In international relations, realism commonly comes under attack. Realism is the belief that states are rational and that they pursue their interests and their interests exclusively through rational means. Realism is a descriptive theory–it makes claims about how the world is. Many people criticise realism on the grounds that this is very much not the whole story. It is often unclear what a state’s interests are in the first place, and there are many cases in which states act in ways that seem to run contrary to their interests. States sometimes make irrational mistakes. We know that states are not exclusively rational because we care who determines our foreign policy. If all leaders were rationally and pursued the same set of interests rationally, all leaders would be equivalent to one another in policy. Insofar as there are policy differences among different leaders, there is either disagreement about interests, more rational and less rational policies in pursuit of interests, or some combination of both of these things. This often makes realism seem reductionist. It ignores the way we construct our interests, taking them as given. It also ignores the mistakes that people make, the capacity for leaders to be incompetent. However, I do not think realism can be dismissed on these grounds. Instead, it requires re-framing.
Category: International Relations
Leave Dennis Rodman Alone
So Dennis “The Worm” Rodman is back from North Korea and he’s made a new friend out of its supreme leader, Kim Jong-un. Rodman was interviewed by George Stephanopoulos about his experience, and Stephanopoulos made no effort to hide his disdain for Rodman’s visit and for the positive things Rodman had to say about his new friend. Typically, I am not bothered by knowledgeable people who talk down or condescend to less knowledgeable people. It is not a particularly kind thing to do, but I understand the frustration of trying to make a point to someone who does not have the requisite intellectual background to receive it in the way one intends. I am however perturbed when an individual is wrongly condescended to by someone with no significant superiority of thought or knowledge. This prompts me to write this post, a defence of Dennis Rodman’s conduct in North Korea.
A Critique of Just War Theory
Today I had a seminar on just war theory, the theory of when it is justifiable for one state to go to war with another. Throughout the seminar, it continued to strike me that just war theory in and of itself is a mistaken concept. Let me show you what I mean.
Dead Baby Interventionism
Lately I’ve been noticing a new social networking trend–the tendency for people who are passionate about a given humanitarian crisis (examples include Syria, drones in Pakistan, Kony in the Congo–surprisingly, not Mali) to post pictures of various dead, injured, or disfigured babies or children who purportedly were killed, injured, or disfigured over the course of their respective conflicts. Accompanying the pictures is usually some caption designed to engender empathy (one such example I recall was “imagine if this were your child”). This strikes me as somewhat simplistic. Not much critical thought is being given to what the responsibilities of developed states are. Instead, the entire discussion is being reduced to “children are dying, this is bad, developed states can stop bad things, developed states should stop this”. So today I’d like to think about it a little bit deeper than that.
David Cameron’s EU Referendum
British Prime Minister David Cameron has pledged to hold an in-out referendum on British membership of the European Union by 2017. This is a very bad idea. Here’s why.
Benjamin Studebaker 