Critical Theory And World Politics

This text brings together leading critical theorists of world politics to discuss both the promise and the pitfalls of their work. The contributors range broadly across the terrain of world politics, engaging with both theory and emancipatory practice. Critiques by two scholars from other IR traditions are also included. The result is a seminal statement of the critical theory approach to understanding world politics.

Andrew Linklater has been one of the most innovative thinkers in international relations, introducing critical and ethical elements into the discipline which has forced it to rethink many of its basic assumptions. This book builds on this body of work to develop a radical new theory that calls for a cosmopolitan approach to international relations. Key subjects covered in the book include: citizenship and humanity critical theory and political community the problem of harm the sociology of states-systems.

This book provides an assessment of the legacy, challenges and future directions of Critical Theory in the fields of International Relations and Security Studies. This book provides ‘first-hand’ interviews with some of the pioneers of Critical Theory in the fields of International Relations Theory and Security Studies. The interviews are combined innovatively with reflective essays to create an engaging and accessible discussion of the legacy and challenges of critical thinking. A unique forum that combines first-person discussion and secondary commentary on a variety of theoretical positions, the book explores in detail the interaction between different theories and approaches, including postcolonialism, feminism, and poststructuralism. Scholars from a variety of theoretical backgrounds reflect on the strengths and problems of critical theory, recasting the theoretical discussion about critical theory in the study of world politics and examining the future of the discipline. Both an introduction and an advanced engagement with theoretical developments over the past three decades, Critical Theory in International Relations and Security Studies will be of interest to students and scholars of International Politics, Security Studies and Philosophy.

This is first detailed account on the origins of critical theory and how it has developed and influenced international relations. Making complex ideas accessible to all, it discusses Marx and post-Marxist thinkers; the Frankfurt School; Adorno, Benjamin and Marcuse; Habermas, Gramsci and Foucault alongside critical IR scholars Robert W. Cox, Rob Walker, James Der Derian, Christine Sylvester, Richard Ashley and Andrew Linklater.

A wide range of critical theorists is used in the study of international politics, and until now there has been no text that gives concise and accessible introductions to these figures. Critical Theorists and International Relations provides a wide-ranging introduction to thirty-two important theorists whose work has been influential in thinking about global politics. Each chapter is written by an expert with a detailed knowledge of the theorist concerned, representing a range of approaches under the rubric ‘critical’, including Marxism and post-Marxism, the Frankfurt School, hermeneutics, phenomenology, postcolonialism, feminism, queer theory, poststructuralism, pragmatism, scientific realism, deconstruction and psychoanalysis. Key features of each chapter include: a clear and concise biography of the relevant thinker an introduction to their key writings and ideas a summary of the ways in which these ideas have influenced and are being used in international relations scholarship a list of suggestions for further reading Written in engaging and accessible prose, Critical Theorists and International Relations is a unique and invaluable resource for undergraduates, postgraduates and scholars of international relations.

We live in critical times. We face a global crisis in economics and finance, a global ecological crisis, and a constant barrage of international disputes. Perhaps most dishearteningly, there seems to be little faith in our ability to address such difficult problems. However, there is also a more positive sense in which these are critical times. The world's current state of flux gives us a unique window of opportunity for shaping a new international order that will allow us to cope with current and future global crises. In Critical Theory in Critical Times, eleven of the most distinguished critical theorists offer new perspectives on recent crises and transformations of the global political and economic order. Essays from Jürgen Habermas, Seyla Benhabib, Cristina Lafont, Rainer Forst, Wendy Brown, Christoph Menke, Nancy Fraser, Rahel Jaeggi, Amy Allen, Penelope Deutscher, and Charles Mills address pressing issues including international human rights and democratic sovereignty, global neoliberalism, novel approaches to the critique of capitalism, critical theory's Eurocentric heritage, and new directions offered by critical race theory and postcolonial studies. Sharpening the conceptual tools of critical theory, the contributors to Critical Theory in Critical Times reveal new ways of expanding the diverse traditions of the Frankfurt School in response to some of the most urgent and important challenges of our times.

This book develops an approach to both method and the socio-political implications of knowledge production that embraces our embeddedness in the world that we study. It seeks to enact the transformative potentials inherent in this relationship in how it engages readers. It presents a creative survey of some of the newest developments in critical research methods and critical pedagogy that together go beyond the aims of knowledge transfer that often structure our practices. Each contribution takes on a different shape, tone and orientation, and discusses a critical method or approach, teasing out the ways in which it can also work as a transformative practice. While the presentation of different methods is both rigorously practice-based and specific, contributors also offer reflections on the stakes of critical engagement and how it may play an important role in expanding and subverting existing regimes of intelligibility. Contributions variously address the following key questions: What makes your research method important? How can others work with it? How has research through this method and/or the way you ended up deploying it transformed you and/or your practice? How did it matter for thinking about community, (academic) collaboration, and sharing ‘knowledge’? This volume makes the case for re-politicizing the importance of research and the transformative potentials of research methods not only in ‘accessing’ the world as an object of study, but as ways of acting and being in the world. It will be of interest to students and scholars of international relations, critical theory, research methods and politics in general.

This book discusses the challenge to realism which proponents of international political economy and critical theory have mounted in the last few years, and examines the changing relationship between realism and Marxism. It is aimed at students of approaches to international relations.