International Relations Theory III

1
International Relations Theory III

• International Society and the English School

2
Introduction

• British Committee on IR theory
• An alternative to the North American study of IR
• Not necessarily a positivist approach
• There is no escape from values
• The view of IR as a normative discipline
• Two main variants
• Pluralists
• Solidarists

3
Key theoretical assumptions

• International system as a society of states
• Based on common and shared values, norms, and
  ideas
• The legacy of the Christian community of medieval
  Europe
• The concept of civilizations
• The reconsideration of the concept of anarchy

4
The concept of anarchy

• Legal anarchy (lack of world government)
• Political anarchy (state of war)
• Legal anarchy does not automatically lead to war
• Some laws are respected even during wars
• The role of shared norms and values
• The role of international institutions
• The role of international law
• The constrained nature of sovereignty

5
Corollaries

• States may abstain from power politics
• Legal anarchy may lead to co-operation
• International politics is not a zero sum game
• Order
• Diplomacy
• International Law
• A middle ground between power politics and
  liberal idealism
• A middle way between realism and liberalism
• Also known as liberal realism

6
The Pluralists

• Key exponents R.Jackson, H.Bull
• Diversity of human ideas and traditions
• Different human societies
• Political, societal and religious views
• Ethnic and linguistic traditions
• Greatest possible independence for states
• Order and sovereignty
• Art. 2.7 of UN Charter
• Nothing contained in the present Charter shall
  authorize the United Nations to intervene in
  matters which are essentially within the domestic
  jurisdiction of any state
• The Cold War experience
• Close to realism

7
Solidarists

• Key exponents N.Wheeler
• Society of states
• Human rights and emancipation
• Rather than sovereignty of states
• Humanitarian intervention rather than protection
  of state sovereignty
• N. Wheeler
• Close to liberalism
• Collapse of the Soviet bloc and post-1991
  developments
• Example NATO and the Kosovo war 1999?

8
Conclusions

• Limited achievements
• Constructivism
• Unclear boundary of the school
• Geographical limitation
• Does it provide a fundamentally alternative IR
  framework?
• A trade-off between order and solidarism?
• Main debate between realists, liberals, marxists
  and constructivists