ABSTRACT

THEORETICAL DIMENSIONS OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
FARHAN HANIF SIDDIQI

 

International Relations is a relatively newer subject in the social sciences emanating in the twentieth century and having still not completed its centennial celebration. Compared with political science and philosophy whose academic history stretches to thousands of years starting with the Greeks, International Relations is a novel discipline within the wider social sciences.

The present paper is an attempt in understanding and reflecting on the theories of International Relations since its evolution as a discipline after the end of the First World War. However, before embarking on an exhaustive analysis of theories, the paper will deliberate in some detail on the definition of IR concentrating on its state-centric and non-state dimensions, the latter including the nation, international organisations, both governmental and non-governmental as interpretive categories. Moreover, it is essential to understand, as Chris Brown states that, how we understand and interpret the world is partly dependent on how we define the world we are trying to understand and interpret. Furthermore, Robert Cox reminds us that Theory is always for someone and for some purpose. Thus, theories of International Relations can be best construed as frameworks of analysis in which the development of a particular framework is dependent on the subjective analysis of the theorist. Thus, for a realist the essential issues in International Relations are that of war and peace which include questions of security, anarchy and the notion of self-help. For a neo-liberal, it is international cooperation perpetuated by non-state actors which are a key to understanding how the international system works.

With such an analytical focus, the paper will present an outline of theories in International Relations starting off with the liberal internationalists (idealists) and coming down to advances made in post-positivist theory which includes the constructivists and post-modernists. All along a critical assessment of each theory will be attempted in terms of its problem-solving and normative disposition and it will be expressly argued that theories based on the latter framework are needed if the century old question of how to end war and how to guarantee peace is to be resolved.

 

 

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