Το κείμενο αυτό αποτελεί την εισαγωγή στον τόμο «Ένας Αιώνας Διεθνών Σχέσεων, 1919-2019» (Αθήνα: ... more Το κείμενο αυτό αποτελεί την εισαγωγή στον τόμο «Ένας Αιώνας Διεθνών Σχέσεων, 1919-2019» (Αθήνα: Πεδίο, 2020). Σε αυτό επιχειρούμε μια συνοπτική παρουσίαση των τριών βασικών αξόνων που έχει διαμορφώσει η επιστημονική κοινότητα προκειμένου να αναστοχαστεί τις ιστορικές συνθήκες, τα φιλοσοφικά θεμέλια και τους κοινωνικούς μηχανισμούς παραγωγής γνώσης κατά τη διάρκεια του πρώτου αιώνα ζωής του πεδίου των Διεθνών Σχέσεων. Αναλύουμε πρώτα τον ιστοριογραφικό άξονα (αναφερόμενοι σε παραμορφώσεις του συμβατικού αφηγήματος εξέλιξης του κλάδου που συνεπάγονται στρεβλώσεις της κυρίαρχης ιστορικής αυτοεικόνας), δεύτερον τον φιλοσοφικό άξονα (αναφερόμενοι στη σχέση του κλάδου με τη φιλοσοφία της επιστήμης και τη συνακόλουθη διερεύνηση των φιλοσοφικών θεμελίων των γνωστικών ισχυρισμών του) και τρίτον τον κοινωνιολογικό άξονα (αναφερόμενοι στη σχέση της γνωσιοπαραγωγικής διαδικασίας με κυρίαρχες εξουσιαστικές δομές, όπως αποτυπώνονται λ.χ. στις γεωγραφικές και στις έμφυλες ανισορροπίες του γνωσιοπαραγωγικού καταμερισμού).
The SAGE Handbook of the History, Philosophy and Sociology of International Relations offers a pa... more The SAGE Handbook of the History, Philosophy and Sociology of International Relations offers a panoramic overview of the broad field of International Relations by integrating three distinct but interrelated foci. It retraces the historical development of International Relations (IR) as a professional field of study, explores the philosophical foundations of IR, and interrogates the sociological mechanisms through which scholarship is produced and the field is structured.
Comprising 38 chapters from both established scholars and an emerging generation of innovative meta-theorists and theoretically driven empiricists, the handbook fosters discussion of the field from the inside out, forcing us to come to grips with the widely held perception that IR is experiencing an existential crisis quite unlike anything else in its hundred-year history. This timely and innovative reference volume reflects on situated scholarly practices in a way that projects our collective thinking into the future.
PART ONE: THE INWARD GAZE: INTRODUCTORY REFLECTIONS
PART TWO: IMAGINING THE INTERNATIONAL, ACKNOWLEDGING THE GLOBAL
PART THREE: THE SEARCH FOR (AN) IDENTITY
PART FOUR: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AS A PROFESSION
PART FIVE: LOOKING AHEAD: THE FUTURE OF META-ANALYSIS
After a period of neglect, if not hostility, toward ideational explanations, it is now considered... more After a period of neglect, if not hostility, toward ideational explanations, it is now considered a truism that the study of ideas should be incorporated into our analysis. Indeed, contemporary international and European studies scholarship is awash with talk of ‘ideas’. However, and despite the fact that this rise in interest indicates a state of good theoretical health, the debate seems to be evolving around polemics between ‘ontological terrorists’ and ‘methodological opportunists’. This state of affairs I find unsatisfactory, and in this paper I try to cast an alternative by outlining a constructivist realist approach that is combining insights from constructivist and critical realist scholarship. In doing so, I re-capture the EMU policy process as a socio-cultural cycle that has unfolded in three distinct, yet interrelated, phases –social structuring, social interaction and social elaborationwhere at each phase different discourses, with differing degrees of power, were at work.
