Dr. David Galbreath

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Dr. David Galbreath Lecturer in Politics and
International Relations d.galbreath_at_abdn.ac.uk Off
ice F36 Edward Wright Building Hours Friday
10-12
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IR Theory Recap

• Key theoretical approaches of international
  relations
• Realism
• Liberalism
• Marxism
• Constructivism

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News Sources

• The Economist (electronic, purchase hard copy)
• Reputable paper Times, Independent, The Guardian
• EUObserver.com (email service)
• http//euobserver.com/

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Approaches to International Organisations

• IR 2001 International Organisations in Europe
  Week 1

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IOs Terms and Concepts

• Anarchy
• Collaboration
• Coordination
• Hegemony
• Collective goods
• Collective bads
• Rationality
• Reciprocity

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Problems with the State-Centric Approach to IR

• Why should we look at international organisations
  at all?
• Competing concepts of the state
• As a concept, lacks precision
• The state of states

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IOs Understanding Co-operation

• Why do states co-operate?
• Why do states form institutions in which to
  co-operate?
• Realists Mature anarchy (Waltz)
• Liberals Institutions and Regimes as structure.
  (Keohane)
• English School Anarchical Society (Bull)

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IOs What are they?

• International organizations are structures for
  political communication.
• They are systems that constrain the behaviour of
  their members, but offer burden-sharing
• Alliances, Regimes and Formal Institutions as
  IOs

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IOs and Formal Institutions

• A broad definition of institutions persistent
  and connected sets of rules that prescribe roles,
  constrain activity, and shape-expectations
  (Keohane)

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IOs and informal institutions

• International organisations are also based on
  what are called informal institutions
• Reciprocity
• Diplomacy
• Transparency

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IR Theory and IOs

• What impact do international organisations play
  on international relations?
• Realist paradigm (Hobbes )
• Liberal paradigm (Kant)
• Critical theories (Marx)
• Constructivist approaches (Wendt)

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What do IOs do?

• Within international relations, what are the
  roles played by international organisations?
• Legitimisation the club of states
• Norm Creation human rights
• Standard setting telecommunications

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IOs and member-states

• What does realism tell us about states and
  sovereignty?
• Why would states sacrifice sovereignty for the
  sake of membership?
• Are international organisations more than just
  their constituent parts?
• How do international organisations get there
  member-states to do what they what them to do?

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EU as an IO

• Is the European Union an international
  organisation?
• What influence does the answer to this question
  influence how we look at the EU?
• How about the other organisations that we look at
  in this course?

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The END