INTERNATIONAL

RELATIONS:
THEORIES
AND
CONCEPTS

BHAGYA SENARATNE
LECTURER | DEPARTMENT OF
STRATEGIC STUDIES
 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

 To appraise the salient theories in International Relations.

 To understand the methodological choices of the major

theories.

 To apply the theory in praxis.

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Social Liberalism Idealism Realism Behaviouri
Contract sm
Theory

OUTLINE
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Neo- Neo- Int’l English Post-Cold
Liberalism Realism Political School War
Economy

OUTLINE
TEACH
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COURSE 4
 INTRODUCTION

 Focus on Classical IR theories and related concepts.

 A look at the methodological choices of these theories.

 Interconnectedness of historical events and theory.

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 MODERN SOCIAL CONTRACT THEORY

 Context: King and Parliament / obligation and political authority

 Hobbes represents a compromise between these two factions.

 Proponent: Thomas Hobbes; John Locke; Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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  Recommended Reading
 Hobbes, T. (1651). Leviathan [The State of Nature]
 Locke, J. Two Treatises on Government.
 Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Social Contract Theory.
https://www.iep.utm.edu/soc-cont/

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  A political doctrine that takes protecting and enhancing the freedom
of the individual to be the central problem of politics.

 To protect individual liberty + prevents those who govern from

abusing that power.

 19th Century < the powers of government can promote + protect the
freedom of the individual.

LIBERALISM
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 Humans are by nature rational

 Concepts: freedom; cooperation; peace; progress

 Proponents: Immanuel Kant (1795) “To Perpetual Peace”

• federation of free states > Neo-Liberalism > importance of international
institutions
• universal hospitality > Commercial Liberalism > the importance of economic
interdependence and free trade
• republican constitutions > Democratic Peace Theory > democracies rarely, if
ever, go to war with each other, and thus an executive accountable to the
people or the parliament is important to maintain peace
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 IDEALISM

 Philosophy that shares a monistic view that material objects and the
external world do no exist in reality independently of the human
mind.

 Knowledge on epistemology.

 Proponents: Alfred Zimmern, Immanuel Kant, Jean-Jacques

Rousseau, Norman Angell, James T, Shotwell and Woodrow Wilson
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  Wilson’s ‘14 Points’ expressed idealistic
sentiments
 Were descriptive and prescriptive.
 Foreign policy: ideals, moral values, and
principles
 Criticisms:
 outbreak of WW II
 failure of the League of Nations;
 inability to answer questions regarding the
failure of the League to prevent war and the
behavior of states during the inter-war period.
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 REALISM
 Commences: 1950s / early 60s.
 Post-WW II
 Hans J. Morgenthau’s Politics Among Nations (1948): a general
theoretical framework
 E.H. Carr, Arnold Wolfers, George F. Kennan, Robert Strausz-Hupé,
Reinhold Niebuhr, Kenneth Thompson, Henry Kissinger
 Emphasis: states as the principal actors + their interests, the only
reality
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  Humans are by nature bad. + self-centered
and competitive

 Foreign policy: security + economic interests

 Concepts: Anarchy; power; national interest

 Continues: till 1960s/70s

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  1960s/70s

 About the methodological choices in IR + how the subject is analysed

 Theorists: Quincy Wright; Morton A Kaplan; Charles McClelland; Karl

Deutsch

BEHAVIOURISM / SCIENTIFIC METHOD

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  Renewed old liberal ideas about the
NEO- possibility of progress and change.
LIBERALISM
 Two types:
 Pluralism: multiplicity of actors
 Complex Interdependence: governments +
other connections between societies

 Proponents: E. Haas, Robert Keohane and

Joseph S. Nye, Nicholas Spykman, George F.
Kennan

BHAGYA SENARATNE  Concepts: Non-military; peace; cooperation15

 Built their arguments on Morgenthau’s classical
realist ideas + pluralism

 Proponents: Kenneth Waltz

NEO-REALISM /
- ‘Structure’ + consequences STRUCTURAL
- Patterned relationships + anarchical system REALISM

 Concepts: cooperation; relative power;

autonomy
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  Additional reading:
 Kenneth Waltz
(1959). Man, the State and War.
(1979). Theory of International Politics

 Robert Keohane and Bary Buzan + deep

structure

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 SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL
ECONOMY (IPE)

• Discussions on the North-South divide

• Locate the causes of most developing countries’ persistent

underdevelopment in the patterns of dominance and
dependence.

• Proponents: Andre Gunder Frank; Immanuel Wallerstein

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  Three categories:
 World System Theory
 Dependency Theory
 Modern World System Theory

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• Post-Cold War > views on IR changed.

• Emphasis: society of states or international society

• Contend: There is space for sovereign states in the world, where both
law and power too are present.

• Proponents: Headley Bull; E.H. Carr; C.A.W. Manning; Martin Wight

THE ENGLISH SCHOOL

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  New theories emerged that enabled the explanation of the prevailing
international system.

 The emergence of Critical Theories. > Alternative approaches

 New methodologies > post-positivism

POST-COLD WAR
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  Explanatory theories: views the world as something external +
reports about the world

 Constructive theories: help construct the world + they try to

explain the world

CONCLUSION
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 THANK YOU!

BHAGYA SENARATNE