The central goal of The Oxford Handbook of Terrorism is to systematically introduce scholars and ... more The central goal of The Oxford Handbook of Terrorism is to systematically introduce scholars and practitioners to state-of-the-art approaches, methods, and issues in studying this vital phenomenon. This Handbook attempts to give structure and direction to the fast-growing but somewhat disjointed field of terrorism studies. The volume locates terrorism within the wider spectrum of political violence instead of engaging in the widespread tendency to treat terrorism as an exceptional act. Moreover, the volume makes a case for studying terrorism within its socio-historical context. And the volume showcases the theoretical insights that various fields—including political science, political economy, history, sociology, anthropology, criminology, law, geography, and psychology—have provided. In doing so, the volume seeks to engage in honest reflection about the analytical advancements and challenges that remain since the evolution of the field in the early 1970s.
The question of “old” versus “new” terrorism has been debated vigorously. Proponents of “new terr... more The question of “old” versus “new” terrorism has been debated vigorously. Proponents of “new terrorism” point to a radical transformation in the character of terrorism, while skeptics point out that today’s terrorism is not a fundamentally or qualitatively new phenomenon but grounded in an evolving historical context. In this paper I take stoke of the debate by means of juxtaposing ideal types of “traditional” and “new” terrorism along the axis of five distinguishing variables: organizational structure; operational range; motives; tactics; and attitude towards the Westphalian system. The analysis reveals several similarities, instead of rigid distinctions, that point in favour of evolution rather the revolution of terrorist activity. Article, thus, question both the analytical value and empirical veracity of “new terrorism”.
This publication is based on a June 2017 workshop that was sponsored by NATO’s Public Diplomacy D... more This publication is based on a June 2017 workshop that was sponsored by NATO’s Public Diplomacy Division. Views expressed in it reflect the opinion of individual authors and should not be construed as representing an official position of NATO.
After a period of neglect, if not hostility, toward ideational explanations we are now faced with... more After a period of neglect, if not hostility, toward ideational explanations we are now faced with a burgeoning literature on the role of ideas. Indeed, as Jacobsen (1995: 283) notes, it now seems obligatory for every work in political economy to consider the 'power of ideas' hypothesis-even if only then to dismiss it. This paper joins the current wave of ideational scholarship in examining the role of ideas in the construction of EMU. However, although the analytical starting-point is one of sharing with current ideational approaches a dissatisfaction with rationalist theorising that 'black-boxes' the processes of interest formation, the rationale of this paper emerges from another dissatisfaction; a dissatisfaction with the way these approaches have conceptualised ideas. It is argued that the current wave of ideational scholarship has not only failed to take ideas seriously (Blyth, 1997), but that it has also created a new ideational orthodoxy that reproduces either the rationalist bias of separating ideas and interests, by treating them as competing variables whose relative explanatory weight is to be methodologically checked, or the institutionalist bias that assigns ontological primacy to institutions. In an attempt to move beyond these deficiencies in the examination of how the interaction between ideas and interests produced the ideational consensus around the sets of ideas that EMU amalgamates, it tries to clearly specify the EMU ideas and analyse the ideational entrepreneurs involved and ideational transfer mechanisms at work.
For years now, it seems almost obligatory for every study on terrorism to make a reference to the... more For years now, it seems almost obligatory for every study on terrorism to make a reference to the potential bias of under-reporting. Despite substantial progress in the applied study of terrorism, the question of under-reporting refuses to lie down. In this paper we propose a method that allows assessing its presence. In particular, we expect that under-reporting bias will decrease
The appeal to ideas as causal variables and/or constitutive features of political processes incre... more The appeal to ideas as causal variables and/or constitutive features of political processes increasingly characterises political analysis. Yet, perhaps because of the pace of this ideational intrusion, too often ideas have simply been grafted onto pre-existing explanatory theories at precisely the point at which they seem to get into difficulties, with little or no consideration either of the status of such ideational variables or of the character or consistency of the resulting theoretical hybrid. This is particularly problematic for ideas are far from innocent variables-and can rarely, if ever, be incorporated seamlessly within existing explanatory and/or constitutive theories without ontological and epistemological consequence. We contend that this tendency along with the limitations of the prevailing Humean conception of causality, and associated epistemological polemic between causal and constitutive logics, continue to plague almost all of the literature that strives to accord an explanatory role to ideas. In trying to move beyond the current vogue for epistemological polemic, we argue that the incommensurability thesis between causal and constitutive logics is only credible in the context of a narrow, Humean, conception of causation. If we reject this in favour of a more inclusive (and ontologically realist) understanding then it is perfectly possible to chart the causal significance of constitutive processes and reconstrue the explanatory role of ideas as causally constitutive.
