International Relations Theory - Introduction

P204: Theory of International Relations

• P204 delves into the study of International Relations (IR) theories.

Course Instructors and Assistants

• Dr. Rania Elsebai and Dr. Haidi Kares serve as the instructors.
• Dr. Haidi Kares' office hours are on Sundays from 12:00 to 1:30 p.m. in Room 70 on the third floor.
• Ms. Nadeen Hesham (Arabic Section) and Ms. Hadeer Abozaid (English Section) are the teaching assistants.

Introduction to International Relations

• IR as a Field of Study and Subfields of IR will be explored.
• A YouTube video link is given to explain "What is IR?".
• IR studies the interactions among international actors and seeks to explain why international events occur.
• The field of IR is interdisciplinary, covering a wide range of interactions, including peace, wars, diplomacy, trade, and cultural exchange, as well as cooperative and conflictive interactions.
• State and non-state actors can shape world politics; state actors are "politics among nations," while non-state actors include intergovernmental and transnational organizations.
• Foreign Policy (FP) is the sum of official external relations conducted by an independent actor (usually a state) to achieve certain interests in international relations.
• The field of IR's scope is encompassed by its subfields, including International Security Studies (ISS), which traditionally focused on war, peace, alliances, arms race, and military capabilities.
• After the Cold War in 1990, the study of security broadened to include regional and ethnic conflicts, and non-military security threats.
• The rise of International Political Economy (IPE)- focused on economic and financial relations' political aspects between states, reflecting economics' impact on international relations.

Course Expectations and Conduct

• Students must not miss more than 25% of the course's lectures to be eligible for the final exam, according to faculty bylaws.
• Active participation in class discussions and preparedness to ask and answer questions is expected.
• Students must observe general rules of civility and submit assignments on time.
• Plagiarism is strictly prohibited.
• Email should be used for urgent logistical communications only.
• Students are forbidden from recording one another or the instructor.
• Reading course materials uploaded to Thinqi is required.

Course Topics

• The course will cover a wide range of subjects
• IR as a field of study, including actors and levels of analysis.
• Theoretical approaches in IR, including liberalism, realism, neorealism, neoliberalism, and constructivism, and the evolution of the theoretical inquiry.
• International conflict, Security Studies, International Integration, and The south and International Political Economy.
• Power in International Politics, including elements and the changing nature of world power.

Assessment Criteria

• The assessment includes a mid-term exam (20%), classwork (30%), and a final exam (50%).
• Classwork is comprised of three assignments, worth 5%, 10% and 10% respectively
• There is also participation in the lecture and section (5%).

Actors in International Relations

• Discussion questions ask what types of actors exist in international relations and their impacts on international politics.
• Actors in IR can be states or non-states.
• States: These include sub-state actors.
• Non-States: These include IGOs, INGOs, MNCs, and violent actors like terrorist networks.
• States are the most important actors in IR, defined as inhabited territorial entities, that are controlled by a government, exercising sovereignty.
• Some political entities referred to as states are not formally recognized as states are called Quasi States, like Taiwan
• The modern International System (IS) is the set of relationships among the world's states, structured according to specific rules.
• The modern IS can be traced back to The Treaty of Westphalia 1648 and has existed for less than 500 years.
• States are the main actors because of State Sovereignty, their status as the primary focus of loyalty, and command of economic and military power.
• States are equal in sovereignty but unequal in power, leading to differences in influence in the international system.
• The dilemma of state sovereignty: despite having shared identity, other states may not enjoy such homogeneity
• Sovereignty is no longer the sole determinant of being an Actor in IR.
• The ability to influence IR become important, with a variety of non-state actors increasingly involved in crucial economic and political issues.
• Non-state actors are actors other than state governments that operate either below the level of the state (that is, within states) or across state borders
• Sub-state actors: They exist within a state, influencing foreign policy, operating internationally, such as; interest/ethnic groups, subnational governments, and economic sub state actors.
• Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) are associations of states established, based upon a treaty for common aims, with organs fulfilling functions.
• Alliances such as NATO are a special type of IGOs.
• IGOs traditionally had little independent authority, being vehicles for member states' diplomacy.
• However, IGO authority is changing towards more supranationalism whose authority potentially transcends individual members' sovereignty.
• International Nongovernmental Organizations INGOs (issue-advocacy groups) are private.
• NGOs may have political, humanitarian, economic, or technical purposes; some are universal, while others are regionally oriented.
• NGOs utilize transnational advocacy networks, working for policy changes.
• NGOs are increasingly recognized in the UN and other forums as legitimate actors alongside states.

Level of Analysis in IR

• The levels of analysis offer explanations for why questions in IR by classifying factors into different categories
• There is no single correct level, rather they offer approaches to explaining an event.
• Kenneth Waltz described the level of analysis as the three "images of international relations".
• Three main levels of analysis: Global, System/interstate/international, and Domestic/state/societal, individual.
• The individual level of analysis focuses on the personal characteristics of decision-makers in international relations.
• The State Level of analysis focuses on the characteristics of the state and internal makeup of the state and society
• The International level of analysis examines factors and processes at the international system level to explain states' behaviors.
• The Global level of analysis considers global trends and forces that transcend the interactions of states themselves.

