Showing papers in "European Journal of International Relations in 1996"
TL;DR: The study of identity offers a possibility to theorize on the human collectives of world politics, to give them an ontological status, and to discuss how they are constituted and maintain themselves.
Abstract: The study of identity offers a possibility to theorize on the human collectives of world politics, to give them an ontological status, and to discuss how they are constituted and maintain themselves. The first part discusses social theorizing of collective identity along the ethnographic, the psychological, the Continental philosophical, and particularly, the `Eastern excursion' of theorizing; Bakhtin, Levinas and Kristeva are lauded for jettisoning a dialectical mode of analysis in favour of a dialogical one which respects difference. The second part discusses how Der Derian, Shapiro, Campbell, the `Copenhagen coterie' and Wendt have brought this theorizing into IR, and assesses their work in terms of that discussed in the first part. The study of identity formation should do away with psychologizing conjecture and focus on the drawing on social boundaries and the role played by groups who are ambiguously poised between the self and the others. Collective identities are overlapping and multifaceted pheno...
325 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the aggregate dynamics of public support for European integration in the 12 EU member states were analyzed and the proposition that both types of variation can be explained with the help of national economic conditions, timing of entry into the Union, and length of membership in it.
Abstract: What are the aggregate dynamics of public support for European integration in the 12 EU member states? And how can they be explained? Given that mass support for integration varies both across time and across countries, the article tests the proposition that both types of variation can be explained with the help of national economic conditions, timing of entry into the Union, and length of membership in it. Using aggregate Eurobarometer polls for the period between 1973 and 1993, we find that all three factors have significant impacts on support for a united Europe. However, the results also indicate that length of membership in the EU is somewhat more important than economic performance. The paper spells out some of the possible ramifications of these results.
225 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors set out a new concept of citizenship and sovereignty for sub-national revolt, which is based on the combined challenge of globalization and the subnational revolt.
Abstract: Traditional concepts of citizenship and sovereignty have come under pressure from the combined challenge of globalization and the subnational revolt. Against this background this article sets out a...
162 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that if we give the state a transcendental status, it disappears from the world; if we see it merely as a set of empirical attributes, then it disappears in the world, and the way out of this dilemma is to stop talking about what states really are and start instead to talk about what things they resemble.
Abstract: In which sense can we say that a state `exists'? According to the realist school, the state is an a priori given; according to the pluralist school, it is nothing but a collection of various sub-state actors. As I argue, however, neither solution is satisfactory. If we give the state a transcendental status, it disappears from the world; if we see it merely as a set of empirical attributes, it disappears in the world. The way out of this dilemma is to stop talking about what states really are, and start instead to talk about what things they resemble. We make sense of our collective selves in the same way as we make sense of our individual selves — with the help of metaphors that are expanded into narratives. A question of `being' is consequently always a question of `being as', and states are constructed through the stories told about them.
104 citations
TL;DR: In the European state system, the struggle to control the institutions and instruments of organized violence produced an externally-oriented conception of security that rested upon the unconditional legitimacy of the state, a societal consensus over basic values and the near-elimination of violence from political life as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: This article argues that within the European state system, the struggle to control the institutions and instruments of organized violence produced an externally-oriented conception of security that rested upon the unconditional legitimacy of the state, a societal consensus over basic values and the near-elimination of violence from political life, which permitted a strong identification of the security of the state with the security of its citizens. The conditions for such identification do not hold in many parts of the world, and hence this conception cannot address either the threats to state structures or regimes that do not emerge from other states, or the threats that states and regimes can pose to their own citizens or societies.A more historically-sensitive three-dimensional matrix for studying security on regional/interstate, state/regime and societal/individual levels possesses greater explanatory power, while remaining true to the traditional concerns of security studies with the role and influe...
76 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the understanding of world historians about the critical changes in the international system was brought into harmony with the way IR theorists think about system change, which is one of the main objectives of IR theory.
Abstract: How can the understandings of world historians about the critical changes in the international system be brought into harmony with the way IR theorists think about system change? One of the main ob...
65 citations
57 citations
TL;DR: The authors explored an alternative approach to the analysis of patterns in International Relations, which is not to be found in recurring cause-effect sequences, but in shared rules, drawn from the past, by which actions are constituted.