... I. Data table, TABLE I A Taxonomy of Terrorism Generating Factors. Direct and Internal. The m... more ... I. Data table, TABLE I A Taxonomy of Terrorism Generating Factors. Direct and Internal. The most prominent direct and internal factors are related to political, economic and social conditions that inspire and motivate terrorism. ...
The question of "old" versus "new" terrorism has been debated vigorously. Proponents of "new terr... more The question of "old" versus "new" terrorism has been debated vigorously. Proponents of "new terrorism" point to a radical transformation in the character of terrorism, while skeptics point out that today's terrorism is not a fundamentally or qualitatively new phenomenon but grounded in an evolving historical context. In this paper I take stoke of the debate by means of juxtaposing ideal types of "traditional" and "new" terrorism along the axis of five distinguishing variables: organizational structure; operational range; motives; tactics; and attitude towards the Westphalian system. The analysis reveals several similarities, instead of rigid distinctions, that point in favour of evolution rather the revolution of terrorist activity. Article, thus, question both the analytical value and empirical veracity of "new terrorism".
Ten years after the events of 11 September 2001, terrorism continues to generate intense media in... more Ten years after the events of 11 September 2001, terrorism continues to generate intense media interest, political dialogue and public scrutiny. Few would question the proposition that the nature of international security changed fundamentally on 9/11 and that terrorism is now the pre-eminent security preoccupation of Western states. Through well-publicised discussions about its constitution and consequences, terrorism, and especially the questionable notion of a ‘new’ terrorism, has been framed in the prevailing public discourse as an all-pervasive societal threat that deliberately targets innocent civilians, motivated by religious fanaticism rather than political ideology and aimed at causing maximum destruction. In turn, the official response to this ‘new threat’ has crystallised in the emergence of a new global counterterrorist paradigm which justifies the global war on terror, relying on a strategy of military pre-emption, coercive interrogation methods, the use of domestic surveillance activities and many homeland security practices previously considered unnecessary or morally abhorrent (Jackson, 2007; Crenshaw, 2008).
Despite substantial progress in the applied study of terrorism, one important methodological issu... more Despite substantial progress in the applied study of terrorism, one important methodological issue has remained underdeveloped. Multiple warnings have urged for caution as the validity of extant findings may have been distorted from the well-known “devil” of underreporting bias. Yet, extant research has fallen short from addressing the issue in a systematic fashion. This article discusses a way for assessing
For years now, it seems almost obligatory for every study on terrorism to make a reference to the... more For years now, it seems almost obligatory for every study on terrorism to make a reference to the potential bias of under-reporting. Despite substantial progress in the applied study of terrorism, the question of under-reporting refuses to lie down. In this paper we propose a method that allows assessing its presence. In particular, we expect that under-reporting bias will decrease (increase) for countries experiencing an improvement (deterioration) in their press freedom status. By designing an Event-Study analysis we focus on countries that exhibited transition (“event”) in terms of press freedom and investigate whether the trajectory of observed terrorist activity is altered after the occurrence of an “event.” Our empirical findings illustrate that the long hypothesized under-reporting bias is in operation inviting us to rethink our current knowledge over terrorism in several key areas.