Theoretical Approaches to the Study of IR

• It is important to develop IR theories to understand and make events understandable.
• Theories offer accounts of why things happened.
• Theory informs topics researchers identify, the questions, the variables selected, the definitions given, the tested hypotheses and the used methodologies.
• Theorizing about IR began in the early 1920's
• The Elusive Quest for theory - the world is constantly changing, so no single theory can explain events.
• Different paradigms are witnessed in the studying of IR
• A paradigm that prevails is dominant
• Over time, paradigms are revised
• The development of a new paradigm does not indicate the end of the former, rather new paradigms are more appealing
• Paradigms tend to be revised to explain new developments
• Throughout the history of IR, there have been debates between competing theories, including disagreements about what the discipline should study and how.
• Theoretical Diversity in IR - some IR scholars consider that the field of IR is in crisis due to a disappearance of interest
• Proliferation of IR poses problems in the boundaries of the discipline and how one identifies which theory to use.
• Theoretical diversity is healthy pluralism

Theories of IR

• Realism, Liberalism and Constructivism

Realism

• Realism: A paradigm based on the premise that world politics is essentially a struggle among self-interested states for power and position under anarchy, with each competing state pursuing its own national interests. International politics is a struggle for power.
• Realism’s roots of realism in political thought (intellectual Roots) include; Ancient Greek Historian Thucydides, & Nicolas Machiavelli
• International politics is a continuous struggle for power.
• States are in a condition of anarchy; their security cannot be taken for granted. The three core elements are statism, survival, and self-help.
• Realism emerged on the eve of World War II, when the prevailing belief in a natural harmony of interests among states came under attack.
• Realism emerged when the prevailing belief in self-interest was under attack pre WWII. Advocates included; E. H. Carr, Hans J. Morgenthau, and Kenneth Thompson
• People are selfish by nature, compete for self-advantage, lust after power, and want to dominate others (Human nature)
• States-main actor in international politics, are main actor in international politics. State is a sovereign actor answering to no authority.. States are unitary rational actors
• States rationally pursue their own interest with autonomy, with similarity as their national interests/power accumulate.s (Statism)
• Hans Morgenthau says that "The mechanism we use to understand IP is the concept of Interests, defined in terms of power"
• Primary obligation of states is to promote their national interest, namely acquisition of power
• International system is inherently anarchic- lacking a central government to enforce rules
• Survival cannot be guaranteed
• Self help- states must rely on themselves to provide their own security
• Should not trust task of protection to internal organizations/law
• Allies can help, but loyalties, reliability can’t be assumed
• All states want to maximize their own power, with stability resulting from their balance of power.
• States are most likely to be most stable when power is distributed to prevent a single superpower or bloc from controlling.
• The tendency of states to view adversaries' defensive arming as threatening is know as security dilemma
• Competition for power results in a security dilemma.

Neo realism

• Structural realists (also called neorealists) concur that International politics- a struggle for power.
• An example is Kenneth Waltz’ Theory of International Politics introduced in 1979.
• For classical realists, like Hans Morgenthau (1948), human nature is the driver
• It is the structure/architecture of the international system that causes it .
• Anarchy which lacks highr authority leads to the state’s own survival as its highest self interest.
• Ken Walt defined international systems in 3 elements: Its is principle
• Units have a character
• The character of Major state units
• They distribute the capabilities that distribute power and capabilities is based on the power that it controls.
• Structural realists have created conceptual clarity with the meaning of power, shifting their focus to power to capabilities so that power is that it is based on controlling the material capabilities of the How much power is enoug? If states are sensitive, it leads to a security dilemma.

Examples with Neo-realism

• System polarity- unipolarity and power.
• Competition for power results in a security dilemma.
• Waltz sees this more defensively- states don’t seek as much power so security in preserved
• If it means it hurts survival
• Seeks security by essentially states are maintaining security
• .
• John Mersheimer however - more offensivel- good strategic states get security , and power . This leads to hegemony
• States that do so maximiqze power .

Liberalism

• Liberalism’s philosophies originate from the political thought of John Locke, Immanuel Kant, and Adam Smith
• Instead of anticipation for conflict, there is increasing or greater cooperation and harmony amongst people
• It focuses on a struggle for consensus and mutual gain while focusing on domestic systems (democratic systems) and an impact on economic interdependence and the role global norms and institution
• States along wth non- actors are political factors, as well as the liberal/militant and extensive.
• in WWI, it rose with Woodrow Wilson and Alfred Zimmeman
• Classic liberalism sees people with rational self, and capable for cooperation, harmony when use rational faciltures. Mitigation can be achieved

Post World War I Liberal

• Preventable thru states
• Created: collective security
• League of Nations
• Emphazied use of legal process of mediation to avoid conflict via permanent Court of INtetnailonal Justice
• DIsarmamant agremeentd through
• All these were ineffective

Neo-Liberalism: (Neo- Liberal Institutionalism)

• The goal is to supplement Realism
• Increased transnational innovations aided this
• Complex Interdepence where the state are affected by outside occurences and are linked via transnational relations
• There was a shift from high politics, but toward security being a welfare system
• That is: a more cooperative system
• Cooperation from established regular and is bound by the character of INternatioanl laws.
• This is different from Internatinoal organizations
• Occurs thru the aftermath of the II World War w/an emphasis on liberal international economics.