Due to data constraints, other hypotheses are evaluated qualitatively in two chapters (Chapters 7–8) focusing on European diplomacy prior to the two World Wars. By providing substantial theoretical and empirical support for the efficacy of private diplomacy, this book will be the definitive social-scientific analysis of diplomacy for years to come.
This article examines Carr’s work in The Twenty Years’ Crisis and Conditions of Peace in the ligh... more This article examines Carr’s work in The Twenty Years’ Crisis and Conditions of Peace in the light of an analogy that Carr draws between his work and that of the American pragmatist philosopher, William James. The article argues that one gains a greater understanding of the internal workings of Carr’s most important IR works if one understands him as operating within the pragmatist tradition (as James understood it). A further aim of the paper is to investigate the evolution in Carr’s ethical commitment to peace in The Twenty Years' Crisis and Conditions of Peace as a product of a pragmatist perspective on global politics. The article concludes with a section on how pragmatist Realist ethics complements existing theories of Realist ethics in IR by reference to Richard Ned Lebow’s The Tragic Vision of Politics and Michael C. Williams’ The Realist Tradition and the Limits of International Relations.
This article explores the important parallels between the critiques of the balance of power offer... more This article explores the important parallels between the critiques of the balance of power offered by David Hume and Hans J. Morgenthau. The article presents the authors as both proponents and critics of the balance of power, depending on circumstance. For Hume, the balance of power is useful as a means of preventing universal monarchy, but is also liable to be used inappropriately as a justification for vindictive politics. Morgenthau, more influenced by Hume than is commonly recognised in International Relations theory, also subjects the balance of power to a thorough-going critique.
The purpose of this article is to examine the religious and theological elements of Immanuel Kant... more The purpose of this article is to examine the religious and theological elements of Immanuel Kant’s work. This is an area of Kant’s oeuvre that has been neglected in the history of international thought; this is problematic as it is in these works that Kant addresses many themes which are important to his international relations project, for example, human nature, the corruption of society, the possibility of ethical community, and cosmopolitanism.
This article argues that despite Pynchon's obvious sympathy towards anarchism and the left in gen... more This article argues that despite Pynchon's obvious sympathy towards anarchism and the left in general, his political scepticism leads him ultimately to a Nietzschean politics of transcendence.
Journal of International Relations and Development, 2010
The idea behind this article is to employ a series of Deleuzo-Guattarian
principles, primarily t... more The idea behind this article is to employ a series of Deleuzo-Guattarian
principles, primarily the concept of the rhizome, to the articulation and
development of Realism as a theory of IR. The article makes the claim that
using rhizomatics allows those interested in Realism to reconceptualise
the relationship between Realism and Neorealism. The article argues that
the publication of The Twenty Years’ Crisis by E.H. Carr and Theory of
International Politics by Ken Waltz represent two ‘intense’ moments in the
descent of Realism. The article argues that despite the attempted ‘territorialisation’
of Realism into the static, paradigmatic Neorealism, that Realism
remains a heterogeneous set of concepts. The territorialisation process has met
with some resistance, for example, just as Waltz was trying to territorialise
Realism, his theory was being deterritorialised by Richard Ashley. The article
also examines James Der Derian’s attempt to save realism by deconstructing it,
advocating an ‘affirmative leap into the imaginary’. The article concludes that
despite the Neorealist moment, attempts to splice together constructivism and
realism provide evidence that Realism remains mutative, heterogeneous, open
and vital.
International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, 2003
This article examines the appeal of Carr's theory of international relations, which has enjoyed a... more This article examines the appeal of Carr's theory of international relations, which has enjoyed a longevity matched by few other bodies of work in a discipline characterised by faddism. I attribute Carr's success as an international theorist to his subtle use of philosophy, history, and political theory. Carr's holistic and interdisciplinary approach achieves its best expression in his employment of a critical dialectics of international theory in The Twenty Years' Crisis. The article does not confine itself to this element of Carr's writings as I also examine several works, such as The Future of Nations. Independence or Interdependence?, Conditions of Peace, and Nationalism and After,that consider the transformation of the international society. The latter works also employ a dialectic of power and morality in order to envision a world very different from the international system that Carr observed, an international order that approximates the emerging relations among states at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The article concludes with an examination of the role relativism played in Carr's theory scheme and the extent to which his dialectics of utopianism and realism is an important precursor of critical and postmodern theories of international relations.