Abstract: This article explores an alternative approach to the analysis of patterns in International Relations. These patterns are not to be found in recurring cause-effect sequences, but in shared rules, drawn from the past, by which actions are constituted. The metatheoretical approach builds on the later work of Wittgenstein, and particularly his use of `language games'. The approach is applied to a cursory analysis of the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The exercise is less explanatory in any complete sense than illustrative of the approach. The choice of context did, however, result from a number of questions that arose during the dramatic events of the summer of 1995. The first was how to understand the apparent inability of `the West' to act. The second was how to understand the change by the end of August 1995 towards more interventionary strategies thought originally to be unrealistic in this context.
47 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that both major decisions leading to the formation of the Economic and Monetary Union among the members of the European Community can be explained in terms of this approach.
Abstract: While most explanations of institutional change in the European Community concentrate either on the interests of governmental actors (intergovernmental institutionalism) or the interests of supranational and transnational actors (supranational institutionalism) the approach developed in this article tries to integrate the interests of governmental actors as well as domestic actors in one analytical framework. The article argues that both major decisions leading to the formation of the Economic and Monetary Union among the members of the European Community, i.e. the approval of the Delors Report and the approval of the results of the Intergovernmental Conference, can be explained in terms of this approach. In the conclusion, some indications are given that this approach might offer a more substantive explanation for the formation of the Economic and Monetary Union than both inter-governmental institutionalism and supranational institutionalism.
31 citations
TL;DR: This article explored the relevance to IPE of the work of one historian, Fern... and found that the professed multidisciplinarity of IPE rarely extends to taking history and the historical mode of thought seriously.
Abstract: The professed multidisciplinarity of IPE rarely extends to taking history and the historical mode of thought seriously. This article explores the relevance to IPE of the work of one historian, Fern...
17 citations
TL;DR: A more careful reading of the Thucydides' narrative reveals a more nuanced and layered explanation for hegemonic war as discussed by the authors, showing that war was not inevitable, but the result of a series of reinforcing miscalculations that allowed civil strife in a remote settlement to escalate into an all-out clash between the two hegemons and their allies.
Abstract: Thucydides' narrative contradicts his assertion that `the growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm this inspired in Lacedaemon, made war inevitable'. It indicates that Spartans went to war to maintain their honor and way of life. They grossly misjudged Athenian power and erroneously expected to fight a short victorious war. The Spartan `peace party' was equally convinced of the need to defend the internal order, but favored peace because of its more realistic appreciation of Athenian power. It also worried that war would undermine that order. The war, moreover, was not inevitable, but the result of a series of reinforcing miscalculations that allowed civil strife in a remote settlement to escalate into an all-out clash between the two hegemons and their allies. Realists have oversimplified Thucydides — and international relations theory — by accepting the argument of Book I at face value. A more careful reading of Thucydides' narrative reveals a more nuanced and layered explanation for hegemonic war. ...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present the basic issue in the study of international cooperation is whether regimes are grounded centrally on mutual interests among states or on power relations, and propose a solution to this problem.
Abstract: An important issue in the study of international cooperation is whether regimes are grounded centrally on mutual interests among states or on power relations. This article presents the basic neorea...
TL;DR: In this article, a causal model is developed that explains the unequal level of economic development of Third World countries on the basis of structural variables, and the model is tested using empirical data on 84 developing countries from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s and applying a multi-sample LISREL analysis.
Abstract: In this article a causal model is developed that explains the unequal level of economic development of Third World countries on the basis of structural variables. The model is tested using empirical data on 84 developing countries from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s and applying a multi-sample LISREL analysis. The model appears to fit the data for the entire period rather well. In an attempt to analyse the changes of the world system over the last several decades, hypotheses were formulated concerning changes in the form of dependence, democratization in the Third World, and the tendency of Third World countries to diversify their production. The results of the analysis indicate that the expected change from `classical' to `modern' dependence is corroborated by the data. No such change was apparent where political repression was concerned. Finally, the causal chain of primary commodity concentration, exploitation, domestic capital formation and economic development appeared to exhibit significant changes over...