Showing papers in "European Journal of International Relations in 2003"
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that a global monopoly on the legitimate use of organized violence (a world state) is inevitable and that human agency matters all along the way, but is increasi...
Abstract: Long dismissed as unscientific, teleological explanation has been undergoing something of a revival as a result of the emergence of self-organization theory, which combines micro-level dynamics with macro-level boundary conditions to explain the tendency of systems to develop toward stable end-states. On that methodological basis this article argues that a global monopoly on the legitimate use of organized violence — a world state — is inevitable. At the micro-level world state formation is driven by the struggle of individuals and groups for recognition of their subjectivity. At the macro-level this struggle is channeled toward a world state by the logic of anarchy, which generates a tendency for military technology and war to become increasingly destructive. The process moves through five stages, each responding to the instabilities of the one before — a system of states, a society of states, world society, collective security, and the world state. Human agency matters all along the way, but is increasi...
534 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a discourse approach to the study of legitimacy of governance beyond the democratic state, starting from the empirical question of how international organizations legitimate themselves beyond the traditional democratic state.
Abstract: This article presents a discourse approach to the study of legitimacy of governance beyond the democratic state. It starts from the empirical question of how international organizations legitimate ...
299 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a new set of discursive practices that conflate violent crime against women with complex forms of post-communist gendered migration is presented. But, they do not consider the sexual exploitation of trafficked women.
Abstract: While the `trafficking in persons' is a problem that has long plagued the international community, sensationalized media coverage and governmental anti-organized crime initiatives have produced a new set of discursive practices that conflate violent crime against women with complex forms of post-communist gendered migration. These discourses refer to many different forms of exploitation and migration as `trafficking in women for purposes of sexual exploitation'. In other words, they portray all international, often illegal, migration and labour as acts of violated gender and raced innocence and of international organized crime. In this frame, criminalization of all activities related to trafficking appears to be the most logical and effective means of redressing this problem. It simultaneously, however, subjects all East European migrant sex workers to categorizations that defuse what may function as the challenges presented by their sovereign and symbolic boundary transgressions. A focus on crime and vio...
213 citations
TL;DR: This article assess the independent and conditional influences of democracy, interdependence and economic development on the likelihood of fatal militarized disputes over the period 1885 to 1992, and conclude that if the less developed state in a dyad has a per capita GDP below 1400USD, joint democracy is not a significant force for peace.
Abstract: Over the past decade the liberal peace—the finding that democracy and economic interdependence contribute to peace among nations—has emerged as one of the strongest and most important results in the scientific study of international relations. Recent research indicates, however, that the pacific benefits of democracy and interdependence may not be unconditional but contingent upon the wealth of nations. We assess the independent and conditional influences of democracy, interdependence and economic development on the likelihood of fatal militarized disputes over the period 1885 to 1992. Economically important trade has an independent, substantively important pacifying effect, but the conflict-reducing effect of democracy depends on the level of economic development. If the less developed state in a dyad has a per capita GDP below 1400USD, joint democracy is not a significant force for peace. Our results indicate that the vast majority of past research on the democratic peace is imperfectly specified becaus...
144 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the international normative environment shapes the design of peacekeeping operations in fundamental ways, and that UN agencies seem predisposed to adopt strategies that conform with global culture, and to reject strategies that they view as normatively inappropriate, even if the rejected strategies are potentially more likely to accomplish the goals of the mission.
Abstract: Why do peacekeeping agencies, such as the United Nations, pursue certain strategies and not others? Most accounts suggest that peacekeeping mandates reflect the interests of major parties, along with perceptions of how effectively certain strategies will accomplish the goals of peacekeeping. This article argues that another factor — the international normative environment, sometimes called ‘global culture’ — also shapes the design of peacekeeping operations in fundamental ways. Peacekeeping agencies seem predisposed to adopt strategies that conform with global culture, and to reject strategies that they view as normatively inappropriate, even if the rejected strategies are potentially more likely to accomplish the goals of peacekeeping. Changes in the international norms have been accompanied by corresponding shifts in peacekeeping policy; and UN officials have summarily rejected certain proposals for more effective peacekeeping, including the idea of establishing a new trusteeship system, on largely normative grounds. These observations suggest that global culture limits the range of possible policies that peacekeepers can realistically pursue.
133 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose an alternative, "interstitial" understanding of politics that locates politics at the intersections of idiographic, purposive, ethical and instrumental forms of reason and action.
