Human Beings in International Relations

Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-11625-2 - Human Beings in International Relations Edited by Daniel Jacobi and Annette Freyberg-Inan Frontmatter More information Human Beings in International Relations Since the 1980s, the discipline of International Relations has seen a series of disputes over its foundations. However, there has been one core concept that, although addressed in various guises, had never been explicitly and systematically engaged with in these debates: the human. This volume is the first to address comprehensively the topic of the human in world politics. It comprises cutting-edge accounts by leading scholars of how the human is (or is not) theorized across the entire range of IR theories, old and new. The authors provide a solid foundation for future debates about how, why, and to which ends the human has been or must (not) be built into our theories, and systematically lay out the implications of such moves for how we come to see world politics and humanity’s role within it. Daniel Jacobi is Research Associate and Lecturer at Goethe University, Frankfurt, as well as Research Associate in the Cluster of Excellence “Formation of Normative Orders.” Annette Freyberg-Inan is Professor of International Relations at the Technical University Darmstadt and Research Affiliate at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research and its program group “Political Economy and Transnational Governance.” © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-11625-2 - Human Beings in International Relations Edited by Daniel Jacobi and Annette Freyberg-Inan Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-11625-2 - Human Beings in International Relations Edited by Daniel Jacobi and Annette Freyberg-Inan Frontmatter More information Human Beings in International Relations Edited by Daniel Jacobi and Annette Freyberg-Inan © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-11625-2 - Human Beings in International Relations Edited by Daniel Jacobi and Annette Freyberg-Inan Frontmatter More information University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107116252 © Cambridge University Press 2015 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2015 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Human beings in international relations / edited by Daniel Jacobi & Annette Freyberg-Inan. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-107-11625-2 1. International relations – Social aspects. 2. Political anthropology. 3. Human beings. 4. Human behavior. I. Jacobi, Daniel. II. Freyberg-Inan, Annette. JZ1251.H85 2015 327.101–dc23 2015008868 ISBN 978-1-107-11625-2 Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-11625-2 - Human Beings in International Relations Edited by Daniel Jacobi and Annette Freyberg-Inan Frontmatter More information Contents vii xii List of contributors Acknowledgments Introduction: human being(s) in international relations daniel jacobi and annette freyberg-inan Part I 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 33 International political anthropology Between fear and despair: human nature in realism annette freyberg-inan 35 “Human nature” and the paradoxical order of liberalism stephen j. rosow 54 Disciplining human nature: the evolution of American social scientific theorizing jennifer sterling-folker and jason f. charrette 74 The Marxist perspective from “species-being” to natural justice chris brown 95 In biology we trust: biopolitical science and the elusive self duncan bell 113 Greeks, neuroscience, and International Relations richard ned lebow 132 Constructivism, realism, and the variety of human natures samuel barkin 156 Feminism and the figure of Man elisabeth prügl 172 v © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-11625-2 - Human Beings in International Relations Edited by Daniel Jacobi and Annette Freyberg-Inan Frontmatter More information Contents vi Part II 9 10 11 12 13 14 International political post-anthropology 193 Realism, agency, and the politics of nature colin wight 195 A global human condition mauro j. caraccioli 212 Imagining man – forgetting society? benjamin herborth 229 On the social (re)construction of the human in world politics daniel jacobi 247 Observing visions of man oliver kessler 266 Who is acting in International Relations? jan-hendrik passoth and nicholas j. rowland 286 Conclusion: toward an International Political (Post-)Anthropology annette freyberg-inan and daniel jacobi 305 Bibliography Index 332 369 © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-11625-2 - Human Beings in International Relations Edited by Daniel Jacobi and Annette Freyberg-Inan Frontmatter More information Contributors j. samuel barkin is Professor of Global Governance in the McCormack Graduate School at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. His work spans a variety of issues in international relations theory, including sovereignty, constructivism, epistemology, and the global commons. Recent books include Realist Constructivism: Rethinking International Relations Theory (2010), International Organization: Theories and Institutions, 2nd edition (2013), and