In this paper we develop an empirical model for transnational terrorist activity for a panel cons... more In this paper we develop an empirical model for transnational terrorist activity for a panel consisting of 139 countries over the period 1985-1998. Essentially, we attempt to sketch the profile of the average terrorist attack venue. Our findings suggest that the terrorist attack venue is, on average, characterized by low economic openness, high demographic stress, and a high level of international disputes. Furthermore, we document a strong regional component suggesting the presence of infectious contagion on a spatial level. Our results also support the presence of addictive contagion captured by a strong autoregressive component in each country's terrorist activity. Finally, we find a weak statistical link between the level of democracy and terrorist activity, although the level of democracy is a significant determinant of the potential under-reporting bias of terrorist activity.
Το κείμενο αυτό αποτελεί την εισαγωγή στον τόμο «Ένας Αιώνας Διεθνών Σχέσεων, 1919-2019» (Αθήνα: ... more Το κείμενο αυτό αποτελεί την εισαγωγή στον τόμο «Ένας Αιώνας Διεθνών Σχέσεων, 1919-2019» (Αθήνα: Πεδίο, 2020). Σε αυτό επιχειρούμε μια συνοπτική παρουσίαση των τριών βασικών αξόνων που έχει διαμορφώσει η επιστημονική κοινότητα προκειμένου να αναστοχαστεί τις ιστορικές συνθήκες, τα φιλοσοφικά θεμέλια και τους κοινωνικούς μηχανισμούς παραγωγής γνώσης κατά τη διάρκεια του πρώτου αιώνα ζωής του πεδίου των Διεθνών Σχέσεων. Αναλύουμε πρώτα τον ιστοριογραφικό άξονα (αναφερόμενοι σε παραμορφώσεις του συμβατικού αφηγήματος εξέλιξης του κλάδου που συνεπάγονται στρεβλώσεις της κυρίαρχης ιστορικής αυτοεικόνας), δεύτερον τον φιλοσοφικό άξονα (αναφερόμενοι στη σχέση του κλάδου με τη φιλοσοφία της επιστήμης και τη συνακόλουθη διερεύνηση των φιλοσοφικών θεμελίων των γνωστικών ισχυρισμών του) και τρίτον τον κοινωνιολογικό άξονα (αναφερόμενοι στη σχέση της γνωσιοπαραγωγικής διαδικασίας με κυρίαρχες εξουσιαστικές δομές, όπως αποτυπώνονται λ.χ. στις γεωγραφικές και στις έμφυλες ανισορροπίες του γνωσιοπαραγωγικού καταμερισμού).
The SAGE Handbook of the History, Philosophy and Sociology of International Relations offers a pa... more The SAGE Handbook of the History, Philosophy and Sociology of International Relations offers a panoramic overview of the broad field of International Relations by integrating three distinct but interrelated foci. It retraces the historical development of International Relations (IR) as a professional field of study, explores the philosophical foundations of IR, and interrogates the sociological mechanisms through which scholarship is produced and the field is structured.
Comprising 38 chapters from both established scholars and an emerging generation of innovative meta-theorists and theoretically driven empiricists, the handbook fosters discussion of the field from the inside out, forcing us to come to grips with the widely held perception that IR is experiencing an existential crisis quite unlike anything else in its hundred-year history. This timely and innovative reference volume reflects on situated scholarly practices in a way that projects our collective thinking into the future.
