International Relations: Approaches, Issues and Analysis Lecture 5: Critical

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International Relations Approaches, Issues and
AnalysisLecture 5 Critical Post-structuralist
IR

• Jevgenia Viktorova
• University of St Andrews
• E-mail jv2 ät st-and.ac.uk

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Critical Theory and Post-structuralism in IR

• Critical theory
• Post-structuralist IR
• Philosophical underpinnings
• positivism vs. anti-/post-positivism
• foundationalism vs. anti-foundationalism
• Marxism and structuralism
• Feminist IR

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General approach of Critical and
Post-structuralist IR

• Defining characteristics of critical and
  post-structuralist theories
• (1) do not consider IR as a free-standing
  discipline in its own right, but rather seek to
  place it into a broader context of social
  thought
• (2) hold that the purpose of theory is to
  unsettle established categories and disconcert
  the reader (Brown 2005)

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Origins of critical IR

• Robert Cox (1981) Social Forces, States and
  World Orders Beyond International Relations
  Theory
• a distinction between problem-solving and
  critical theory
• theory is always for someone and for some
  purpose
• it is always an expression of a perspective
• and situated in space and time (historically
  specific)

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Purposes of theory

• Theory can serve two distinct purposes
• (1) to offer a direct response to help solve
  problems posed within the terms of a particular
  perspective
• (2) to reflect upon the process of theorising
  itself
• on the perspective which gave rise to it and its
  relations with other perspectives
• on possibilities of choosing a different valid
  perspective from which the problematic becomes
  one of creating an alternative world (Cox 1981)

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Problem-solving theory

• The first purpose gives rise to conventional,
  problem-solving theory
• accepts the prevailing definition of a particular
  situation as given
• is geared towards solving the problem that this
  particular definition generates
• The majority of IR theories (such as liberalism
  and realism)

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Critical theory

• The second purpose leads to critical theory
• does not view the definitions of social reality
  as given
• always seeks to elucidate
• how a particular definition serves certain
  interests
• how it closes down particular sorts of arguments
• directed toward an appraisal of the very
  framework for action, or problematic, which
  problem-solving theory accepts as its parameters
  (Cox 1981)
• concerned with the process of historical change
• its object is continually changing
• critical theorising is never complete

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Strengths and weaknesses

• Critical theory lacks precision of
  problem-solving theory
• The precision of problem-solving theories is
  costly
• by representing the social and political orders
  as fixed they are ideologically biased to ignore
  evidence (and possibility) of change
• serve particular interests (e.g. national, class
  etc.) invested in the status quo.
• conservative orientation
• ? not value-free
• Critical theory is emancipatory
• approaches practice from a perspective that
  transcends that of existing order and allows
  for a normative choice in favour of a different
  political order (Cox 1981)

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Coxs intellectual legacy

• Antonio Gramsci Frankfurt School
• Horkheimers inaugural lecture on Traditional
  vs. Critical theory
• Critical theory
• should investigate how the world in which the
  theorist finds him- or herself has got to be this
  way
• asks historical questions
• emancipatory
• exposes the existing world order as non-arbitrary
• enquires into interests and forces that shaped
  its movement along a particular historical
  trajectory
• uncovers other possible routes
• constructivist since it views the given reality
  as a construct a result of human action in all
  its guises

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Other strands of critical theory

• Richard Ashley The Poverty of Neorealism in
  Robert Keohane, Neorealism and Its Critics (1986)
• Based on
• Habermass critical account of social sciences
• French post-structuralism (Foucault, Derrida
• A Foucauldian account of social process
• a focus on power-knowledge nexus (interplay
  between systems of power and systems of
  knowledge)
• different historical periods are characterised by
  different structures of power-knowledge relations
• R.B.J. Walker James Der Derian David Campbell

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Habermass legacy

• Habermas a successor of Frankfurt School
• Adornos PhD student
• inherited Horkheimers chair
• Habermass works include
• Knowledge and Human Interest
• Legitimation Crisis
• Theory of Communicative Action (a rethinking of
  social sciences in 2 vols., 1981-2)
• A mission to re-energise an independent public
  sphere to counterbalance spoon-fed truths about
  reality from those in power

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Marxism

• Critical theorys boarder intellectual origins in
  Marxism
• Marx formulated the global-level emancipation
  project
• political emancipation
• elimination of economic inequality
• Historical emphasis
• historical materialism
• mostly, historic change has been un-emancipatory
• Recognition that a given order serves particular
  interests
• e.g. class or the developed countries of the
  West
• Representation of the existing order as
  natural
• Gramsci hegemony

