The New Agenda for International Relations From Polarization to Globalization in World Politics?

by Lawson, Stephanie

• ISBN13: 9780745628608
• ISBN10: 0745628605
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-02-01
• Publisher: Polity

Summary

There have been significant political eras which have shaped not only the structure of world politics but the way in which it has been studied. The geopolitical and ideological contours of the Cold War period, for example, had an impact on almost every aspect of world politics and the study of international relations for around 45 years. This book argues that, just as the collapse of the Soviet Union in the period following the fall of the Berlin Wall signalled the end of strategic polarization, it also marked the apparent end of a particular form of polarized debate around political, social and economic ideas. The various new directions taken by scholars of international relations in the post-Cold War era constitute a large part of a 'new agenda' for the discipline. This collection reflects the variety of issues and approaches that have become part and parcel of this agenda over the past ten years. Issues tackled in this volume include the power of culture and ideology, the concept of globalisation, inequality, human rights and security as well as reflections on new forms of polarization in the post-Cold War world. Each contributor addresses the nature of changes and continuities in world politics, considers how the discipline of international relations itself has changed and reflects on possible directions for the twenty-first Century. This book will be of great interest to scholars of international relations, global politics, economics and related disciplines.

Author Biography

Stephanie Lawson is Professor of International Relations, School of Economic and Social Studies, University of East Anglia.

Table of Contents

List of Contributors	vii
Preface	xi
Part I The New Agenda	1	(34)
Introduction: A New Agenda for International Relations?	3	(16)
Stephanie Lawson
Ageing Agendas and Ambiguous Anomalies: Tensions and Contradictions of an Emergent Epoch	19	(16)
James N. Rosenau
Part II New Issues	35	(110)
Transnational Paranoia and International Relations: The Case of the `West versus Islam'	37	(17)
Fred Halliday
Globalization and the Discourse of Women's Human Rights: Transgressing Boundaries in a Post-Cold War World	54	(17)
Jill Steans
Developing Inequality: A Global Fault-Line	71	(20)
Caroline Thomas
Taming Economics, Emboldening International Relations: The Theory and Practice of International Political Economy in an Era of Globalization	91	(18)
Richard Higgott
The Global Politics of the Environment	109	(19)
Lorraine Elliott
Meaning, Method and Practice: Assessing the Changing Security Agenda	128	(17)
K. M. Fierke
Part III New Perspectives	145	(78)
The Normative Framework of Post-Cold War International Relations	147	(17)
Chris Brown
Signs of a New Enlightenment? Concepts of Community and Humanity after the Cold War	164	(20)
Richard Devetak
Beyond Realism and its Critics: The Decline of Structural Neo-Realism and Opportunities for Constructive Engagement	184	(20)
Jack Donnelly
After the Fall: International Theory and the State	204	(19)
Stephanie Lawson
Index	223