Global Politics: The subdiscipline reconsidered

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Global PoliticsThe sub-disciplinere-considered

• Klaus Segbers
• MGIMO/ FUB
• March 28, 2005

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Content

• Defining the discipline
• Issues
• Context
• Dimensions
• Actors
• Interim balance sheet
• On selection
• Evolution of the discipline
• Levels, units of analysis and variables

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1 Object Defining the discipline

• IR is a part of polisci.
• Historically, it held different labels
•     Foreign Policy
•     Inter-National Politics
•     Inter-National Relations
•     World politics is the most encompassing
  term... But does politics imply
• Global governance?

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2 Issues

• From ancient times until the 19th and 20th
  centuries, the main issues were sovereignty, hard
  security, alliances, power and the military.
• Today, we still are talking in these terms, but
  also, and increasingly, about the Internet,
  migration, capital flows, terrorism,
  intervention, demography and biopolitics/ life
  sciences.
• There is both a broadening, and a shift of the
  content.

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3 Context

• We do not narrow the subject to just political
  relations
• ... and certainly not to state actors.
• Our context, and the wp issues are undergoing
  significant changes
• no East-West conflict,
• the end of bipolar structure,
• globalization.
• In short more dis-order
• This constitutes a challenge for terms, concepts,
  theories and methods.

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4 Dimensions of IR/ WP

• Economic relations and financial flows b/w state
  and non-state actors
• transport and flows of goods, services, and
  people
• flows of communication and of content
  (information and entertainment), and their
  effects
• aspects of security, unsecurity, including
• cultural dimensions of world society
  identities, in-/exclusion, access
• and the attempts by state and non-state actors to
  organize these fields in their respective
  interests.
• Example Bologna process

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5.1 Actors of/ in IR

• There are certainly more relevant actors involved
  in ir/ wp than some 400, 100, 50 or even 15 years
  ago.
• These actors are related to the spheres of the
  state the market and to societies.
• Important cleavages are public private, and
  state non-state.

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5.2 Who are the relevant actors?

• States still play an important role as regulators
  and representatives. But this role is both
  diminuishing and changing.
• There are IOs, Int-l regime-s, TNCs, INGOs,
  regional players (supra- and sub-state), the
  media, domestic structures and interests, and
  individuals from Mr. Bush and Mr. Gates to Mr.
  Chodorkovskii and Mr. Bin Ladin. Or Mother
  Teresa.

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6.1 Interim balance sheet 1

• There is definitely more uncertainty around us
  in reality, and in our sensorial and
  intellectual ability to interpret and to
  understand.
• Also, there is less certainty with regard to
  analysis, theory building, and decision making.
• Inclusion/ exclusion is not any more organized
  primarily along state borders.
• We do register overlapping bodies of norms law
  patchworks.
• We start discussing democracy/ legitimacy gaps.
• There are new groups of risks inter-generational
  relations time-space compression life sciences.

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6.2 Balance sheet 2 Escaping change?

• Facing rapid change, many people deny that
  something is happening and keep on goin
  (simulation).
• They continue to think and argue in the
  traditional concepts of blocs, states,
  territories and sovereignty, andplay geoplitical
  games.
• Many try to hold on to apparent, but deceptive
  certainties.
• Many try to keep time horizons short.
• This way, they hope to be in charge their main
  anxiety is losing control.

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6.3 Balance sheet 3 How to cope?

• First of all, lets accept things are changing
  rapidly.
• Lets face that there is less control and
  certainty.
• This makes it reasonable to focus less on
  learning data, content, and more on tools and
  methods.
• This is what we will do here.

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7.1 How to present our topics via approaches
(theories)?

• Selectively but reasonably selected.
• Not everything can be covered and addressed.
• We focus both classical and on non-traditional
  topics/ aspects
• ...but on those which are probably most
  meaningful and decisive for our/ your future.

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7.2 Approaches and theories

• Different approaches and theories vary regarding
• their reality assumptions,
• their preferred level of analysis,
• their way of handling diverse groups of actors,
• and their respective explanatory capabilities for
  wp/ ir phenomena.
• May be their predictive power is different as
  well.
• You do not have to go for and with ONE theory for
  the rest of your life. Use them as tools. But
  dont combine the incompatible. And be aware of
  what you are doing.
• Oh, yes theory-free scientific work is not
  possible.

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8.1 Evolution Some history of IR

• Thinking about IP/ IR started about 2000
  years ago as did the ...
• quarrels about the nature of IR, and how to
  look at them.
• The major debates can be organized in a
  chronological, or in a systemic way.
• Watch out quite often, there is confusion about
  and between normative and analytical interests
  and aspects!
• gtgtgt The connection between world views and
  scientific work is a difficult, and a narrow one.

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8.2 Evolution The Development of IR

• First IR chair 1919 in the UK, Aberystwith,
  after WW I.
• There is NO general acknowledged, all-time
  paradigm.
• IR does constitute a polisci subdiscipline (and
  is handled as such).

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8.3 What are the major paradigms in
succession?

• Idealist phase
• Realist phase
• Behavioral phase
• Communication phase
• Post-phase

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8.4 What are the major debates?

• B/w idealism and realism
• B/w realism and behavioralism
• B/w state-centric approaches and transnationalism
• B/w positivism and post-positivism
• and now enlightened eclecticism?

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9.1 What are uoas and loas...

• What are we talking about? What is a question?
  How to explain puzzles? What is a causal
  relation?
• This leads to the requirement to define/ identify
  units of analysis (uoa) and levels of analysis
  (loa).
• The things to be placed on loass are events,
  social practices, processes in another language
  factors and variables.

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9.2 Waltzs images... our loas

• 1st image individuals
• 2nd image unit/ state
• 3rd image (world/ international) system

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9.3 Waltz, modified

• 1st level individuals
• 2nd level social groups and regions
• 3rd level states and governments
• 4th level macroregions, regimes
• 5th level world system

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9.4 Attention!

• On every loa, we can try to identify something
  that is happening.
• At the same time
• On every loa, we can try to find explanations for
  something happening on this, or on another, loa.
• Therefore

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9.5 Variables

• Independent Variable
• 1st image
• individual
• 2nd image
• unit (state, society)
• 3rd image
• system, structure

• Dependent Variable
• 1st image
• individual
• 2nd image
• unit (state, society, etc.)
• 3rd image
• system, structure

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How to do a research proposal?

• Puzzle/ relevant question?
• Dependent variable
• Independent variable/s
• Operationalization
• Hypotheses
• Theory/ theories
• Method/s

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• Das ist alles fuer heute!