International Relations Theory VI

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International Relations Theory VI

• Post-structuralism

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Introduction

• Founding father M. Foucault
• Main exponents R.Ashley, J. Der Derian, M.
  Shapiro, R.B.J. Walker
• Not a new paradigm of theory but a critical
  attitude
• Critical constructivism
• Social science is not neutral
• Every theory decides what counts as facts
• Rejection of positivism and empiricism
• Opposition to meta-narratives (realism,
  liberalism)
• Knowledge and power are intimately related
• There is no existing truth outside of power

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Key theoretical assumptions

• Subjective knowledge of social phenomena
• Rejection of the positivist notion of objective
  truth
• Skepticism towards the possibility of universal
  truth
• The practice of deconstructive criticism
• To take theories apart in order to disclose their
  arbitrary elements and biased intentions
• Abstraction, representation, interpretation
• Dominant Western representation of the world
• The exclusion of different and alternative
  representations

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Corollaries

• Political practices include some and exclude
  others
• Focus of the analysis rather than the state the
  practices of statecraft
• Not the state as such but its historical and
  conceptual constitution
• The historical struggle between state and church
• The historical struggle between science and
  teology as the basis of the social order
• The criticism of the new dogma of the
  Enlightenment
• The importance of trans-national actors
• The voices of excluded peoples and perspectives

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Post-structuralism and the IR theory debate

• Post-structuralism vs neo-realism
• Denounce neo-realist historical and social bias
• A-historical bias of neo-realism
• Deconstruction of neo-realist reification of
  historically produced social structures
• Criticism of neo-realist continuity and
  repetition
• Criticism of the ideas of domestic sovereign
  statehood and international anarchy
• Criticism of the role of the state as the
  legitimate basis for political and social order

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Post-structuralism or Post-modernism?

• The relationship between knowledge and power
• The historical nature of knowledge
• The material power which empowers subjectivity
• Identity and the linguistic construction of
  reality
• Social-constitution of meaning
• Challenging the dogma of the state as the
  legitimate basis of social order
• Re-interpreting the indeterminate and pluralistic
  culture of the world and human society
• Giving voice to the marginalized cultures
• An attack on modernism? Post-modernism

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Post-structural examples

• The resistance struggle against the imperial
  power blocs during the Cold War
• Emphasing political subjectivities
• The Algerian civil war (1954-1962)
• The Vietnam war (1959-1975)
• The Prague Spring (1968)
• The stundent movement in France (1968)
• The pacifist movement in the FRG (1980s)
• The demands for Third World economic justice
• The environmental and women rights movements
• The indigenous peoples movements

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Conclusions

• Critique as an inherently positive exercise
• The possibility for pursuing alternatives
• The criticism of positivism and of the concept of
  objective knowledge
• Is post-structuralism biased?
• Is the deconstruction more original than the
  construction?
• Can the post-structuralist critique be turned
  upon itself?
• The de-construction of the human rights dogma
• The risk of Nihilism
• Rejection of the possibility and value of
  knowledge