LESSON 2-3: THEORIES OF

WORLD POLITICS

Professor: Song Wei @Peking @Renmin

Linh LTT @HUFLIT
Theories of IR

 Realism (Cold War)

 Liberalism (after WW1)
 Constructivism (after CW)
 Marxism (*)

 Recall IR knowledge
 What is theory?

•A theory is a kind of systematic explanation on some regular phenomenon.

+Systematic: not sporadic thoughts; logical causal mechanism
 Universal: theory in form is always about abstract concepts and logics; as far away from the
reality as possible.
+Theories can have its theoretical features, but no geographical or national features.

•Theory is not correct or incorrect. It is always partially correct.

+This means that scientific theories should have its prerequisites or basic assumptions :states are
rational; the world is basically composed of material reality; states are major actions in international
relations.
+Theory can be good or bad, which depends on its explanatory power.
 What is International Relations Theory?
 IR theory: regular phenomena in international
relations, e.g. war and peace; conflict and cooperation;
the decline of the hegemon; democratic states behave
more peacefully?
 War appears once and again in the human history;
 Wars directly lead to huge casualties, especially after
the formation of modern nation states and emergence
of modern weapons. Hence, war and peace can be
considered as constructing an independent social
(political) field: international relations field.

Case: The British hegemony has been the foundation for the 19th century liberal world economy.
+Bartholomew Roberts: Pirate Captain
+sentenced to death by Royal Navy.
 Features of IR Theory
•Mainstream theory of international relations are:
•Structural Realism created in 1979
•Liberal Institutionalism created in 1984
•Social Constructivism created in 1999
•World changes, and thus new theories emerge. But to what extent the world has
changed?
 Mainstream IR theories are all systemic theories.
•Level of analysis: individual level; state level; systemic level
 Mainstream IR theories are all parsimonious theories.
•They just concentrate on one factor and try to demonstrate that this factor is more
important than other factors.
 The application of theories
Case: The outbreak of the Korean War

Main reason: the competition between the

US and the USSR

Secondary reason: CCP’s victory in China

Direct reason: Kim Il-sung’s ambition

 REALISM
 Traditions Realism: paradigm construction
The world is basically material and international relations are
constrained by material distribution.
 Rationality and national interests
 States are selfish and rational.
+ What does rationality mean?
+ Rationality and reason; full rationality and limited (Bounded)
rationality

Is it an evolutionary necessity that all babies are born selfish and power-seeking?
•Human nature: selfish; craving for power; no sympathy
•Based on Niebuhr’s theological viewpoints.
•If children require selfishness and power to survive, where then, does one draw the line
between spoiling the child and creating the independent adult?
 REALISM

 Interests: material, defined in

terms of states’ capabilities.
 Moral or ideological concerns are
not national interest, but realism
don’t not exclude moral policies.
Why?
 Relative gains are more important
than absolute gains.
 Is security interest always the
most important and urgent?
REALISM & GLOBALIZATION

Balance of power
 NEO-REALISM
•Structure Realism
 Concept: international structure (definition:
distribution of national capabilities among
single states under anarchy)
 What is anarchy?
 Hegemon and Pole: hegemonic system and
unipolar system
Ex: In the 19th century, Europe was the center
of global international system.
The system was multi-polar but also
hegemonic in the meantime.
Causal Logic:
•The structure of International System decides
the stability of the system.
Inferences of Structural Realism:
•Hegemonic Stability hypothesis (Unipolar
Stability Theory)
•Bipolar Stability hypothesis (nuclear weapon’
role)
•Multipolar Stability hypothesis (Balance of
Power Theory)
 LIBERALISM
Liberalism, political
doctrine that takes
protecting and enhancing
the freedom of the
individual to be the central
problem of politics. Liberals
typically believe that
government is necessary to
protect individuals from
being harmed by others; but
they also recognize that
government itself can pose
a threat to liberty.
LIBERALISM
 Basic principles of Political Liberalism:
 Individualism: freedom (have confidence in human reason, not human
nature; and spontaneous development)
 Constitutionalism; Minimal State; free market economy
 Relativism: equality
 Pluralism: check and balance in the political system.
 No balance, no freedom

Collective security
Traditional Liberalist
 When applied for IR studies, Liberalism still
emphasizes the importance of individual liberty,
but also extend its liberal spirits to states. But the
liberty of individuals and states are sometimes
conflictive:
 Liberty of States: nation’s self-determination;
sovereign equality; no foreign intervention
 Liberty of individuals: humanitarian intervention is
the responsibility of the international society.
 Generally, we can think that individual
freedom is still more important than state’s
freedom; states are instruments rather than
objectives.
State is not only main threat to
individual freedom, but also main
possible threat for word peace.
•Liberal state VS Autocratic State:
•The scope of state power: limited or
not
•The structure of state power: mutually
balanced or not
•Autocratic states are much more
dangerous (leaders’ ambitions, no check
and balance; legitimacy crisis…)
 NEO-LIBERALIST
 Common points with traditional liberalist
theory:
 free economy; liberal states are more inclined to
peace
 Differences from traditional liberalist theory:
•state-centric;
•non-liberal states can also participate in Anti-globalization and the
international cooperation and peace maintenance; future of Neoliberal IR
theory?
•free competition (free market or balance of power)
often doesn’t work.
 Social Constructivism
•States are not always rational and interests-oriented. They •Social Constructivism can be
have feelings and emotions, and so states are also both pessimistic and optimistic.
persons. •Ideas can change and
construction can matter; but
•In Constructivism, states both have reason, emotions and
collective identities are difficult to
rationality.
change.
 Role Identity: How do we look at the mutual relationship (The clash of civilizations)
of each other.
•Enemy Collective identity can provide
•Friend good basis for regional
 Role relationship is directly related to state’s foreign cooperation, and the regional
cooperation can enhance the
policy.
collective identity.
 When two or more states have the similar role identities •Constructions are also important
of each other, they have formed the “collective identity” for states to carry out regional
and accordingly, the behavioral norms of them. cooperation actions.
Social Constructivism

Regional & global security

 MARXISM

 The future is liberal and capitalist.

 The vast bulk of theoretical efforts consisted of a
painstaking analysis of capitalism as a mode of production
and the basic elements of his account have not been
bettered.
 The processes which operate within global capitalism.
 Compared to Realism and Liberalism, Marxist theories
aim to expose a deeper, underlying—indeed hidden—truth.
  Marxist analyses of international relations aim to
reveal the hidden workings of global capitalism. These
hidden workings provide the context in which international
events occur.
 Essential elements of Marxism

 The social world should be analyzed as a totality

 Materialist conception of history: the means of production and relations of
production that together form the economic base of a given society
 Institutions  legal and political superstructure  base-superstructure
model
 Class plays a key role in Marxist analysis
 Marx himself provided little in terms of a theoretical analysis of international
relations.

Inherited by Leninism: “imperialism”

 New Marxism
• New Marxism is characterized by a direct (re)appropriation of the concepts and categories
developed by Marx.
• Rosenberg uses Marx’s ideas to criticize Realist theories of international relations, and
globalization theory. He seeks to develop an alternative approach which understands historical
change in world politics as a reflection of transformations in the prevailing relations of production.
• For Benno Teschke, the study of social property relations provides the means for analyzing the key
elements of international relations, and the transitions between one international system and another.

 According to Marxist theorists, the globe has long been dominated by a

global capitalist system. Within this system, all elements have always been
interrelated and interdependent.