Abstract: Why do states recognize an obligation to observe the rules of international law? Existing accounts of international legal obligation suffer from the problem of 'interiority'. They first ground obligation in some internal feature of the international legal system - such as consent, fairness or dialogue - but when these turn out to be insufficient, they fall back on assumptions about the legitimacy of the international legal system itself, for which they cannot account. The roots of this problem ultimately lie in flawed conceptions of politics that underlie these accounts. To overcome this problem, this article proposes an alternative, 'interstitial' understanding of politics that locates politics at the intersections of idiographic, purposive, ethical and instrumental forms of reason and action. This understanding of politics enables us to rethink the nature of institutional rationality, and in turn the bases of international legal obligation. Furthermore, it provides us with a conceptual framework that illuminates the relationship between historically grounded modes of politics and the legitimacy of particular institutional forms, including the modern system of international law. This argument is illustrated through an explanation of the sacral logic of obligation that undergirded the international legal system in the Age of Absolutism.
94 citations
TL;DR: While the security communities literature has underscored the positive implications of collective identity for sustained peace and cooperation within the communities, it has overlooked the possibiliy of possib... as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: While the `security communities' literature has underscored the positive implications of collective identity for sustained peace and cooperation within the communities, it has overlooked the possib...
91 citations
TL;DR: In recent years, constructivists in International Relations have been attempting to ''seize the middle ground' between positivist objectivism and postmodernist relativism'' as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: In recent years, constructivists in International Relations have been attempting to `seize the middle ground' between positivist objectivism and postmodernist relativism. Yet, while useful in rende...
79 citations
TL;DR: The authors explore and define the concept of a "rogue" state based on a state's domestic patterns of behavior and combine measures of domestic gender equality, ethnic discrimination and state repression.
Abstract: We explore and define the concept of a `rogue' state based on a state's domestic patterns of behavior. We combine measures of domestic gender equality, ethnic discrimination and state repression to...
61 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the strategic constellations in common good provision are represented as matrix games, and clear implications for institutional responses to certain collective action problems are revealed, such as regulatory competition for environmental standards.
Abstract: The provision of common goods poses collective action problems, which may imply that the actors do not provide the good on a voluntary basis. The collective action problem associated with common goods has traditionally been identified as the prisoner’s dilemma. However, the analysis of common goods needs to look more closely at the characteristics of the goods and of the social context of their provision. Different characteristics lead to different collective action problems and thus require different institutional responses. If the strategic constellations in common good provision are represented as matrix games, clear implications for institutional responses to certain collective action problems are revealed. This approach will be demonstrated for the case of regulatory competition for environmental standards. A number of factors which characterize the situation are varied — the heterogeneity of preferences for environmental regulation of the countries concerned; the heterogeneity of their market shares; the type of standards used; and the prevailing trade regime. Different combinations of these conditions lead to different collective action problems and, thus, to different outcomes of regulatory competition. In some cases a ‘race to the top’ of environmental regulation can be expected; in other cases a ‘race to the bottom’ will occur; finally, there are cases where no convergence of regulation will take place at all.
51 citations
TL;DR: David Held's model of cosmopolitan democracy is thus far the most articulate response to the quest to democratize global governance as discussed by the authors, after criticizing the territoriality, Eurocentrism and linearity.
Abstract: David Held's model of cosmopolitan democracy is thus far the most articulate response to the quest to democratize global governance. After criticizing the territoriality, Eurocentrism and linearity...
TL;DR: In fact, the US does seem to be relying on deterrence to decrease the likelihood that Iraq would use weapons of mass destruction if the US invades as mentioned in this paper, which is odd given the enormous preponderance of power that America enjoys and its manifest interests in the region.
Abstract: The American confrontation with Iraq poses important questions for scholarship as well as policy, and many of these involve whether various forms of deterrence can be effective. Our theories in this area tend to be simultaneously descriptive and prescriptive, which complicates analysis of policies with which we disagree. The Bush administration's policy is driven in large measure by the belief that deterrence against a nuclear-armed Iraq would fail. This implies that Iraq could deter American attempts to protect its allies and interests in the region. The administration's policy thus affirms as well as denies the centrality of deterrence. Given the enormous preponderance of power that America enjoys and its manifest interests in the region, the administration position is odd. Saddam's previous behavior does not indicate that he is undeterrable. In fact, the US does seem to be relying on deterrence to decrease the likelihood that Iraq would use weapons of mass destruction if the US invades. The administrat...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the way in which the transmission of ideas associated with the English School has influenced the IR theoretical discourse in China to date and offer sociologically informed explanations of how and why the American intellectual hegemony in IR has been reproduced in a national IR academic community.
