Political Geography: / Journal: Journal of International Relations and Development / Topic: Politics

Author:: Sean Molloy
Publication Date:: 12-2010
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of International Relations and Development
Institution:: Central and East European International Studies Association
Abstract:: 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, 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.
Topic:: Politics

Author:: Stefano Guzzini
Publication Date:: 09-2010
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of International Relations and Development
Institution:: Central and East European International Studies Association
Abstract:: Kratochwil stands out as one of those very few thinkers in international relations (IR) whose work tries to understand the implications of thinking assumptions about ontology, social theory, and scientific discovery (and, indeed, ethics) in parallel. The present article reconstructs the thought of Friedrich Kratochwil to exemplify the necessary coherence of thought from politics to science to ethics, a project which is truly important for the development of theorising in IR. And at the same time, it uses this reconstruction of his multi-layered coherence for portraying a significantly different understanding of a central thinker in IR. For my reconstruction presents this very quest for coherence as Kratochwil's underlying theme and the role of practice as the bridge between the different layers of his theorising. As a result, for him, there cannot be Realpolitik without politics, theory without reflexivity, science without judgement, or ethics without a humanist sense of responsibility.
Topic:: International Relations and Politics

Author:: Ondrej Ditrych
Publication Date:: 03-2010
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of International Relations and Development
Institution:: Central and East European International Studies Association
Abstract:: This article explores a new perspective on Georgia's politics after 1991. Employing the critical political ontology of Carl Schmitt, Walter Benjamin and Giorgio Agamben, it argues that Georgia as a political community has, since its modern inception, been (in) a state of permanent exception. Successive regimes of Gamsakhurdia, Shevardnadze and Saakashvili have operated as effective sovereign dictatorships striving to bring to existence a new order. The utopia of this order was described in various ways, but typically it included restoration of the territorial sovereignty, thereby relating to the boundaries of the political community; overcoming internal disorder; and more recently, emulating the Western Liberal State. That the realisation of the order as a Western Liberal Utopia defined by the sovereign power perpetuates the very state of exception, including the reduction of individuals to 'bare life', is finally argued to constitute the tragedy of Georgia's contemporary politics.
Topic:: Politics
Political Geography:: Georgia

Author:: Liam Clegg
Publication Date:: 03-2010
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of International Relations and Development
Institution:: Central and East European International Studies Association
Abstract:: How can we integrate the agential influence of state preferences and the structural influence of social environments in models of change within international organisations? Through an analysis of the central aspects of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) initiative, this article argues that in isolation neither of the two dominant accounts of international organisations — the principal-agent (PA) and constructivist approaches — is able to adequately capture the progression of the initiative. Rather, I show that the evolution of the PRSP initiative is best conceptualised as an Archerian morphogenic cycle, whose unfolding can be understood by synthesising elements of the PA and constructivist approaches. The morphogenic approach provides an analytic framework capable of tracking the process of multilevel feedback from state socialisation through to policy operationalisation, and for the input of creditors, the International Financial Institutions (IFIs), and borrowing countries to be mapped.
Topic:: Politics and World Bank

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