Lecture slides from the first session. Materials from LSE were removed because of copyright issues.

1. INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
IDEOLOGIES & THEORIES
By Amin Sadeghi

2. IR vs. international relations
International Relations (IR) is the study of international relations.
Brown & Ainley, 2005
Sentence 1: Global environmental issues are an important part of
international relations.
Sentence 2: International relations have become further complicated by an
increase in the relative importance of international economic problems.
Sentence 3: All understandings of International Relations and of the other
social sciences are necessarily theoretical.
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3. IR as a subfield of Political Science
Great thinkers of the past: Plato, Aristotle,
Machiavelli, Hobbes, Hegel, Tocqueville, Nietzsche,
etc.
It “is not that political science makes no progress, or
that we are somehow uniquely fixated on an ancient
past, but because these works provide us with the
most basic questions that continue to guide our
field.”
“We continue to ask the same questions that were
asked by” those great thinkers of the past –
concerning justice, rights, liberty.
Their answers, are not the final authority, and we do
not necessarily accept them.
“These doctrines have not simply been refuted, or
replaced, or historically superceded.”
Political Science subfields
Political Philosophy
Government Studies
Comparative Politics
International Relations
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4. Definitions in IR
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5. Government vs. State vs. Sovereignty
A government is the organization in charge of creating and administering
laws for a region and its people. Governments can exist at national,
regional and local levels, with local governments subordinate to higher-
level governments.
Internationally, the term "state" is usually shorthand for "sovereign state,"
the technical term for an independent country. A state, no matter what the
type, has to be controlled by a government. If a region has no government,
then it is not a state. Likewise, if a government doesn't control any actual
territory or people, the area it claims to represent is also not a state.
"Sovereign" means that the government is the top authority within its
territory and doesn't answer to any other country's government. If a
government has sovereign control over a particular territory, it can form a
sovereign state. Proving that a government has sovereign control over a
territory is a key part of convincing the world that the area is a legitimate
country.
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6. Westphalian revolution
384–322 BCE 1648 1918
Aristotle Treaty of Westphalia Wilson’s 14 Points
The father of political
science
‘Sovereignty’ and
international relations
International Relations as
an academic discipline
Many international relations theorists date the contemporary system
from 1648, the year of the Treaty of Westphalia, ending the Thirty
Years War. This treaty marks the end of rule by religious authority
in Europe.
Mingst & Arreguín-Toft, 2010
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7. Treaty of Westphalia’s impact
It embraced the notion of sovereignty—that the sovereign enjoyed
exclusive rights within a given territory. It also established that
states could determine their own domestic policies in their own
geographic space.
Leaders sought to establish their own permanent national
militaries. The state thus became more powerful since the state had
to collect taxes to pay for these militaries and the leaders assumed
absolute control over the troops.
It established a core group of states that dominated the world
until the beginning of the nineteenth century: Austria, Russia,
England, France, and the United Provinces of the Netherlands and
Belgium.
Mingst & Arreguín-Toft, 2010
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8. ‘liberal internationalism’
US account of what went wrong in 1914 stressed the
failure of diplomacy, Woodrow Wilson set out in the
Fourteen Points speech of January 1918, in which
America’s war aims were specified.
The adaptation of broadly liberal political principles to
the management of the international system, produced in
Britain and America is conveniently summarized as
‘liberal internationalism’.
Brown & Ainley, 2005
July 1914 April 1917 Jan. 1918 Dec. 1918
Start of WWI USA entered WWI Wilson’s speech End of WWI
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9. How it all started
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Cox with Campanaro, LSE, 2012
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10. Metatheories in IR
“The search for a better theory forms the third debate. . . [It] is
potentially the richest, most promising and exciting that we
have ever had in international relations.” Michael Banks
(1986: 17)
Following the “idealism versus realism” schism of the 1920s
and 1930s, and transcending the more recent “history versus
science” exchange of the 1950s and 1960s, in the late 1980s
the discipline stands in the midst of a third discipline defining
debate (Maghroori and Ramberg, 1982; Holsti, 1985a; Banks,
1986).