Quantitative Methods in Critical and Constructivist Theory, co-edited with Laura Sjoberg (forthcoming). His research has also been published in a variety of journals, including International Organization, the European Journal of International Relations, Millennium, International Studies Quarterly, and International Studies Review. duncan bell is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of Christ’s College. He is the author of The Idea of Greater Britain: Empire and the Future of World Order, 1860–1900 (2007) and On Liberalism and Empire (2015), and the editor of several volumes on political theory, intellectual history, and international relations, the most recent of which is Uncertain Empire: American History and the Idea of the Cold War (2012). chris brown is Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has written numerous articles on international political theory and is the author of Practical Judgement in International Political Theory: Selected Essays (2010); Sovereignty, Rights and Justice (2002 – Chinese translation 2013); and International Relations Theory: New Normative Approaches (1992). He is also the editor of Political Restructuring in Europe: Ethical Perspectives (1994) and co-editor (with Terry Nardin and N. J. Rengger) of International Relations in Political Thought: Texts from the Greeks to the First World War (2002). His textbook Understanding International Relations (2009) is now in its fourth and final edition and has been translated into Arabic, Turkish, Portuguese, and Chinese. vii © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-11625-2 - Human Beings in International Relations Edited by Daniel Jacobi and Annette Freyberg-Inan Frontmatter More information viii List of contributors mauro j. caraccioli is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Florida, Gainesville. His research focuses on the intersection of empire and nature, bringing the history of political thought into conversation with environmental political theory. Additionally, he is interested in narratives of human cognition, political ecology in Latin America, and international theory. His previous work has addressed the evolution of US human rights policy, critical political economy, and the geography of utopia in the Western imagination, and has been published in International Political Sociology, Antipode, and ACME. jason f. charrette is a PhD candidate at the University of Connecticut. His research interests include international relations theory and global governance. His dissertation explores the American role within world society through the application of Niklas Luhmann’s modern systems theory to international politics. annette freyberg-inan is Professor for International Politics at the Technical University Darmstadt, a research affiliate of the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, and co-editor of the Journal of International Relations and Development. Her work spans a variety of issues in international relations and international political economy. Specifically on IR theory, she has published Rethinking Realism in International Relations: Between Tradition and Innovation, edited with Ewan Harrison and Patrick James (2009), What Moves Man: The Realist Theory of International Relations and Its Judgment of Human Nature (2004), the forum “Hidden Essentialisms: How Human Nature Assumptions Surreptitiously Shape IR Theory,” edited with Daniel Jacobi (International Studies Review, 2012), and “Rational Paranoia and Enlightened Machismo: The Strange Psychological Foundations of Realism” (Journal of International Relations and Development, 2006). benjamin herborth is Assistant Professor in the Department of International Relations and International Organization at the University of Groningen. His research interests include social and political theories in and of international relations, world society studies, the politics of security, and reconstructive methodology. Cutting across these research interests is his belief that the field of international relations, having a strong tradition of reifying both political spaces and political subjects, provides an excellent site for theorizing both. His recent and forthcoming publications include “Theorizing Theorizing: Critical Realism and the Quest for Certainty” (Review of International Studies, 2012), “The Elusive Nature of Human Nature” (International Studies Review, 2012), “The © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-11625-2 - Human Beings in International Relations Edited by Daniel Jacobi and Annette Freyberg-Inan Frontmatter More information List of contributors ix West: A Securitizing Community?” (with Gunther Hellmann, Gabi Schlag, and Christian Weber), and Uses of the West, edited with Gunther Hellmann (forthcoming). daniel jacobi is Research Associate and Lecturer at Goethe University, Frankfurt, as well as a research associate in the German Research Cluster of Excellence “Formation of Normative Orders.” His research focuses on social theory/theories of society in international relations in general and a theory of security communication in particular. His work has appeared in International Political Sociology, International