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Yet another strand of critical theory

• John Ruggie in IPE
• A reaction to Waltz
• Neorealist view of international system does not
  account for historic change
• Realism as a mode of reasoning is not genuinely
  historical even where its material is derived
  from history
• Dictates that with regard to the essentials,
  the future will always be like the past
• Realist IR theory is a status quo theory not
  emancipatory

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Emancipation project

• Liberalism was originally seen as emancipatory
• In the context of the Enlightenment, its function
  was to free humanity from self-imposed
  immaturity (Kant)
• Liberalism ceased to be emancipatory ?
• Critical theorists there is need for a different
  kind of theorising to rescue the emancipation
  project
• Post-structuralists (drawing on Nietzsche,
  Foucault, Derrida) emancipation project is
  doomed
• Possibility of emancipation premised on
  ontological and epistemological assumptions
• Positivisim vs. anti- or post-positivism
• Foundationalism vs. anti-foundationalism

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Social sciences

• the scientific positivist method for social
  sciences
• make a conjecture about causality
• formulate that conjecture as a hypothesis
  consistent with established theory
• specify the observable implications of the
  hypothesis
• test for whether those implications obtain in the
  real world
• and report ones findings, ensuring that ones
  procedures are publicly known and hence
  replicable to other members of a particular
  scientific community that he identified as the IR
  community of scholars (e.g. Keohane)

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A positivist methodology

• Following this method, one will
• attain objective truth about the social
  reality?
• contribute to a wider agreement on descriptive
  facts and causal relationships, based on
  transparent and replicable methods
• a positivist methodological framework assumes
  that
• the social world is amenable to the kinds of
  regularities that can be explained by using
  causal analysis with tools borrowed from the
  natural sciences
• the way to determine the truth of statements is
  by appealing to neutral facts

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Four rules of positivism

• established by Hume summarised, e.g., by
  Kolakowski (Positivist Philosophy (1972))
• (1) the rule of phenomenalism only phenomena
  that can be directly experienced can generate
  knowledge of the real nature of the world
• (2) the rule of nominalism proposes that general
  statements about the world that do not have their
  reference in independent, observable, atomized
  objects should not be afforded real knowledge
  status
• (3) value judgements are not part of science
  values cannot be observed or verified and thus
  are metaphysical categories, not facts
• (4) unity of scientific method the methods of
  natural sciences are applicable to social and
  political analysis

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Accepting positivism?

• Observance of positivist rules restricts possible
  objects for scientific enquiry
• Enticement of scientific status?
• One can question
• possibility of adhering to the rules of
  positivism
• the validity of the rules themselves
• ? Critique of positivism

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Problems with the rule of phenomenalism

• How to account for differences in direct sensory
  experiences?
• Natural sciences
• objective verifiable measurements, repeated
  experimentation etc.
• Social sciences problematic
• Observable reality does not neatly fall into
  predefined clear categories
• ? e.g. assigning a case to a category involves a
  value judgement

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Questioning the rule of phenomenalism

• Humes philosophical position is predicated on
  the distinction between
• an objectively existing sphere of reality out
  there
• a thinking subject who (passively) receives
• sense impressions and
• constructs theoretical images of the facts
  (ideas)
• Sense impressions are fundamentally different
  from the retrospective/theoretical realm of
  ideas
• idea realm does not correspond with reality per
  se, because an abstract category does not
  correspond with what actually (physically) exists
  in the universe

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Questioning empiricism

• Hume conclusion
• because we never directly experience external
  bodies,
• we cannot experience a correlation between those
  bodies and the impressions they cause
• Therefore, empiricist based claims for real
  knowledge cannot be defended except in
  metaphysical terms (i.e. something beyond the
  immediate physical reality)
• The implication of this position is clear
  enough there is no logical basis, even in
  positivisms own terms, for the proposition that
  knowledge of reality is directly derived from an
  independent world out there. (George, 1994)

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Other problems with positivism

• Has to make use of language
• Natural language is imprecise, open to multiple
  understandings
• Positivism counters this with establishing
  special languages of science and abstract
  terminologies, but
• Terms still need to be defined through natural
  language
• This potentially introduces
• uncontrollable variance in understandings of what
  one or another term implies and value-laden
  connotations
• Does not ask the question of ends of theorising
• does not problematise its impact on the world
• ? irresponsible Treating the feelings as mere
  effects of causal processes takes them out of our
  hands, and relieves us of responsibility
  (Toulmin 1990)

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Foundationalism vs. anti-foundationalism

• The foundation of positivist science rests on
  infallibility of logico-mathematical procedures
  of thought
• Universal and unbiased by sensory input
• Descartes cogito ergo sum
• Belief that whoever follows these procedures of
  reasoning is bound to arrive at the same
  conclusions about what is knowable in the world
• Oakeshott (1962) a rationalist finds it
  difficult to believe that anyone who can think
  honestly and clearly will think differently from
  himself

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Universality of the rational method?