The “third debate” in the field of international relations …
constitutes a still maturing disciplinary effort to reconsider
theoretical options in a “post-positivist” era.
Yosef Lapid, 1989
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11. Realism
Main assumptions
The state is the principal, unitary, rational actor in war and politics in general.
(Thucydides)
States exist in an anarchic international system. (Hobbes)
Human nature is seen as inherently selfish and bad. (Hobbes)
Morgenthau’s three levels of analysis:
 The flawed individual in the state of nature struggles for self-preservation.
 The autonomous and unitary state is constantly involved in power struggles, balancing power with power
and preserving the national interest.
 Because the international system is anarchic—there is no higher power to put the competition to an end—
the struggle is continuous.
The security dilemma is that in a zero-sum world, improvements in a state’s power
come at the expense of other states, which lose relative power. (Herz, 1950)
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12. Why do states want power?
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Classical realists
(like Hans Morgenthau, 1948a)
Human nature
Structural realists The structure or architecture of the international
system that forces states to pursue power.
How much power is enough?
Defensive (structural) realists
(like Kenneth Waltz, 1979)
It is unwise for states to try to maximize their share
of world power, because the system will punish
them if they attempt to gain too much power.
Offensive (structural) realists
(like John Mearsheimer, 2001)
It makes good strategic sense for states to gain as
much power as possible and, if the circumstances
are right, to pursue hegemony.

13. Types of power according to Mersheimer
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Military power Tangible military assets that states possess: armoured divisions and
nuclear weapons.
Latent power A state’s wealth and the size of its overall population: the raw
potential a state can draw from money, technology, and personnel.
Why do states want power?
The more powerful a state is relative to its competitors, the less likely it is
that it will be attacked. In essence, the structure of the system forces every
great power – even those that would otherwise be satisfied with the status
quo – to think and act when appropriate like a revisionist state.
Mearsheimer, 2001
Power

14. Waltz predicted that a “shift away from bipolarity would be towards unipolarity (that is, an end to
the anarchical system) – if the Soviet Union were unable to remain in competition with the United
States (Waltz 1979).”
Brown & Ainley, 2005
The immediate post-Cold War world is not multipolar. It is unipolar. The center of world power is
the unchallenged superpower, the United States, attended by its Western allies. (The Unipolar
Moment)
Charles Krauthammer, 1991
Democracies coexist with undemocratic states. Although democracies seldom fight democracies,
they do, as Michael Doyle has noted, fight at least their share of wars against others.
Waltz, 2000
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Polarity

15. The challenges of the anarchical world order include:
 Economic rivalry
 Security dilemmas
 Arms races
 Hyper-nationalism
 Balancing alliances
 The threat of war
Deudney and Ikenberry (1999: 180)
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Contemporary world issues
(according to Neorealists)

16. States do not fight all others even when purely realist principles dominate; they
are constrained by geography, the coincidence of national interests expressed
in alliances, and the balance of power. Deterrence forms the heart of survival,
but deterrence—and especially nuclear deterrence—is an uncertain and
dangerous way of avoiding war. Treating all international politics as unending
struggle, and everyone as a potential enemy, risks becoming a self-fulfilling
prophecy.
This perspective, sometimes labelled liberal-institutionalist, is associated with
classical analysts like John Locke, Hugo Grotius, and Immanuel Kant.
Doyle was one of the first IR theorists in the modern era to advance the Kantian
idea of a liberal peace - Michael Doyle (1997), Ways of War and Peace.
Dunne, Kurki & Smith, 2013
Liberalism
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17. There are three versions of liberalism that are still current today:
1. Classical liberalism revolved around individual liberty, human
independence, the rule of law, and it importantly restricted what states
and governments were entitled to do to individuals.
2. Social liberalism explored the conditions for individual development and
growth, and sustained by networks of mutual assistance and
interdependence. From that branch of liberalism arose the modern welfare
state.