PART ONE: THE INWARD GAZE: INTRODUCTORY REFLECTIONS
PART TWO: IMAGINING THE INTERNATIONAL, ACKNOWLEDGING THE GLOBAL
PART THREE: THE SEARCH FOR (AN) IDENTITY
PART FOUR: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AS A PROFESSION
PART FIVE: LOOKING AHEAD: THE FUTURE OF META-ANALYSIS
After a period of neglect, if not hostility, toward ideational explanations, it is now considered... more After a period of neglect, if not hostility, toward ideational explanations, it is now considered a truism that the study of ideas should be incorporated into our analysis. Indeed, contemporary international and European studies scholarship is awash with talk of ‘ideas’. However, and despite the fact that this rise in interest indicates a state of good theoretical health, the debate seems to be evolving around polemics between ‘ontological terrorists’ and ‘methodological opportunists’. This state of affairs I find unsatisfactory, and in this paper I try to cast an alternative by outlining a constructivist realist approach that is combining insights from constructivist and critical realist scholarship. In doing so, I re-capture the EMU policy process as a socio-cultural cycle that has unfolded in three distinct, yet interrelated, phases –social structuring, social interaction and social elaborationwhere at each phase different discourses, with differing degrees of power, were at work.
The central goal of The Oxford Handbook of Terrorism is to systematically introduce scholars and ... more The central goal of The Oxford Handbook of Terrorism is to systematically introduce scholars and practitioners to state-of-the-art approaches, methods, and issues in studying this vital phenomenon. This Handbook attempts to give structure and direction to the fast-growing but somewhat disjointed field of terrorism studies. The volume locates terrorism within the wider spectrum of political violence instead of engaging in the widespread tendency to treat terrorism as an exceptional act. Moreover, the volume makes a case for studying terrorism within its socio-historical context. And the volume showcases the theoretical insights that various fields—including political science, political economy, history, sociology, anthropology, criminology, law, geography, and psychology—have provided. In doing so, the volume seeks to engage in honest reflection about the analytical advancements and challenges that remain since the evolution of the field in the early 1970s.
The question of “old” versus “new” terrorism has been debated vigorously. Proponents of “new terr... more The question of “old” versus “new” terrorism has been debated vigorously. Proponents of “new terrorism” point to a radical transformation in the character of terrorism, while skeptics point out that today’s terrorism is not a fundamentally or qualitatively new phenomenon but grounded in an evolving historical context. In this paper I take stoke of the debate by means of juxtaposing ideal types of “traditional” and “new” terrorism along the axis of five distinguishing variables: organizational structure; operational range; motives; tactics; and attitude towards the Westphalian system. The analysis reveals several similarities, instead of rigid distinctions, that point in favour of evolution rather the revolution of terrorist activity. Article, thus, question both the analytical value and empirical veracity of “new terrorism”.
This publication is based on a June 2017 workshop that was sponsored by NATO’s Public Diplomacy D... more This publication is based on a June 2017 workshop that was sponsored by NATO’s Public Diplomacy Division. Views expressed in it reflect the opinion of individual authors and should not be construed as representing an official position of NATO.
After a period of neglect, if not hostility, toward ideational explanations we are now faced with... more After a period of neglect, if not hostility, toward ideational explanations we are now faced with a burgeoning literature on the role of ideas. Indeed, as Jacobsen (1995: 283) notes, it now seems obligatory for every work in political economy to consider the 'power of ideas' hypothesis-even if only then to dismiss it. This paper joins the current wave of ideational scholarship in examining the role of ideas in the construction of EMU. However, although the analytical starting-point is one of sharing with current ideational approaches a dissatisfaction with rationalist theorising that 'black-boxes' the processes of interest formation, the rationale of this paper emerges from another dissatisfaction; a dissatisfaction with the way these approaches have conceptualised ideas. It is argued that the current wave of ideational scholarship has not only failed to take ideas seriously (Blyth, 1997), but that it has also created a new ideational orthodoxy that reproduces either the rationalist bias of separating ideas and interests, by treating them as competing variables whose relative explanatory weight is to be methodologically checked, or the institutionalist bias that assigns ontological primacy to institutions. In an attempt to move beyond these deficiencies in the examination of how the interaction between ideas and interests produced the ideational consensus around the sets of ideas that EMU amalgamates, it tries to clearly specify the EMU ideas and analyse the ideational entrepreneurs involved and ideational transfer mechanisms at work.
