Why Theory in IR

&
Idealism
WEEK 4
Lesson Plan
• Why IR Theory

• Idealism and IR

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Points to Ponder
• How would you explain 9/11?

• Why did Al Qaeda attacked the US?

• Why did American & British leaders authorize the attack on Saddam Hussein’s Iraq?

• Different answers to all the above questions.

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Why THEORY?
• It is a grand formal model with hypothesis and assumptions

• A theory is a set of propositions and concepts that seeks to explain phenomena by specifying the
relationships among the concepts;

• Theory’s ultimate purpose is to predict phenomena.

• Good theory generates groups of testable hypotheses: specific statements positing a particular

relationship between two or more variables.

• As more and more data are collected, one must be tolerant of ambiguity, concerned about
probabilities, and distrustful of absolutes.

• International relations theories come in a variety of forms.

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Why THEORY?
• Kenneth Waltz, three different sources of explanations are offered.

• If the individual level is the focus, then the personality, perceptions, choices, and activities of
individual decision makers and individual participants provide the explanation.

• If the state-level, or domestic, factors are the focus, then the explanation is derived from
characteristics of the state: the type of government, the type of economic system, or interest
groups.

• If the international system level is the focus, then the explanation rests with the anarchic
characteristics of that system or with international and regional organizations and their strengths
and weaknesses.

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Why THEORY?
• The purpose of theory is to guide us toward an understanding of which of these
various explanations are the necessary and sufficient explanations for the invasion.

• Good theory should be able to explain phenomena at a particular level of analysis;

• Theory should offer explanations across different levels of analysis.

• No single theory reliably explains the wide range of IP

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IDEALISM - Intro
• Idealism (Idealist Approach) and Realism (Realist Approach) have been two
competing traditional approaches.
• Each of which wants recognition as the sound approach to the study of international
relations.
• Each advocates a particular view of the totality of international reality and believes that it can
be adopted as the means for understanding and explaining all aspects of international
relations.
• Both of these represent the classical tradition of the study of international relations.
• Both Idealism and Realism are normative approaches in essence and content.

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IDEALISM - Background
• Holds that old, ineffective and harmful modes of behaviour

• War, use of force and violence should be abandoned in favour of new ways and means as
determined by knowledge, reason, compassion and self-restraint.

• Idealism stands for improving the course of international relations by eliminating war,
hunger, inequality, tyranny, force, suppression and violence from international relations.

• “Political idealism in international relations represents a set of ideas which together

oppose war and advocate the reform of international community through dependence
upon moral values and the development of international institutions and international
law.”

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IDEALISM
• Idealist approach derives - evolutionary progress in society and the spirit of liberal
idealism - particularly during the inter-war years.

• During the inter-war years (1919-39), the U.S. President Woodrow Wilson became its
most forceful exponent.

• Advocates morality as the means for securing the desired objective of making the
world an ideal world

• Believes that - following morality and moral values, nations can not only secure their
own development, but also can help the world to eliminate war, inequality, despotism,
tyranny, violence and force.

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• Idealism advocates the need for improving relations among nations by
removing the evils present in the international environment.

• Idealists have always tried to answer the question of “what ought to be” in
politics.

• Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero were all political idealists who believed that
there were some universal moral values on which political life could be
based.

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Immanuel Kant (1724–1804)
 German philosopher - considered to be a central figure of
modern philosophy.

19th and 20th century philosophy, - a significant influence

today in metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, political philosophy,
aesthetics, and other fields.

He argues - the human understanding is the source of the

general laws of nature that structure all our experience;

 Human abide the moral law, belief in God, freedom, and

immortality.

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…continue
• No state shall by force interfere with the internal affairs of another state

• No independent state, large or small shall come under the dominion of another state

• No state shall during war, permit such acts of hostility which would make mutual
confidence in the subsequent peace impossible

• Governments need to reduce military spending and armament

• No treaty of peace regarded as valid IF made with secret reservation of material for
future war

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Woodrow Wilson
 Served as the US 28th President (1913 -1921)

American diplomat

Father of the League of Nation

Known as Wilsonian Idealism, Wilsonianism.

 Was a great propagator of world peace

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• Woodrow Wilson

14 point program delivered in an address to Congress in January

1918

His ideas influences Peace Paris Conference: Awarder Nobel

Peace 1919
Democratic
Promotion of democracy and self government do
Two Main Ideas not and will not
determination
go to war against
each other

Creation on an international No secret diplomacy and BOP

organization arrangement like past

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IDEALISM – Main Principles
• 1. Human nature is essentially good and capable of good deeds in
international relations.
- Human welfare and advancement of civilization are the concerns of all.
- Bad human behaviour is the product of bad environment and bad
institutions.
- By reforming the environment, bad human behaviour can be eliminated.

• 2. War is irrational - War represents the worst feature of relations.

- By reforming international relations, war can be and should be eliminated.
- Global efforts are needed to end war, violence and tyranny from
international relations.
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 Idealist – Main Principles
• 3. Universal Ethics -- All humans should abide by common standards such as natural
laws. There is a universal ethic common to all people.
• 4. Peace is better than war -- War is seen as immoral by idealists, by others is only as a
last resort and for a just cause.
• 5. Harmony of interests -- Idealists believe it is possible for humans to live together in
harmony if the proper measures are taken.
• 6. People are good: Idealists are more optimistic about human nature. In the proper
setting, man would enjoy peace and be free from conflict.
• 7. The Power of Public Opinion: People that are active can take charge of politics.
democrat movement of common people can reverse this manipulation.
• 8. International Law and organization -- Idealists put a lot of faith in international law
and intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) such as the United Nations and
International Court of Justice to solve problems on the international level.
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IDEALISM – Main Principles
• Idealists believe that the spread of education and democracy—including increasing
democratic control of foreign policy—will empower world public opinion, and make it
a powerful force that no government can resist.
• Regardless of ethnic, social, cultural and religious background, all human beings
desire the same things in terms of security, welfare, recognition and respect.
• All are bound by a common morality with its bedrock in basic human rights and the
Kantian principle that human beings should be respected.
• The international anarchy of competing nation-states was seen as the underlying
cause of the catastrophe of World War One

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IDEALISM
• Collective security, compulsory adjudication of disputes, national disarmament, open
diplomacy and international colonial accountability were the most cherished policy
prescriptions of inter-war idealists.

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 Forms of Idealism

Humanitarian Classical
Pacifists Globalists
Marxists Liberals

War is Bad War Bad War bad overall War irrational

Morality Necessary Harmony of Interests Harmony of Interests Harmony of
People are Good Universal Ethics Universal Ethics Interests
Public Opinion People are Good People are Good Universal Ethics
Democracy Public Opinion Communism Some Greed is
Good
Public Opinion
These are all Branches of Idealist Democracy
Thought, although there are Capitalism

contradictions between them regarding

some principles but also policy
prescriptions But all are optimists!!!
 Universal
ethics

Peace is
Faith in IO &
better than
IL
war

Power of
public
opinion
Idealism War is
irrational

Human can
People are
live together
good in harmony
Trade
between
states
promote
peace

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 Criticism
• Failure of LON

• Sacrifices the element of rationality and desires that action be founded on

feelings rather than logic

• Too optimistic about human nature

• Lots of faith in international institution

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