Critical Theory

This theory is relatively new, it has been applied to IR in the 18s of the last century. It has
a social theory perceived as an old theory.
Some scholars have developed certain themes and applied it on IR and called it the
International critical theory

Many of its themes go back to the Greek and Roman time as it speaks of freedom,
emancipation, ethics and values

It goes back to Kant time and to Karl Marx, it is a correction of Marxism. It concerned
itself with society.

It is a revolutionary theory that revolted against the traditional claim of knowledge and
against traditional theories of social theories as well as international relations. It revolted
against those theories on ontological and epistemological basis.

Ontology: existence and knowledge

What is the philosophy behind knowledge and science? To develop knowledge about
things hood. This theory contested the traditional theories in their knowledge claim as it
contested the ontological and epistemological basis of science.

This theory question the current orders, criticize them and investigate them to understand
and comprehend them to change them. It sees that traditional theories failed to develop an
inclusive knowledge because they were exclusive theories in the sense that they failed to
take into consideration many of the social groups which were marginalized and ignored.
Traditional theories therefore produced distorted knowledge that resulted in inequality ,
social injustice, shortcomings and exclusive systems. To end such marginalization and
oppression we need to study the current orders and understand them through an
inclusionary process where every social group would participate. Then we will be able to
present comprehensive inclusive knowledge that would provide freedom, equality and
emancipation.

From the critical theory point of view if I want to analyze the democratic system that
existed in the Greek time I will reach to a conclusion that these systems were not
democratic because they were of exclusionary basis as only free men were allowed to
practice democracy and other social groups like women and slaves were not part of such
process. Therefore the knowledge that women and slaves could have produced was
marginalized.

1- Knowledge claim should be inclusionary without marginalization

2- There is a correlation between subject and object.

They criticized traditional theory because they speak of objectivity in sense of separation
between subject and object (knowledge and power).

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 For critical theory knowledge is conditioned by social, cultural and ideological
influences of the society.
For them critical theory should be self-reflective and such a process and methodology
need to be governed by values and ethics.

Social Totality
It differs from liberalism which focuses on an individual, differs from realism as a
problem solving and focused on social forces and emphasized so much on values, power
and knowledge and in producing knowledge in an inclusionary process. That’s why its
methodology was called social totality.
Society consists of different social forces, to understand the society we have to
understand its components and every force in the society through the inclusionary claim
of knowledge. Every part within the society should be part of the knowledge claim to
achieve justice. Each part should be extracted and subtracted to be analyzed and
understood then re inserts it so we can understand the whole society and system. If I was
able to comprehend and understand them which will create a just system that will lead to
freedom and emancipation. No separation between subject and object.

The final stage for critical theory is emancipation where everyone need to participate in
an inclusionary way and the historical conditions that influence the systems needs to be
investigated, understood and changed under circumstances of inclusionary knowledge.

For Habermas for example the invasion on Iraq was determined by the American social
forces which pushed on Bush to invade Iraq.

This theory is a production of Marxism and many of its scholars were Marxists who
developed their themes and corrected Marxism, they applied those themes on IR through
focusing on social forces but not on two classes only. To understand the international
order you need to understand the social forces, any change within the state and the
international order would be attributed to the interaction and change in the social forces
which determine the behavior if the state and the international system.

Social forces produce states, states produce international order.

Arab Spring is validation of the critical theory as the social classes are making a change.

Habermas corrected the historical materialism of Marxism as proletariat were considered

the dominant class and Marxism ignored the interaction between human and it was
unethical, critical theory corrected this.

Human History stages for Marxism:

 Primitive communism
 Feudalism
 Capitalism
 Social universalism
 Communism

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Habermas tried to bridge the gap between diversity and universality.

For Marxism: Communism spoke of collective ownership so proletariat would have a

collective ownership for the means of production as they will win the struggle there
would be nothing to compete over and people would regulate themselves by themselves.

Karl Marx themes were proved invalid. So corrective themes were needed.

Habermas introduce inter subjectivity and communicative ability to bridge the gap
between social forces, he didn’t restrict his emphasis on only two social forces as Marx
did. The believed that the gap is bridgeable between the social forces through
rationalization and ethics.

Inter subjectivity is how to establish own identity and how to bridge the gap between
my identity and other identity through discover all identity through the recognition of
others identity.

Communicative ability: Marx neglected the relations of production and the ability of
human beings to communicate, and reach mutual understanding through communications
through rationalization or ethics and recognition of others.
Critical theory believe that communication will lead to a self-regulating realm through
rationalization and ability to communicate and this will lead to freedom, justice and
political equality. (public reasoning)

Emancipation would come from:

 Autonym (to free self from historical constraints that restricted their freedom –
self-determination)
 Security (Absence of threats)
 Community (Part of all)

Once emancipation is achieved autonomy will be achieved, this means to free self from
constraints that restricted freedom, oppression restricts freedom and once one is
emancipated s/he will be free and become autonomous, this lead to absence of threats
(security). Since we have communication ability and inter subjectivity then one is
autonomous but part of something which is the community (part of all)
So once you manage to recognize your identity through the recognizing the identity of
others and once you use rationalization and ethics to create understanding with others you
will establish autonomy and security while you are part of the community.
Autonomy of oneself and others reflects diversity while community reflects universality.
As a result ethics discourse and rationalization will regulate diversity with universality
without exclusion (inclusionary process).

Ethics discourse, morals, recognition of others, reasoning, rationality, communication

will help finding balance between self and other, universality and diversity. And this will
create common ground (come to an agreement to something) and self-regulating realm
(peace security and justice). This will solve social conflicts.

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