For years now, it seems almost obligatory for every study on terrorism to make a reference to the... more For years now, it seems almost obligatory for every study on terrorism to make a reference to the potential bias of under-reporting. Despite substantial progress in the applied study of terrorism, the question of under-reporting refuses to lie down. In this paper we propose a method that allows assessing its presence. In particular, we expect that under-reporting bias will decrease
The appeal to ideas as causal variables and/or constitutive features of political processes incre... more The appeal to ideas as causal variables and/or constitutive features of political processes increasingly characterises political analysis. Yet, perhaps because of the pace of this ideational intrusion, too often ideas have simply been grafted onto pre-existing explanatory theories at precisely the point at which they seem to get into difficulties, with little or no consideration either of the status of such ideational variables or of the character or consistency of the resulting theoretical hybrid. This is particularly problematic for ideas are far from innocent variables-and can rarely, if ever, be incorporated seamlessly within existing explanatory and/or constitutive theories without ontological and epistemological consequence. We contend that this tendency along with the limitations of the prevailing Humean conception of causality, and associated epistemological polemic between causal and constitutive logics, continue to plague almost all of the literature that strives to accord an explanatory role to ideas. In trying to move beyond the current vogue for epistemological polemic, we argue that the incommensurability thesis between causal and constitutive logics is only credible in the context of a narrow, Humean, conception of causation. If we reject this in favour of a more inclusive (and ontologically realist) understanding then it is perfectly possible to chart the causal significance of constitutive processes and reconstrue the explanatory role of ideas as causally constitutive.
... I. Data table, TABLE I A Taxonomy of Terrorism Generating Factors. Direct and Internal. The m... more ... I. Data table, TABLE I A Taxonomy of Terrorism Generating Factors. Direct and Internal. The most prominent direct and internal factors are related to political, economic and social conditions that inspire and motivate terrorism. ...
The question of "old" versus "new" terrorism has been debated vigorously. Proponents of "new terr... more The question of "old" versus "new" terrorism has been debated vigorously. Proponents of "new terrorism" point to a radical transformation in the character of terrorism, while skeptics point out that today's terrorism is not a fundamentally or qualitatively new phenomenon but grounded in an evolving historical context. In this paper I take stoke of the debate by means of juxtaposing ideal types of "traditional" and "new" terrorism along the axis of five distinguishing variables: organizational structure; operational range; motives; tactics; and attitude towards the Westphalian system. The analysis reveals several similarities, instead of rigid distinctions, that point in favour of evolution rather the revolution of terrorist activity. Article, thus, question both the analytical value and empirical veracity of "new terrorism".
Ten years after the events of 11 September 2001, terrorism continues to generate intense media in... more Ten years after the events of 11 September 2001, terrorism continues to generate intense media interest, political dialogue and public scrutiny. Few would question the proposition that the nature of international security changed fundamentally on 9/11 and that terrorism is now the pre-eminent security preoccupation of Western states. Through well-publicised discussions about its constitution and consequences, terrorism, and especially the questionable notion of a ‘new’ terrorism, has been framed in the prevailing public discourse as an all-pervasive societal threat that deliberately targets innocent civilians, motivated by religious fanaticism rather than political ideology and aimed at causing maximum destruction. In turn, the official response to this ‘new threat’ has crystallised in the emergence of a new global counterterrorist paradigm which justifies the global war on terror, relying on a strategy of military pre-emption, coercive interrogation methods, the use of domestic surveillance activities and many homeland security practices previously considered unnecessary or morally abhorrent (Jackson, 2007; Crenshaw, 2008).
