Ideologies In World Politics

Political ideologies shape the behaviour of states, international institutions, terrorist groups, political elites, non-governmental organisations, and other international actors. The book analyses how the most important of them affect today’s world politics, and contribute to build a new and complex world order.

Political ideologies shape the behaviour of states, international institutions, terrorist groups, political elites, non-governmental organisations, and other international actors. The book analyses how the most important of them affect today’s world politics, and contribute to build a new and complex world order.

Drawing upon extensive experience of both theoretical and empirical research, according to the Italian school of Political Science, this book provides a holistic assessment of contemporary world politics. It begins by defining concepts such as “world order”, before going on to classify foreign policies into four models of political cultures: namely, the “interests-intensive” conservative; the “ideologies-intensive” liberal, the leftist constructivist, and the leftist Manichean. The volume shows how multipolar and bipolar systems have remained relatively stable, with each main power defending its own interests, yet ultimately not promoting ideas and order. Change periods, however, are instable. Between 1915 and 1945, Nazi-fascist and communist ideologies emerged, but, after Yalta, the West did not effectively export market, democracy and peace to the Third World. After 1989, the ideas of liberalism (in economic globalization and EU enlargement), neo-conservatism (in the Iraq war), and multi-cultural leftism (in pluri-national conflict resolution processes) began to be applied toward a “near” world order. Since 2001, Islamic fundamentalism’s threat has prevented both stability (with the failure of the concert of powers of the 1990s), and order (with minimal improvements in democracy and peace). Following the Arab Spring, Obama has also abandoned interests-intensive conservative diplomacy, no longer supporting “lesser evils” (personalistic or military regimes) against “absolute evils” (such as the Islamic State), and waged only “low intensity” wars in Iraq, Syria and Libya.

"Political Ideologies provides a broad-ranging introduction to both the classical and contemporary political ideologies. Adopting a global outlook, it introduces readers to ideologies' increasingly global reach and the different national versions of these ideologies. Importantly, ideologies are presented as frameworks of interpretation and political commitment, encouraging readers to evaluate how ideologies work in practice, the problematic links between ideas and political action, and the impact of ideologies. Regular learning features encourage readers to think critically about ideologies, and view them as competing and contestable ways of interpreting the world. A unique 'stop and think' feature calls for readers to reflect on their own ideological beliefs." -- Provided by publisher.

Are theoretical tools nothing but political weapons? How can the two be distinguished from each other? What is the ideological role of theories like liberalism, neoliberalism or democratic theory? And how can we study the theories of actors from outside the academic world? This book examines these and related questions at the nexus of theory and ideology in International Relations. The current crisis of politics made it abundantly clear that theory is not merely an impartial and neutral academic tool, but instead is implicated in political struggles. However, it is also clear that it is insufficient to view theory merely as a political weapon. This book brings together contributions from a number of different scholarly perspectives to engage with these problems. The contributors, drawn from various fields of International Relations and Political Science, cast new light on the ever-problematic relationship between theory and ideology. They analyse the ideological underpinnings of existing academic theories and examine the theories of non-academic actors such as staff members of international organisations, Ecovillagers and liberal politicians. This edited volume is a must-read for all those interested in the contemporary political crisis and its relation to theories of International Relations.

Cassels offers a novel perspective on the part played by ideology in international relations over the past two centuries. His treatment is not restricted to the familiar totalitarian ideologies of communism and nazism, but also includes conservatism, liberalism and nationalism. The focus and emphasis given to ideology in an historical survey of such broad scope make this book unusual, and even controversial.

How do leaders perceive threat levels in world politics, and what effects do those perceptions have on policy choices? Mark L. Haas focuses on how ideology shapes perception. He does not delineate the content of particular ideologies, but rather the degree of difference among them. Degree of ideological difference is, he believes, the crucial factor as leaders decide which nations threaten and which bolster their state's security and their own domestic power. These threat perceptions will in turn impel leaders to make particular foreign-policy choices. Haas examines great-power relations in five periods: the 1790s in Europe, the Concert of Europe (1815–1848), the 1930s in Europe, Sino-Soviet relations from 1949 to 1960, and the end of the Cold War. In each case he finds a clear relationship between the degree of ideological differences that divided state leaders and those leaders' perceptions of threat level (and so of appropriate foreign-policy choices). These relationships held in most cases, regardless of the nature of the ideologies in question, the offense-defense balance, and changes in the international distribution of power.

The Routledge Handbook of Ideology and International Relations reviews, consolidates, and advances the study of ideology in international politics. The volume unifies fragmented scholarship on ideology’s impact on international relations into a wide-ranging and go-to volume. Declarations of the ‘end of ideology’ have once again been proven premature: nationalisms of various stripes are thriving; ideological polarization and conflicts both within and among states are growing; and environmentalist, feminist and anti-globalization activists are intensifying their demands on international institutions and states. This timely volume presents ideology as a way of explaining these major developments of world politics, rejecting the simplistic association of ideology with passionate convictions in favor of more complex theories of ideology’s influence. The chapters summarize cutting edge knowledge on major topics, suggest key implications for broader theoretical debates and frameworks, and point the way forwards to future avenues of inquiry. Contributors adopt puzzle-orientated causal, constitutive and/or critical approaches with a central focus on the determinants and effects of ideological phenomena and their interaction with other aspects of politics. This handbook is of key interest to students and scholars of ideologies, international relations, foreign policy analysis, political science, political theory and more broadly to sociology, psychology, and history. The Routledge Handbook of Ideology and International Relations is part of the mini-series Routledge Handbooks on Political Ideologies, Practices and Interpretations, edited by Michael Freeden.