• The rational dichotomy of reason vs. sensual
  experience
• ? a separation into subjects that can be studied
  scientifically and those that cannot
• Despite the alleged universality and timelessness
  of the rational method, it deliberately confines
  itself to a narrow selection of subjects and
  kinds of knowledge that can be achieved with
  regard to them
• Certainty of science is achieved at the expense
  of a vast expanse of the unknown beyond its
  limits

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Post- or anti-positivists

• Embrace Wittgensteins realisation that
• no independent or objective sources of support
  can exist outside of our language and actions
• This position is called anti-foundationalism
• the facts of the world (e.g., historical,
  political, social) are always intrinsically bound
  up with the way we give meaning to them and
  accord them real status. This is an
  interpretive process grounded in
  historico-philosophical, cultural, and linguistic
  complexity, not in some Archimedean point of
  ultimate reference beyond history and society
  (George 1994)
• Deny the possibility of an independent,
  value-free perspective that could produce
  universally valid knowledge

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Positivists vs. post-positivists

• Positivist social theory insists that
• unless there is certain knowledge there can be no
  real knowledge at all
• either there is some support for our being, a
  fixed foundation for our knowledge, or we cannot
  escape the forces of darkness that envelop us
  with madness, with intellectual and moral chaos
  (Bernstein)
• any approach that refuses to privilege a single
  perspective (as corresponding to reality) is
  guilty of relativism and is unable to make
  judgements about everyday life and political
  conflict
• Post-positivists argue that although there may be
  no absolute knowledge, this does not undermine
  ones ability to make decisions in the world
• this allows for a decisionmaking regime based on
  personal and social responsibility which is not
  relegated to objectified sources out there
  (e.g., the system, the government, science, the
  party, the state, history, human nature)
  (George, 1994)

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Developments in methodology

• Post-positivist methods
• Discourse analysis - a language turn (e.g.
  Foucault Milliken)
• Analysis of practices (Neumann 2002)
• Shift from mimetic approaches (that attempt to
  model reality) to aesthetic ones (aimed to relive
  reality in unique creative ways (Bleiker 2001)
• Natural sciences also have moved on
• New approaches chaos theory, complexity theory,
  quantum theory, discoveries in life sciences
• This changed the outlook of natural sciences and
  affected their methodology
• Social science positivists out of touch with
  these developments?

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Constructivism and post-positivism

• Constructivist scholars differ in the extent to
  which they view their approach as antithetic to
  positivism
• Predominantly, do not emphasise their
  anti-positivistic stance
• Most IR constructivists share following features
• Interpretive understanding as an intrinsic
  (albeit not necessarily exclusive) part of any
  causal explanation
• Preference for middle-range theorising as opposed
  to grand theory
• Recognition that social scientists are part of
  the social world which they are trying to analyse
  (double hermeneutics)
• Thomas Risse is anybody still a positivist?

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Post-structural challenge

• Although positivist scholars reject normative
  issues, they agree with critical theorists on
  this
• theory has a direct impact on the world
• good theory should inform (and change) practice
• Post-structural theorists are doubtful of this
  impact
• do not purport to create emancipatory theories
• that would simply substitute one view of reality
  informed by particular interests with another
  view or one discourse with another
• concerned with exposing the terms on which one or
  another description of reality hangs together

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Legacy of structuralism

• IR structuralism
• IPE (International Political Economy) e.g.
  Wallenstein's world-systems approach (cores,
  peripheries and semi-peripheries) dependency
  relations between North and South (e.g.
  Dependencia theory)
• peace studies (the view of structural
  inequalities as a major source of conflict and
  unrest (e.g. Johan Galtung)
• structuralism in semiotics and linguistics
• influenced the development of French
  post-structuralist philosophy (Derrida, Foucault,
  Deleuze and Guattari etc.)
• and through it the more radical IR
  post-structuralists

