Alternative

Approaches to IR
Week 11
A reminder from last week….
Traditional/Orthodox IR: Alternative approaches
 Primarily Realism and Liberalism  Includes more diverse global actors

 Analyse and explain cooperation and  Questions and challenges dominance of

conflict between states traditional lenses

 ‘state centric’  Considers if dominance of traditional

lenses actually a problem in global politics
What are these alternatives and
what do they offer? Some theories
in brief:
 Marxism: Focus on the economy; rich and poor countries; exploitation and dependency

 Critical theory: an umbrella term; focus on hegemony in IR (key thinker: Gramsci); some
forms also imagine alternatives

 Post Colonial Theory: impact of colonialism (and neo colonialism) on international politics
and people; IR western & centric; construction of the ‘other’ a form of power and domination
(Key thinker: Edward Said on Orientalism)
In depth: Constructivism
 The world is of our making: rules, institutions, how we define the world is socially
constructed

 Focus on ideational forces as opposed to material forces

 Norms can change over time

In depth: Feminism and gender
theory
 Orthodox IR theories ignore contributions of women, reflect patriarchy at a global scale and ignore
gender issues that impact global politics

 Many different strands of feminist/gender IR (recall political economy and ideology week)

 Empirical: correcting misrepresentation of women as active agents in international politics

 Analytical: looks at gender biases and impact of notions of femininity v masculinity in global politics

 Normative: how the above has a negative impact on global politics and how we should try and change
gendered politics and thus IR
In depth: Feminism and gender
theory
In depth: post modernism and post
structuralism
 Recall: Ideology week

 No overall, objective truths just ‘fleeting moments of clarity’ (we can’t study the social world
like the sciences)

 Metanarratives and discourses are self serving: knowledge as a form of power

Why do we learn these theories?
 Some people do take a normative stance (say that some theories are better than others)

 Empirically/Analytically: No one theory gives us the whole picture

 Let’s examine what this means by looking at global terrorism