Despite substantial progress in the applied study of terrorism, one important methodological issu... more Despite substantial progress in the applied study of terrorism, one important methodological issue has remained underdeveloped. Multiple warnings have urged for caution as the validity of extant findings may have been distorted from the well-known “devil” of underreporting bias. Yet, extant research has fallen short from addressing the issue in a systematic fashion. This article discusses a way for assessing
For years now, it seems almost obligatory for every study on terrorism to make a reference to the... more For years now, it seems almost obligatory for every study on terrorism to make a reference to the potential bias of under-reporting. Despite substantial progress in the applied study of terrorism, the question of under-reporting refuses to lie down. In this paper we propose a method that allows assessing its presence. In particular, we expect that under-reporting bias will decrease (increase) for countries experiencing an improvement (deterioration) in their press freedom status. By designing an Event-Study analysis we focus on countries that exhibited transition (“event”) in terms of press freedom and investigate whether the trajectory of observed terrorist activity is altered after the occurrence of an “event.” Our empirical findings illustrate that the long hypothesized under-reporting bias is in operation inviting us to rethink our current knowledge over terrorism in several key areas.
In this paper we develop an empirical model for transnational terrorist activity for a panel cons... more In this paper we develop an empirical model for transnational terrorist activity for a panel consisting of 139 countries over the period 1985-1998. Essentially, we attempt to sketch the profile of the average terrorist attack venue. Our findings suggest that the terrorist attack venue is, on average, characterized by low economic openness, high demographic stress, and a high level of international disputes. Furthermore, we document a strong regional component suggesting the presence of infectious contagion on a spatial level. Our results also support the presence of addictive contagion captured by a strong autoregressive component in each country's terrorist activity. Finally, we find a weak statistical link between the level of democracy and terrorist activity, although the level of democracy is a significant determinant of the potential under-reporting bias of terrorist activity.
The appeal to ideas as causal variables and/or constitutive features of political processes incre... more The appeal to ideas as causal variables and/or constitutive features of political processes increasingly characterises political analysis. Yet, perhaps because of the pace of this ideational intrusion, too often ideas have simply been grafted onto pre-existing explanatory theories at precisely the point at which they seem to get into difficulties, with little or no consideration either of the status of such ideational variables or of the character or consistency of the resulting theoretical hybrid. This is particularly problematic for ideas are far from innocent variables - and can rarely, if ever, be incorporated seamlessly within existing explanatory and/or constitutive theories without ontological and epistemological consequence. We contend that this tendency along with the limitations of the prevailing Humean conception of causality, and associated epistemological polemic between causal and constitutive logics, continue to plague almost all of the literature that strives to accord an explanatory role to ideas. In trying to move beyond the current vogue for epistemological polemic, we argue that the incommensurability thesis between causal and constitutive logics is only credible in the context of a narrow, Humean, conception of causation. If we reject this in favour of a more inclusive (and ontologically realist) understanding then it is perfectly possible to chart the causal significance
Since the summer of 2002, the Olympia Summer Academy (http://olympiasummeracademy.org/) has been ... more Since the summer of 2002, the Olympia Summer Academy (http://olympiasummeracademy.org/) has been offering annually a wide range of specialized courses in Political Science and International Studies. During the course of these years, the Academy has acquired a stellar reputation not only for its high academic standards but also for its distinct identity that blends effectively the scholarly exchange with the friendly atmosphere, thus providing participants with the opportunity of a multicultural and holistic academic experience. Join us and benefit from:
• a faculty at the cutting edge of academic research; • a worldwide scholarly network that each year brings together a highly diverse and talented group of about 100 graduate students and professors from more than 30 countries; • a program with a tremendous social dynamic and friendly atmosphere, where the intellectual bonds and relationships formed during its course continue long after its conclusion; • a picturesque venue where the medieval meets the modern.