Immanuel Kant awoke with a sense of something having changed radically overnight. First, the conf... more Immanuel Kant awoke with a sense of something having changed radically overnight. First, the confusion and incapacity that had dogged him these past few years had lifted and he felt restored to the full extent of his intellectual powers. Those powers led him to his second insight of the morning: he was not in his bed and judging by the flora and fauna that surrounded him, nor was he in his house. Quickly, he rose to his feet. That rascal Lampe was no doubt behind this practical joke, Kant fumed, but then he remembered that Wasianski had already dismissed Lampe. Perhaps this was his idea of revenge? Whatever the motivation of whoever had placed him in this strange position, Kant realized that his motivation was fairly clear and simple: to return home and to resume his ordered existence. With his powers newly restored, it was time to finally complete the project of unifying and systematizing all the threads of his philosophy.
This chapter examines the political theology that underpins Immanuel Kant’s theorization of Inter... more This chapter examines the political theology that underpins Immanuel Kant’s theorization of International Relations (IR) in his seminal essay, Toward Perpetual Peace. The chapter presents three reasons why a political-theological reading of Kant is necessary. First, Kant’s texts rely upon theological ideas: Kant’s constant invocation of providence, radical evil, God (in various roles) and the afterlife play important roles in his systematic inquiry into IR. Removing these central elements from the complex series of intersecting and connecting ideas and concepts that compose the architectonic structure of Kant’s thought has serious implications for both Kant’s theorization of global political problems and his solutions to those problems. The second reason is to explore the extent to which Kant’s wider oeuvre and his IR works interrelate: particularly in Toward Perpetual Peace, in which elements of Religion Within the Bounds of Mere Reason, the three Critiques, Idea for a Universal Hi...
Daniel Kenealy and Sean Molloy outline the 'Chequered' path(s) to Brexit that the PM migh... more Daniel Kenealy and Sean Molloy outline the 'Chequered' path(s) to Brexit that the PM might take. They argue that the choice is between a soft and ambiguous exit or a hard and unattainable one. The unsatisfactory nature of each option may lead to the unravelling of both, and the implications may be enormous for the UK, they conclude.
This article pursues an original line of inquiry by placing E.H. Carr in direct relation with his... more This article pursues an original line of inquiry by placing E.H. Carr in direct relation with his contemporary, Max Horkheimer. Although Carr is often cited as a progenitor by realists and critical theorists, these invocations of ancestry rarely go beyond passing references to Carr in presentist terms—i.e., how he relates to their present-day projects. By means of an extensive engagement with Horkheimer and Carr, the article reveals a shared commitment to ideology critique directed at bourgeois civilization. The article demonstrates that Carr's epistemology, critique of the harmony of interests, complex treatment of utopianism, and theorization of social transformation all have their counterparts in Horkheimer. The recovery of Carr's depth and sophistication as a theorist by means of a comparison of his positions with those of Horkheimer shows that at the time of its composition The Twenty Years’ Crisis was a cutting-edge exercise in critique by a theorist working on an ambi...
