Global Politics: The sub-discipline re-considered

1. Global Politics:The sub-disciplinere-considered Klaus Segbers MGIMO/ FUB March 28, 2005

2. Content • Defining the discipline • Issues • Context • Dimensions • Actors • Interim balance sheet • On selection • Evolution of the discipline • Levels, units of analysis and variables

3. 1 Object: Defining the discipline IR is a part of polisci. Historically, it held different labels: •     Foreign Policy •     Inter-National Politics •     Inter-National Relations •     World politics – is the most encompassing term... But: does „politics“ imply… • Global governance?

4. 2 Issues • From ancient times until the 19th and 20th centuries, the main issues were sovereignty, hard security, alliances, power and the military. • Today, we still are talking in these terms, but also, and increasingly, about the Internet, migration, capital flows, terrorism, intervention, demography and biopolitics/ life sciences. • There is both: a broadening, and a shift of the content.

5. 3 Context • We do not narrow the subject to just „political“ relations; • ... and certainly not to state actors. • Our context, and the wp issues are undergoing significant changes: • no East-West conflict, • the end of bipolar structure, • globalization. • In short: more dis-order… • This constitutes a challenge for terms, concepts, theories and methods.

6. 4 Dimensions of IR/ WP • Economic relations and financial flows b/w state and non-state actors; • transport and flows of goods, services, and people; • flows of communication and of content (information and entertainment), and their effects; • aspects of security, unsecurity, including • cultural dimensions of world society – identities, in-/exclusion, access; • and the attempts by state and non-state actors to organize these fields in their respective interests. • Example: Bologna process

7. 5.1 Actors of/ in IR • There are certainly more relevant actors involved in ir/ wp than some 400, 100, 50 or even 15 years ago. • These actors are related to the spheres of the state; the market; and to societies. • Important cleavages are public : private, and state : non-state.

8. 5.2 Who are the relevant actors? • States still play an important role as regulators and representatives. But this role is both diminuishing and changing. • There are: IOs, Int-l regime-s, TNCs, INGOs, regional players (supra- and sub-state), the media, domestic structures and interests, and individuals – from Mr. Bush and Mr. Gates to Mr. Chodorkovskii and Mr. Bin Ladin. Or Mother Teresa.

9. 6.1 Interim balance sheet 1 • There is definitely more uncertainty around us – in “reality”, and in our sensorial and intellectual ability to interpret and to „understand“. • Also, there is less certainty with regard to analysis, theory building, and decision making. • Inclusion/ exclusion is not any more organized primarily along state borders. • We do register overlapping bodies of norms – law patchworks. • We start discussing democracy/ legitimacy gaps. • There are new groups of risks: inter-generational relations; time-space compression; life sciences.

10. 6.2 Balance sheet 2: Escaping change? • Facing rapid change, many people deny that something is happening and keep on goin’ (simulation). • They continue to think and argue in the traditional concepts of blocs, states, territories and sovereignty, andplay geoplitical games. • Many try to hold on to apparent, but deceptive certainties. • Many try to keep time horizons short. • This way, they hope to be in charge; their main anxiety is: losing control.

11. 6.3 Balance sheet 3: How to cope? • First of all, let’s accept things are changing rapidly. • Let’s face that there is less control and certainty. • This makes it reasonable to focus less on learning data, content, and more on tools and methods. • This is what we will do here.

12. 7.1 How to present our topics via approaches (theories)? • Selectively – but reasonably selected. • Not everything can be covered and addressed. • We focus both classical and on non-traditional topics/ aspects… • ...but on those which are probably most meaningful and decisive for our/ your future.

13. 7.2 Approaches and theories Different approaches and theories vary regarding • their reality assumptions, • their preferred level of analysis, • their way of handling diverse groups of actors, • and their respective explanatory capabilities for wp/ ir phenomena. • May be their predictive power is different as well. • You do not have to go for and with ONE theory for the rest of your life. Use them as tools. But don’t combine the incompatible. And be aware of what you are doing. • Oh, yes: theory-free scientific work is not possible.

14. 8.1 Evolution: Some history of IR • Thinking about “IP”/ “IR” started about 2000 years ago – as did the ... • … quarrels about the nature of IR, and how to look at them. • The major debates can be organized in a chronological, or in a systemic way. • Watch out: quite often, there is confusion about and between normative and analytical interests and aspects! • >>> The connection between world views and scientific work is a difficult, and a narrow one.

15. 8.2 Evolution: The Development of IR • First IR chair: 1919 in the UK, Aberystwith, …after WW I. • There is NO general acknowledged, all-time paradigm. • IR does constitute a polisci subdiscipline (and is handled as such).

16. 8.3 What are the major paradigms in succession? • Idealist phase • Realist phase • Behavioral phase • Communication phase • Post-phase…

17. 8.4 What are the major debates? • B/w idealism and realism • B/w realism and behavioralism • B/w state-centric approaches and transnationalism • B/w positivism and post-positivism • … and now: enlightened eclecticism?

18. 9.1 What are uoa‘s and loa‘s... • What are we talking about? What is a question? How to explain puzzles? What is a causal relation? • This leads to the requirement to define/ identify units of analysis (uoa) and levels of analysis (loa). • The things to be placed on loas’s are: events, social practices, processes; in another language: factors and variables.

19. 9.2 Waltz‘s images... – our loa’s • 1st image: individuals • 2nd image: unit/ state • 3rd image: (world/ international) system

20. 9.3 Waltz, modified • 1st level: individuals • 2nd level: social groups and regions • 3rd level: states and governments • 4th level: macroregions, regimes • 5th level: world system

21. 9.4 Attention! • On every loa, we can try to identify something “that is happening”. At the same time: • On every loa, we can try to find explanations for something happening on this, or on another, loa. Therefore:

22. Independent Variable 1st image: individual 2nd image: unit (state, society) 3rd image: system, structure Dependent Variable 1st image: individual 2nd image: unit (state, society, etc.) 3rd image: system, structure 9.5 Variables

23. How to do a research proposal? • Puzzle/ relevant question? • Dependent variable • Independent variable/s • Operationalization • Hypotheses • Theory/ theories • Method/s

24. Das ist alles fuer heute!