3. Neoliberalism emphasises the beneficial consequences of competitive
markets and personal advancement far more than the general nourishing
of human well-being.
Freeden, 2015
Liberalism
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18. Economic liberalism:
It is beneficial in the long run if markets are allowed to operate freely.
States should be able to trade openly with each other.
The role of the state in economic affairs should be kept to a minimum.
Smith, El-Anis & Farrands, 2010
Main assumptions
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19. Tradition of liberal thought (freedom of the individual):
John Locke (1632–1704): Father of Classical Liberalism; Thomas Jefferson
(1743–1826); Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832); John Stuart Mill (1806–1873)
Economic Liberalism
David Hume (1711–1776); Adam Smith (1723–1790); John Maynard Keynes
(1883–1946)
Ibid.
Liberal thought (as a broad political ideology):
 Liberty
 Equality (there is divide on this one)
Authors
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20. Prior to “World War I”, almost all currencies were convertible
into gold.
1752: Hume, in one of his nine essays: changes in price levels
would naturally correct the inflows and outflows of gold that
resulted from international trade; the Mercantilists’ way would
be unsustainable as a continual flow of gold would “raise
domestic prices” and “cause economic activity to move abroad”,
therefore reversing the flow of gold.
Ibid.
David Hume (1711–1776)
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21. 1776: The Wealth of Nations: “production and economic growth”
are the determinants of wealth; this economic growth is best
achieved by the “operation of free markets” with a “minimum of
political interference”.
The ‘invisible hand’ (term): how the market convert the
“individual pursuit of self-interest” into benefits for society as a
whole.
He believed in “free trade” and use of “tariffs” as a temporary
retaliatory measure against states engaged in trade protectionism
to convince them of the error of their ways > reflected today in
WTO rules.
‘The Adam Smith Institute’ is a contemporary UK-based pro-
market think-tank.
Adam Smith (1723–1790)
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22. In the period after the First World War and in particular after
the Great Depression of the 1930s: the idea that “minimal state
involvement would result in benefits for all” was questioned.
“International institutions” were now viewed as necessary to
ensure that a system of free trade would be mutually beneficial
(vs. classic liberals’ faith in the strength of the interdependence
that results from trade: they did not foresee “the need for
institutions to guarantee world peace”).
Ibid.
A significant shift in liberal thought (1930s)
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23. He differed from many liberal thinkers in emphasising the importance of
“imperfections in the market”: the existence of producer groups, labour unions and so
on meant that the liberal interpretation of markets as self-regulating was not matched
by reality.
(State intervention at the domestic level) In his opinion, to avoid the negative
consequences of economic recession, full employment should be the major goal of
macroeconomic policy.
(State intervention at the international level) In his opinion, to avoid the desire to
pursue protectionist policies to achieve full employment, he advocated cooperation:
the world economy could be managed.
The failings of Marxism (in the Soviet Union), the First World War, the Great
Depression, and the Second World War > alerted him to the dangers of mercantilist
policies.
Calls for state intervention in the market were “complementary” rather than a form of
“replacement”.
Ibid.
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946)
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24. Etymology: 1882, French: ‘to let be’; ‘to allow’; “to let people do as they think
best”
18th & early 19th century (wealthier states of Europe and North America) –
present (in many contemporary states).
Ibid.
Laissez-faire economics
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25. "In the modern world, political ideologies are largely defined by their attitude
towards capitalism. Marxists want to overthrow it, liberals to curtail it
extensively, conservatives to curtail it moderately. Those who maintain that
capitalism is a excellent economic system, unfairly maligned, with little or no
need for corrective government policy, are generally known as libertarians."
Hussain, Syed B. (2004)
Some of the top contemporary Libertarian think-tanks:
 Ludwig von Mises Institute
 Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)
 Center for Libertarian Studies
 Cato Institute
 International Society for Individual Liberty (ISIL)
Libertarianism
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26. Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973 )
One of Mises’s notable contributions is his claim that socialism must fail
economically. In a 1920 article, Mises argued that a socialist government could
not make the economic calculations required to organize a complex economy
efficiently.