Studies Review, the Journal of International Relations and Development, and Zeitschrift für Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik. oliver kessler is Professor for International Relations at the University of Erfurt. His research focuses on IR theory, the sociology of risk and uncertainty, and world society. His most recent publications include “Ignorance and the Sociology of Economics” in Linsey McGoey and Matthias Gros (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Ignorance Studies (2015), and “Expertise, Uncertainty and International Law: A Study of the Tallinn Manual on Cyberwarfare” with Wouter Werner (Leiden Journal of International Law, 2013). richard ned lebow is Professor of International Political Theory in the War Studies Department of King’s College, London; Bye-Fellow of Pembroke College, University of Cambridge; and the James O. Freedman Presidential Professor (Emeritus) of Government at Dartmouth College. Among his recent publications are A Cultural Theory of International Relations (2008), Forbidden Fruit: Counterfactuals and International Relations (2010), Why Nations Fight: The Past and Future of War (2010), and The Politics and Ethics of Identity (2012). In 2014, he published Franz Ferdinand Lives: A World without World War I and Constructing Cause in International Relations, and he co-authored with Simon Reich, Goodbye Hegemony! Rethinking America’s Role in the World. jan-hendrik passoth is Senior Researcher at Technische Universität München. He connects sociological theory and science and technology studies by working on problems of social structure and infrastructures, human and nonhuman agency, and discourse and material culture. Writing about states, he is co-author of “Actor-Network State: Integrating Actor-Network Theory and State Theory,” a science and technology studies approach to state theory through the lens of performativity, published in International Sociology (2010). Writing about reflexivity, he is co-author of “Beware of Allies! Notes on Analytical Hygiene in Actor-Network Account-making,” a scholarly communication about © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-11625-2 - Human Beings in International Relations Edited by Daniel Jacobi and Annette Freyberg-Inan Frontmatter More information x List of contributors crafting scientific communications reflexively, published in Qualitative Sociology (2013). He writes for “Installing (Social) Order,” a blog on the sociology of infrastructure, exploring the socio-technical nerves of contemporary society. elisabeth prügl is Professor of International Relations at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, where she directs the Institute’s Programme on Gender and Global Change. From 2010 to 2014, she served as Deputy Director of the Institute; she has previously taught at Florida International University in Miami. Her research focuses on gender politics in global governance, in particular in the areas of labor, agriculture, and development. Recent publications include Transforming Masculine Rule (2011); “If Lehman Brothers had Been Lehman Sisters . . .” (International Political Sociology, March 2012); Feminist Strategies in International Governance, co-edited with Gülay Caglar and Susanne Zwingel (2013); and “Equality Means Business,” with Jacqui True (Review of International Political Economy, 2014). She was a Fellow at the Women and Public Policy Program of the Harvard Kennedy School during the 2014/2015 academic year. stephen j. rosow is Professor of Political Science at the State University of New York at Oswego, where he teaches political theory and global studies. He is most recently the author of Globalization and Democracy, with Jim George (2014), and Nation-State and Global Order, 2nd edition, with Walter Opello (2004). He has published articles on critical international relations theory, enlightenment political theory, and democratic theory. He shares his time between Syracuse and Brooklyn, New York. nicholas j. rowland is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Science and Technology Studies at Pennsylvania State University. He connects sociological theory and science and technology studies by working on problems of social structure and infrastructures, human and nonhuman agency, and discourse and material culture. Writing about states, he is co-author of “Actor-Network State: Integrating Actor-Network Theory and State Theory” (International Sociology, 2010), a science and technology studies approach to state theory through the lens of performativity. Writing about reflexivity, he is co-author of “Beware of Allies! Notes on Analytical Hygiene in Actor-Network Account-making” (Qualitative Sociology, 2013), a scholarly communication about crafting scientific communications reflexively. He also writes for “Installing (Social) Order,” a blog on the sociology of infrastructure, exploring the socio-technical nerves of contemporary society. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-11625-2 - Human Beings in International Relations Edited by Daniel Jacobi and Annette Freyberg-Inan Frontmatter More information List of contributors xi jennifer sterling-folker is the Alan R. Bennett Honors Professor of Political Science at the University of Connecticut. She is the author of Making Sense of International Relations Theory (2013) and Theories of International Cooperation and the Primacy of Anarchy (2002). colin wight is a Professor of International Relations at the University of Sydney. He has previously taught at the Department of International Politics, University of Wales, Aberystwyth; the University of Sheffield; and the University of Exeter. His research focuses on the philosophy of social science, social theory, and international relations theory. Selected publications include Scientific Realism and International Relations (edited with Jonathan Joseph, Routledge, 2010); Agents, Structures and International Relations: Politics as Ontology (2006), and Realism, Philosophy and Social Science (co-authored with Kathryn Dean, John Roberts, and Jonathan Joseph 2006). He has published in major international journals, such as International Studies Quarterly, Review of International Studies, the European Journal of International Relations, and Political Studies. He was editor-in-chief of the European Journal of International Relations from 2008 to 2013. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-11625-2 - Human Beings in International Relations Edited by Daniel Jacobi and Annette Freyberg-Inan Frontmatter More information Acknowledgments As is the case with many projects, this edited volume grew out of a mix of curiosity and disappointment: curiosity as we were struck by the prominent return of the “human element” in the study of world politics, particularly since the 1990s; disappointment because, in surveying the existing literature, we soon noticed that, at the same time, nobody seemed to ask, much less answer, why such a return of the human was occurring, or how it influenced our understandings of world politics. Yet, once formulated, these questions instantly resonated with several of our peers. We thus very fortunately were able to assemble the present group of extremely qualified scholars from different backgrounds in this project. We believe that the resulting volume as well as the analytical angle developed and applied within it provide a substantial foundation for future debates about how, why, and to which ends the human has been or must (not) be built into our theories, how we hence come to see world politics, and how such theoretical moves impact on the position and significance assigned to humanity in world politics. Over the long course of producing this volume we have acquired a significant number of debts. First of all, we want to express our gratitude to the authors present in this volume. Their immediate willingness to be part of this project and the trust they put forward were among the most rewarding experiences we made in the course of this work. Their continuous encouragement and willingness to heed editorial advice have greatly motivated us. As a close second, we would like to thank the International Studies Association which, in 2011, provided us with a Catalytic Research Workshop Grant and thus the opportunity to bring together many of the contributors in one place – no small feat for such an international group. The workshop proved to be highly valuable for the overall project, as it allowed us to exchange our views on the topic at an early stage. It thus provided a firm foundation for the project’s further development and paid dividends during the later process, particularly with regard to the coherence of the volume. We would also like to thank those who participated in xii © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-11625-2 - Human Beings in International Relations Edited by Daniel Jacobi and Annette Freyberg-Inan Frontmatter More information Acknowledgments xiii the workshop and/or the volume initially, but unfortunately were not able to provide contributions to the final product: Siba Grovogui, Gunther Hellmann, and Robert Schuett. John Haslam of Cambridge University Press has also been involved in the project nearly from the beginning. During this whole time he has been an invaluable contact, always ready to provide much appreciated input on the publishing side, be it in personal meetings or electronic exchanges. We are grateful that he has always believed in this project and staunchly supported it. We would equally like to thank the two anonymous reviewers of this volume. Their very careful reading and keen input certainly made for a better end product; the present volume would not be what it is without their help. We received additional useful input at a roundtable session at the 53rd Annual International Studies Association Conference in San Diego in 2012, where David Blaney and Stefano Guzzini kindly discussed some of the contributions to this volume and thereby aided in their further revision. Last but not least, we would like to thank Katharina Kleinschnitger for the formatting work and for compiling the invaluable index.We dedicate this book to Anna, Anna Marie, and Nicholas, for putting up with our temporarily not chasing the(se) little humans through our homes but instead the human(s) in our theories. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org