Primarily known as a pioneer of International Relations (IR) theory, Hans Morgenthau also wrote o... more Primarily known as a pioneer of International Relations (IR) theory, Hans Morgenthau also wrote on a series of other political themes. Especially prominent in his later career is a concern with the right and duty of a theorist to exercise academic freedom as a critic of government power and, especially in this particular case, of US foreign policy. For Morgenthau the responsibility to hold governments to account by reference to the ‘higher laws’ that underpin and legitimize democracy in its truest form was a key function of the theorist in society. Dissensus and healthy debate characterize genuine democracy for Morgenthau who was perturbed by what he perceived to be a worrying concern with conformity and consensus among the political and academic elites of Vietnam War era America. This article investigates the theoretical and philosophical commitments that explain why Morgenthau felt compelled to oppose the government of his adopted state and the consequences of his having done so. ...
believed, and foreign policies adopted, and would be expected to make the strongest possible case... more believed, and foreign policies adopted, and would be expected to make the strongest possible case for such “inferences” regardless of their actual source. Nevertheless, these are striking numbers that skeptics of private diplomacy’s effectiveness will have to take seriously. In Chapter 9, Trager further analyzes these data and finds that 89% of the public threats that are referred to in the Confidential Print from 1900–1914 were believed reasonably credible by British officials, while 76% of private threats were. For offers, the numbers are 69% and 64%, respectively. Thus, while public threats and offers are somewhat more frequently believed credible (in line with the audience cost hypothesis), private statements also have high credibility. It is not completely clear from Trager’s analysis the extent to which private threats/offers in isolation are believed credible, i.e., without public threats/offers or other signals reinforcing them. Trager also uses these data to conduct empirical tests of a number of the hypotheses derived from the theoretical models. Due to data constraints, other hypotheses are evaluated qualitatively in two chapters (Chapters 7–8) focusing on European diplomacy prior to the two World Wars. By providing substantial theoretical and empirical support for the efficacy of private diplomacy, this book will be the definitive social-scientific analysis of diplomacy for years to come.
This article examines Carr’s work in The Twenty Years’ Crisis and Conditions of Peace in the ligh... more This article examines Carr’s work in The Twenty Years’ Crisis and Conditions of Peace in the light of an analogy that Carr draws between his work and that of the American pragmatist philosopher, William James. The article argues that one gains a greater understanding of the internal workings of Carr’s most important IR works if one understands him as operating within the pragmatist tradition (as James understood it). A further aim of the paper is to investigate the evolution in Carr’s ethical commitment to peace in The Twenty Years' Crisis and Conditions of Peace as a product of a pragmatist perspective on global politics. The article concludes with a section on how pragmatist Realist ethics complements existing theories of Realist ethics in IR by reference to Richard Ned Lebow’s The Tragic Vision of Politics and Michael C. Williams’ The Realist Tradition and the Limits of International Relations.
This article explores the important parallels between the critiques of the balance of power offer... more This article explores the important parallels between the critiques of the balance of power offered by David Hume and Hans J. Morgenthau. The article presents the authors as both proponents and critics of the balance of power, depending on circumstance. For Hume, the balance of power is useful as a means of preventing universal monarchy, but is also liable to be used inappropriately as a justification for vindictive politics. Morgenthau, more influenced by Hume than is commonly recognised in International Relations theory, also subjects the balance of power to a thorough-going critique.
The purpose of this article is to examine the religious and theological elements of Immanuel Kant... more The purpose of this article is to examine the religious and theological elements of Immanuel Kant’s work. This is an area of Kant’s oeuvre that has been neglected in the history of international thought; this is problematic as it is in these works that Kant addresses many themes which are important to his international relations project, for example, human nature, the corruption of society, the possibility of ethical community, and cosmopolitanism.
This article argues that despite Pynchon's obvious sympathy towards anarchism and the left in gen... more This article argues that despite Pynchon's obvious sympathy towards anarchism and the left in general, his political scepticism leads him ultimately to a Nietzschean politics of transcendence.