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Semiotic structuralism

• impact on social theory at large
• viewed the structure of language (alphabet and
  grammar broadly defined) as the generator of
  meaning
• The 1968 political unrest (student demonstrations
  etc.) in France signified a major turn in this
  thinking
• exposed its statism and excessive stress on
  continuity
• failure to account for the dynamics of change
• questioned the Saussurean emphasis on langue
  (language) as opposed to parole (speech) -
  i.e. the uses of language produced from the
  deep-rooted structures of language
• speech or rather writing came into a
  spotlight (e.g. Derrida)

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Textual strategies of post-structuralism

• Discourse analysis and genealogical enquiries
• Deconstruction seeks to unsettle stable concepts
  and demonstrate the effects and costs of the
  settled concepts and oppositions, to disclose the
  parasitical relationships between opposed terms
  and to attempt a displacement of them
• Double reading the first reading is a commentary
  on the dominant interpretation demonstrating how
  it achieves its stability. The second reading
  applies pressure to the points of instability
  within a text, with the purpose of exposing how
  any story depends on suppression of internal
  tensions in order to achieve homogeneity and
  continuity.

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Some strands of post-positivist theorising

• David Campbell (1992) Writing Security
• a critique of the US foreign policy
• its reliance on radical othering
• Search for a new enemy image after the Cold War
  
• William Connollys work on Culture Wars of the
  present-day US
• its categorising and alienating effects.
• Neither has abandoned critical emancipation
• James Der Derian
• Foucault-inspired analyses of diplomatic practice
  
• Paul Virilio-inspired post-modern enquiries about
  how the virtual reality, increased speed of life
  and interactions are affecting our understanding
  of the international

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Feminism in IR

• IR represents a gendered view of reality, that is
  premised on masculine interests
• Not necessarily post-structural or critical
  in their methods nor is feminism confined to IR
• Issues
• Womens equality and greater visibility in
  politics
• Critique of the Enlightenment as premised on a
  voice that is European, rationalist and male
  (and white).
• In Gramscis terms
• the hegemony of the existing world order and
  the bulk of IR theorising has naturalised
  masculine interests
• womens voices are consistently marginalised and
  silenced

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Challenges of post-structural IR feminism

• to challenge the often unseen androcentric/
  masculine biases in the way that knowledge is
  constructed
• to develop accounts of the social world that
  trace the influence of gender in all our
  discursive categories, and especially the
  international
• to question/ dislocate what we accept as
  normal
• E.g. Cynthia Weber (1999) Faking It US Hegemony
  in a Post-Phallic Era

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A feminist approach

• reject commitment to scientific methodology
• claim no single standard of methodological
  correctness
• feminist knowledge has emerged from a deep
  scepticism about the claims of universal
  knowledge, which, in reality, are based primarily
  on masculine experiences and perspectives
• regard knowledge-building is an ongoing process
• describe knowledge-building as emerging through
  conversation with texts, research subjects, or
  data
• research focus is not only on the subordination
  of women, but also other disempowered people

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Feminists

• agree with positivists that research should pose
  questions that are important in the real
  world (King et al. 1994 Van Evera, 1997)
• disagree with the positivist definitions of
  important and the real world
• Conventionally, scientific progress is judged not
  on the merit of the questions that are asked but
  on how questions are answered
• Feminists find that the questions that are asked
  and also questions that are not asked are
  more important for judging knowledge.
• The questions that feminists ask
• are typically not answerable within a
  conventional social science
• challenge the core assumptions of the discipline
  and deconstruct its central concepts

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Questions that feminists ask

• E.g. Why have wars predominantly been fought by
  men and how do gendered structures of masculinity
  and femininity legitimate war and militarism for
  both women and men?
• To answer such a question
• challenge the separation of public and
  private
• seek to uncover continuities between
  disempowerment of women in the domestic sphere
  and in the public political and international
  life
• E.g. investigate military prostitution and rape
  as tools of war and instruments of state policy

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Feminist methodology

• Knowledge based on the standpoint of womens
  lives leads to more robust objectivity
• broadens the base from which we derive knowledge
• the perspectives of marginalised people may
  reveal aspects of reality obscured by more
  orthodox approaches to knowledge-building
• Emphasis on sociological analyses that begin with
  individuals and the hierarchical social relations
  in which their lives are situated
• Reject the conventional separation between
  subject and object of research
• acknowledging the subjective element in ones
  analysis increases the objectivity of research

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Some works by feminist writers

• Cynthia Enloe (2000) Bananas, Beaches and Base
  Making Feminist Sense of International Politics
• Jean Bethke Elshtain (1987) Women and War
• Jill Steans (1998) Gender and International
  Relations An Introduction (a textbook)