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dimension, but equally have been characterised by intra-state conflict. Further, the general pattern of inter-state security relations in Europe has been more that of cooperation than conflict. The inaccuracy of Mearsheimer’s prediction stems from the logic of his theoretical starting point, that of neo-realism. For Mearsheimer states exist in an international system that is anarchic in the sense that there
underpinned neorealism and neo-liberalism. 3 The end of the Cold War, which no theoretical approach in IR had predicted, dealt a powerful blow to neorealism given the latter’s understanding of the limits of change in an anarchic system. 4 Neorealism became the target of criticism that it reified a particular international order which privileged the interests of certain dominant states and therefore served
Luke ‘realist discourses and designs for world order are decaying’. (1993: 230; see also Vasquez, 1997 ) Neo-realism’s failure to predict the largely peaceful end of the Cold War raised serious challenges to its orthodoxy. For George, the realist tradition was ‘exposed as a politico-philosophical emperor at best only scantily clad’. (George, 1996: 33; see also Baldwin, 1995; Lebow, 1994 ; Sørensen
’ realism and liberalism as opposed to neo-realism and neo-liberalism. 20 An example is C. Douzinas and R. Warrington, Justice Miscarried: Ethics and Aesthetics in Law (New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1994). While postmodernism is usually presented as being irreconcilable with ethics, Bauman notes that as
reappeared in the revisions of the Cold War’s history 4 and in the topical security policy discourse about unipolarity and US hegemony. 5 In contrast to neo-realism, my focus is on social meanings and practices, relations of domination, and their political economy underpinnings. 6 From this angle, I analyse the global consequences of the tendency on the
theory such as neorealism and neoliberalism, 1 the second allows us to account for the intentionality of actors and the last expresses a constructivism informed by Wittgenstein's later work. Social scientists are guided by different knowledge-worlds, which in turn give rise to different research questions. Some issues (terrorism is a threat to the West) are highlighted while others (civilian casualties from drone strikes) are silenced. Fierke ( 2010 , 86) illustrates this researcher's position with
and Williams, 1997 ). It would be all too easy at this stage to enter into the current name-calling exercise that passes as a discussion of method in the field of international relations, but the debate about constructivism and post-structuralism, neo-realism and institutionalism is only partly germane to either critical security studies or the discussion of human security, given the
: 2 (June), 211–39 . Waltz , Kenneth N. ( 1986 ), ‘ Reflections on Theory of International Politics : A Response to My Critics ’, in Robert Keohane (ed.), Neorealism and its Critics , New York : Columbia University Press .