Για κάποιους, η προοπτική των σινο-αµερικανικών σχέσεων είναι εγκλωβισµένη σε µια «θουκυδίδεια πα... more Για κάποιους, η προοπτική των σινο-αµερικανικών σχέσεων είναι εγκλωβισµένη σε µια «θουκυδίδεια παγίδα». Για άλλους, σε µια καντιανή προοπτική. Ένα είναι βέβαιο. Το µέλλον των σινο-αµερικανικών σχέσεων αποτελεί µία από τις µεγαλύτερες προκλήσεις τόσο για την τρέχουσα πολιτική όσο και για τη θεωρία των ∆ιεθνών Σχέσεων. Θεωρία η οποία δέχεται διττή κριτική. Αφενός, λόγω της τάσης της να καθίσταται ολοένα και περισσότερο αφαιρετική. Αφετέρου, λόγω της αδυναµίας της να αναπτύξει προγνωστικά εργαλεία. Το βιβλίο υποστηρίζει ότι το πρόβληµα της θεωρίας εδράζεται αλλού: στον εξηγητικό µονισµό που υιοθετεί και εκφράζεται µε όρους αναλυτικής «µεροληψίας». Άλλωστε, η αποστασιοποίηση από την πολιτική πράξη είναι υγιές φαινόµενο, ενώ η αναζήτηση µιας προγνωστικής επιστήµης των ∆ιεθνών Σχέσεων (όσο σαγηνευτική και αν είναι) αποπολιτικοποιεί την πολιτική. Μετά από µια αναλυτική χαρτογράφηση θεωρητικών προβολών στη σινο-αµερικανική πρόκληση, το βιβλίο καταλήγει στην παράφραση µιας πάντοτε επίκαιρης διδαχής του Hans Morgenthau: η δεινότητα στην ανάλυση της διεθνούς πολιτικής δεν προϋποθέτει την πιστή εφαρµογή ενός µηχανιστικού µοντέλου, αλλά τη σοφία και την ταπεινότητα ενός αυθεντικού στοχαστή.
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Books by Andreas Gofas
Comprising 38 chapters from both established scholars and an emerging generation of innovative meta-theorists and theoretically driven empiricists, the handbook fosters discussion of the field from the inside out, forcing us to come to grips with the widely held perception that IR is experiencing an existential crisis quite unlike anything else in its hundred-year history. This timely and innovative reference volume reflects on situated scholarly practices in a way that projects our collective thinking into the future.
PART ONE: THE INWARD GAZE: INTRODUCTORY REFLECTIONS
PART TWO: IMAGINING THE INTERNATIONAL, ACKNOWLEDGING THE GLOBAL
PART THREE: THE SEARCH FOR (AN) IDENTITY
PART FOUR: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AS A PROFESSION
PART FIVE: LOOKING AHEAD: THE FUTURE OF META-ANALYSIS
Papers by Andreas Gofas
Comprising 38 chapters from both established scholars and an emerging generation of innovative meta-theorists and theoretically driven empiricists, the handbook fosters discussion of the field from the inside out, forcing us to come to grips with the widely held perception that IR is experiencing an existential crisis quite unlike anything else in its hundred-year history. This timely and innovative reference volume reflects on situated scholarly practices in a way that projects our collective thinking into the future.
PART ONE: THE INWARD GAZE: INTRODUCTORY REFLECTIONS
PART TWO: IMAGINING THE INTERNATIONAL, ACKNOWLEDGING THE GLOBAL
PART THREE: THE SEARCH FOR (AN) IDENTITY
PART FOUR: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AS A PROFESSION
PART FIVE: LOOKING AHEAD: THE FUTURE OF META-ANALYSIS
ideational intrusion, too often ideas have simply been grafted onto pre-existing explanatory theories
at precisely the point at which they seem to get into difficulties, with little or no consideration either of the status of such ideational variables or of the character or consistency of the resulting theoretical hybrid. This is particularly problematic for ideas are far from innocent variables - and can rarely, if ever, be incorporated seamlessly within existing explanatory and/or constitutive theories without ontological and epistemological consequence. We contend that this
tendency along with the limitations of the prevailing Humean conception of causality, and associated epistemological polemic between causal and constitutive logics, continue to plague almost all of the literature that strives to accord an explanatory role to ideas. In trying to move beyond the current vogue for epistemological polemic, we argue that the incommensurability thesis between causal and constitutive logics is only credible in the context of a narrow,
Humean, conception of causation. If we reject this in favour of a more inclusive (and ontologically realist) understanding then it is perfectly possible to chart the causal significance
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