Essentials of IR Chapter 1 PDF

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Essentials of IR Chapter 1 Chapter 1: What is International Relations: The study of interactions among various actors within and across international borders. The actors include: States, leaders, governments, for-profit and non-profit organizations, and individuals Methods of studying International Relations: History Inquiry in IR often starts with History. History helps us comprehend many of today's key issues. History provides us with a crucial background to study IR. Example: Hamas bombing Israel is due to a historical dispute over territory.

History: Gives us a detailed knowledge of events Gives us generalizations Explains relationships

Example: Peloponnesian War A competition between Athens & Sparta (both want to expand influence and power). Both parties signed a "Treaty of Peace" but they still feared each others' ambitions. Melos: Was neutral and believed in the right of nations, and wanted to keep their 700 year freedom streak. Athenians were afraid of Spartan Influence there, so they offered Melos to join Athens, but they refused, so Athens crushed Melos. Melos Right - Athens Might

Conclusion: Most wars have underlying causes, usually know through studying the history of the opposite parties.

Philosophy

Classical vs Modern: Classical: Focuses on states and leaders. Example: Plato concluded that people who should govern are those superior in philosophy and war Philosopher kings). Plato introduced two ideas: Class analysis and dialectical reasoning. Marxists based their thinking on these two ideas, where they thought that class division is unfair, and that reasoning through dialogue leads to discover contradictions in political reality. Dialectical Reasoning: Thinking using reason, no emotions or biases, using debate thesis, to uncover reality. Modern: Focuses on the characteristics of people and society. Hobbes imagined the state of nature (no governments) where people are uncertain of their security. Man is selfish in Hobbes' opinion. There's no international authority, so society is in a state of nature (anarchy). The solution is a Leviathan, where power is controlled by a unitary state. Rousseau said that in a state of nature, man's concern is selfpreservation. So, small communities which care for themselves.

Kant said that man is selfish and is always at war, but can learn to love peace.

Best solution: Federation of States: Not one government. but many. However they all agree to each others' rights and sovereignties. Behaviorism

Scientific Approach 1950s) Individuals and States act in patterned ways (predictable). They use tools of the method to explain human behavior, and therefore predict future behavior too.

Correlates of War (1963) A project in the University of Michigan by David Signer and Melvin Small where they investigated, Why is there War? They looked for patterns that led to different wars, unlike Thucydides who focused on one event that changed history. They had to collect data on wars between 1865 and 1965 in which 1000 deaths were recorded. 93 wars fit this category, and they got data on the magnitude, severity, intensity, and the frequency of wars occurring. Other students and researchers helped collect the data. After collecting the data, they had to generate a specific hypothesis of what causes war. Was it related to the number of alliances? Number of great powers? Existence of international organizations? ... Alternative Approaches Some scholars disliked History, Philosophy, and Behavior; so they chose alternative approaches.

Constructivism: They use discourse analysis to answer their questions. They analyze cultures, norms, and practices to shape identities. They see how identities change over time. They utilize texts, interviews, and archives during their research. Therefore, they have a thick description (they used multiple sources of data).

Postmodernism: They deconstruct the basic concepts of IR, like state, nation, realism... They search for hidden meaning in texts. They replace orderly pictures with disorder

They also find the voices of "the others", i.e. those who have been marginalized.

Both: Meaning and conceptualization change over time Shape policy and IR Challenge conventional approaches to IR...