Hannah Arendt and International Relations : Readings Across the Lines

Hannah Arendt's approach to politics focuses on action and conduct, rather than institutions, constitutions, and states. In light of Arendtian conceptions of politics, essays in this book challenge conventional IR theories. The contributions on agency explore concepts and categories of political action that enable individuals to act politically and to re-make the world in new, unpredictable ways. The contributions on structure explore how Arendt provides new critical purchase upon often reified structures and categories The essays in Hannah Arendt and International Relations employ the work of this versatile theorist to examine various facets of international affairs. With contributions written by international political theorists from around the world, the volume draws on Arendt's insights to assess critically the boundaries of international affairs. Although Arendt did not write directly on international relations as formally understood, her vast corpus has enabled these authors to explore boundaries, human rights, globalization, sovereignty, and organized violence in radically new ways. The only volume currently in existence on Arendt and international affairs, it crosses the boundaries of international relations and political theory, resulting in an important new contribution to international political theory. Front Matter....Pages i-viii Introduction....Pages 1-26 Hannah Arendt: A Biographical and Political Introduction....Pages 27-40 Hannah Arendt, Violence, and the Inescapable Fact of Humanity....Pages 41-65 Forgiveness, Reconciliation, and Transitional Justice....Pages 67-93 Hannah Arendt and “the Right to Have Rights”....Pages 95-112 Hannah Arendt’s Critical Realism: Power, Justice, and Responsibility....Pages 113-178 Governance and Political Action: Hannah Arendt on Global Political Protest....Pages 179-198 Hannah Arendt and the International Space In-Between?....Pages 199-220 Between International Politics and International Ethics....Pages 221-232 Back Matter....Pages 233-236