Abstract: Why does International Relations (IR) still remain `a not so international discipline'? What promotes/constrains the diffusion of non-American ideas to national IR epistemic communities beyond the trans-Atlantic community as well as Europe? In this article, I tell the story of how the English School (ES) as a non-mainstream approach to theorizing about IR has travelled to China. I examine the way in which the transmission of ideas associated with the ES has influenced the IR theoretical discourse in China to date. Borrowing insights from recent constructivist theorization on how norms and ideas diffuse, I offer sociologically informed explanations of how and why the American intellectual hegemony in IR has been reproduced in a national IR academic community. They suggest that the enduring dominance of the American scholarship in peripheral IR epistemic communities has less to do with either the power or the persuasiveness of ideas than with the American entrepreneurship in promoting international studies....
TL;DR: Checkel and English as discussed by the authors discuss ideas and international political change: Soviet/Russian Behavior and the End of the Cold War (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997) and the Enigma of 1989: The USSR and the Liberation of Eastern Europe (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998).
Abstract: Jeffrey Checkel, Ideas and International Political Change: Soviet/Russian Behavior and the End of the Cold War (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997) Robert English, Russia and the Idea of the West: Gorbachev, Intellectuals, and the End of the Cold War (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000) Jacques Lévesque, The Enigma of 1989: The USSR and the Liberation of Eastern Europe (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997)
TL;DR: In most studies of foreign economic policy, scholars derive the policy preferences of societal actors by using economic theories to determine the returns from various government actions as discussed by the authors, which is a common task in many economic studies.
Abstract: In most studies of foreign economic policy, scholars derive the policy preferences of societal actors by using economic theories to determine the returns from various government actions These poli
TL;DR: The contracting branch of law and economics contains useful insights into the material functions of boundaries, the strengths and weaknesses of different types of bounda... as discussed by the authors, and the limitations of theories in which the nature of boundaries has little impact on predicted interactions.
Abstract: Without universally efficacious contract enforcement, contracting boundaries divide the world into ‘insiders’, with whom we contract freely, and ‘outsiders’, with whom contracting is circumscribed. Boundary types vary and vacillate between territorially defined ones and ones defined on nonterritorial margins (religion, ethnicity or functional specialization). Sovereignty, or sole legal constitutional authority, has always existed alongside other, less formal systems of contractual enforcement. Both early law and economics and early International Relations theory largely ignored this interacting, overlapping web of enforcement institutions; and recent world events highlight the limitations of theories in which the nature of boundaries — and hence the nature of entities themselves — has little impact on the nature of predicted interactions. The contracting branch of law and economics contains useful insights into the material functions of boundaries, the strengths and weaknesses of different types of bounda...
TL;DR: In this article, Aggarwal and Dupont developed a unified theoretical framework linking types of goods with bargaining games, with the goal of better understanding the bases of international cooperation and the role of institutions.
Abstract: We are pleased that our article ‘Goods, Games and Institutions’ (Aggarwal and Dupont, 1999) has generated considerable interest (Wallner, 2002; Aggarwal and Dupont, 2002). Our basic objective was to develop a unified theoretical framework linking types of goods with bargaining games, with the goal of better understanding the bases of international cooperation and the role of institutions. Katharina Holzinger’s article ‘Common Goods, Matrix Games and Institutional Responses’ in EJIR 9(2) develops several very interesting themes. Holzinger provides a somewhat different cut into the relationship of goods, games and institutions that we initially developed, and provides a carefully developed treatment of the implications of this type of modeling work for environmental regulation. We continue to believe that this avenue of theoretical and empirical work will prove highly productive, and commend Holzinger for her useful extensions and empirical application of our modeling approach. In an effort to provide the reader with an overview of advances in research in this area, we focus on three issues — (1) the conceptual nature of public goods and common pool resources (CPRs); (2) the modeling of the provision problem; and (3) the value of institutions in the provision of goods.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors acknowledge the constructive response of Aggarwal and Dupont to my criticism of their article on 'Goods, Games, and Institutions' and hope that others will contribute to a research programme that links collective action problems, matrix game analysis and institutions.
Abstract: I very much acknowledge the constructive response of Aggarwal and Dupont to my criticism of their article on ‘Goods, Games, and Institutions’. Like Aggarwal and Dupont, I think that ‘our agreements are much deeper than our differences’ and I hope that others will contribute to a research programme that links collective action problems, matrix game analysis and institutions. The remaining disagreements are of a technical nature. In the following I respond to the points Aggarwal and Dupont address in their comment.