Journal of International Relations and Development, 2010
The idea behind this article is to employ a series of Deleuzo-Guattarian
principles, primarily t... more The idea behind this article is to employ a series of Deleuzo-Guattarian
principles, primarily the concept of the rhizome, to the articulation and
development of Realism as a theory of IR. The article makes the claim that
using rhizomatics allows those interested in Realism to reconceptualise
the relationship between Realism and Neorealism. The article argues that
the publication of The Twenty Years’ Crisis by E.H. Carr and Theory of
International Politics by Ken Waltz represent two ‘intense’ moments in the
descent of Realism. The article argues that despite the attempted ‘territorialisation’
of Realism into the static, paradigmatic Neorealism, that Realism
remains a heterogeneous set of concepts. The territorialisation process has met
with some resistance, for example, just as Waltz was trying to territorialise
Realism, his theory was being deterritorialised by Richard Ashley. The article
also examines James Der Derian’s attempt to save realism by deconstructing it,
advocating an ‘affirmative leap into the imaginary’. The article concludes that
despite the Neorealist moment, attempts to splice together constructivism and
realism provide evidence that Realism remains mutative, heterogeneous, open
and vital.
International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, 2003
This article examines the appeal of Carr's theory of international relations, which has enjoyed a... more This article examines the appeal of Carr's theory of international relations, which has enjoyed a longevity matched by few other bodies of work in a discipline characterised by faddism. I attribute Carr's success as an international theorist to his subtle use of philosophy, history, and political theory. Carr's holistic and interdisciplinary approach achieves its best expression in his employment of a critical dialectics of international theory in The Twenty Years' Crisis. The article does not confine itself to this element of Carr's writings as I also examine several works, such as The Future of Nations. Independence or Interdependence?, Conditions of Peace, and Nationalism and After,that consider the transformation of the international society. The latter works also employ a dialectic of power and morality in order to envision a world very different from the international system that Carr observed, an international order that approximates the emerging relations among states at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The article concludes with an examination of the role relativism played in Carr's theory scheme and the extent to which his dialectics of utopianism and realism is an important precursor of critical and postmodern theories of international relations.
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that Kant addresses many themes which are important to his international relations project, for example, human nature, the corruption of society, the possibility of ethical community, and cosmopolitanism.
principles, primarily the concept of the rhizome, to the articulation and
development of Realism as a theory of IR. The article makes the claim that
using rhizomatics allows those interested in Realism to reconceptualise
the relationship between Realism and Neorealism. The article argues that
the publication of The Twenty Years’ Crisis by E.H. Carr and Theory of
International Politics by Ken Waltz represent two ‘intense’ moments in the
descent of Realism. The article argues that despite the attempted ‘territorialisation’
of Realism into the static, paradigmatic Neorealism, that Realism
remains a heterogeneous set of concepts. The territorialisation process has met
with some resistance, for example, just as Waltz was trying to territorialise
Realism, his theory was being deterritorialised by Richard Ashley. The article
also examines James Der Derian’s attempt to save realism by deconstructing it,
advocating an ‘affirmative leap into the imaginary’. The article concludes that
despite the Neorealist moment, attempts to splice together constructivism and
realism provide evidence that Realism remains mutative, heterogeneous, open
and vital.
that Kant addresses many themes which are important to his international relations project, for example, human nature, the corruption of society, the possibility of ethical community, and cosmopolitanism.
principles, primarily the concept of the rhizome, to the articulation and
development of Realism as a theory of IR. The article makes the claim that
using rhizomatics allows those interested in Realism to reconceptualise
the relationship between Realism and Neorealism. The article argues that
the publication of The Twenty Years’ Crisis by E.H. Carr and Theory of
International Politics by Ken Waltz represent two ‘intense’ moments in the
descent of Realism. The article argues that despite the attempted ‘territorialisation’
of Realism into the static, paradigmatic Neorealism, that Realism
remains a heterogeneous set of concepts. The territorialisation process has met
with some resistance, for example, just as Waltz was trying to territorialise
Realism, his theory was being deterritorialised by Richard Ashley. The article
also examines James Der Derian’s attempt to save realism by deconstructing it,
advocating an ‘affirmative leap into the imaginary’. The article concludes that
despite the Neorealist moment, attempts to splice together constructivism and
realism provide evidence that Realism remains mutative, heterogeneous, open
and vital.