Mises believed that economic truths are derived from self-evident axioms and
cannot be empirically tested. He laid out his view in his magnum opus, Human
Action, and in other publications, although he failed to persuade many
economists outside the Austrian school. Mises was also a strong proponent of
laissez-faire; he advocated that the government not intervene anywhere in the
economy.
Library of Economics and Liberty (econlib.org)
Austrian School of Economics
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27. Realists maintain that international politics is a struggle for power
(Morgenthau, 1966, p.25), one where alliances are short-lived (Snyder, 2004)
and “the state of nature is a state of war” (Waltz, 1979, p.102). In all, the end
result of this predicted zero sum game bears semblance to the Hobbesian world
of anarchy: insecure, brutal and bloody (Hobbes, 1651).
Structural liberals argue that liberal institutions provide a platform for
“transparency, access, representation, and communication” (Deudney and
Ikenberry, 1999, p.186). Modelled after the Wilsonian structure,
communication helps abridge effects of anarchy. According to Jervis (1985:
73-74), “extensive communication makes it easier for states to explain how
and why they are behaving as they are, and to understand what others are
doing”. When states communicate more, the probability of conflict greatly
reduces. Hence, the end result of the liberal international system bears
semblance to the Kantian’s version of world peace which, in theory, does not
rule out the inevitability of perpetual peace but constantly pursues its
possibility (Kant, 1991, 1970).
Victoria Fajemilehin, 2015 (e-ir.info)
Contemporary world order
(according to Structural Liberals)
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28. References
Brown, C., & Ainley, K. (2005). Understanding International Relations (3rd ed.). Hampshire, New York: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Centanni, E. (n.d.). What Is the Difference Between a State & a Government in International Politics? Retrieved February
09, 2016, from Synonym.com: http://classroom.synonym.com/difference-between-state-government-international-
politics-6328.html
Deudney, D., & Ikenberry , J. G. (1999, April). The Nature and Sources of Liberal International Order. Review of
International Studies, 25(2), 179-196.
Dunne, T., Kurki, M., & Smith, S. (2013). International Relations Theories (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.
Fajemilehin, V. (2015, July 20). Neo-realism and Structural Liberalism: Can Anarchy Really Be Transcended? Retrieved
February 09, 2016, from E-International Relations Students: http://www.e-ir.info/2015/07/20/neo-realism-and-
structural-liberalism-can-anarchy-really-be-transcended/
Freeden, M. (2015). Liberalism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press.
Herz, J. H. (2003 (1950)). The Security Dilemma in International Relations: Background and Present Problems.
International Relations, 17(4), 411-416.
Hussain, S. B. (2004). Encyclopedia of Capitalism (Vol. 2). Facts On File.
Krauthammer, C. (1990, September 18). The Unipolar Moment. Retrieved February 09, 2016, from Foreign Affairs:
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/1991-02-01/unipolar-moment
Lapid, Y. (1989). The Third Debate: On the Prospects of International Theory in a Post-positivist Era. International
Studies Quarterly, 33(3), 235–254.
Mearsheimer, J. J. (2001). The Tragedy of Great Power Politics. Norton.
Mingst, K. A., & Arreguín-Toft, I. M. (2010). Essentials of International Relations (5th ed.). W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Smith, R., El-Anis, I., & Farrands, C. (2010). International Political Economy in the 21st Century: Contemporary Issues and
Analyses (1st ed.). Routledge.
Smith, S. B. (2006). Introduction: What is Political Philosophy? Introduction to Political Philosophy. New Haven,
Connecticut: Open Yale Courses.
The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. (2008). Ludwig von Mises. Retrieved February 09, 2016, from Library of
Economics and Liberty: http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Mises.html
Waltz, K. N. (2000). Structural Realism after the Cold War. International security, 25(1), 5-41.