Recovering International Relations : The Promise of Sustainable Critique

__Recovering International Relations__bridges two key divides in contemporary IR: between 'value-free' and normative theory, and between reflective, philosophically inflected explorations of ethics in scholarship and close, empirical studies of practical problems in world politics. Featuring a novel, provocative and detailed survey of IR's development over the second half of the twentieth century, the work draws on early Frankfurt School social theory to suggest a new ethical and methodological foundation for the study of world politics-sustainable critique-which draws these disparate approaches together in light of their common aims, and redacts them in the face of their particular limitations. Understanding the discipline as a vocation as well as a series of academic and methodological practices, sustainable critique aims to balance the insights of normative and empirical theory against each other. Each must be brought to bear if scholarship is to meaningfully, and responsibly, address an increasingly dense, heavily armed, and persistently diverse world. Cover 1 Contents 8 List of Tables/Figures 12 Acknowledgments 14 Introduction: Sustainable Critique and the Lost Vocation of International Relations 20 The Lost Vocation 20 Critique and the Loss of Vocation 24 Sustainable Critique (1): The Problem of Reification 33 Sustainable Critique (2): Reification in International Theory 44 Sustainable Critique (3): Chastened Reason 48 Plan of the Work 56 1. “For We Born After”: The Challenge of Sustainable Critique 60 Between Comte and Catastrophe 62 Sustainable Critique as an Ethical Commitment: The Animus Habitandi 70 The Ethical Lacuna in IR: Three Examples 77 From Critique to Sustainable Critique 83 “Non-Identity” and Negative Dialectics 90 A Logical Impasse? 95 2. Sustainable Critique and Critical IR Theory: Against Emancipation 99 A New Hope: Emancipation in Critical IR Theory 102 Postnational Liberalism and Pragmatism 112 The Adornian Alternative: Constellation and a Hermeneutic Turn 119 Concretizing the Constellation in IR: Allison’s Essence of Decision 128 Toward Sustainable Critique: Concluding Thoughts 131 3. The Realist Dilemma: Politics and the Limits of Theory 134 The “Dutch Boy Syndrome”: Morgenthau’s Despairing Vocation 139 Morgenthau’s Positive Dialectics 142 The Limits of Positive Dialectics: Reification, Despair, Backlash 145 From Reification to Sustainable Critique: Morgenthau’s Missed Opportunity 150 Reification by “Ontological Smuggling”: Waltz’s Middle-Range Realism 154 Epistemological Lowballing: Wendt’s “Third Way” 162 Concluding Thoughts: Critical Realism and Sustainable Critique 165 4. Communitarian IR Theory: “The Common Socius of Us All” 170 IR Liberalism: Two Traditions 170 Between Community and Individual 173 Plan of the Chapter 180 Metaphysical Communitarianism: Functionalism 182 The Fabian Impasse 182 The Mitranyan Breakthrough 185 The “Wise Android”: Deutsch’s Cybernetic Turn 192 Third-Way Communitarianism and the Primacy of Vision: Adler 201 Concluding Thoughts: From Communitarian to Individualist IR 206 5. Individualist IR Theory: Disharmonious Cooperation 209 International Relations Liberalism: From Communitarian to Individualist 209 Plan of the Chapter 210 Metaphysical Individualism: Ernst Haas and the Renewed March of Reason 214 Against Communitarianism: Neofunctionalism and Managed Gesellschaft 216 From Neofunctionalism to Liberal Nationalism: Taking Up the Gauntlet of Reflexivity 220 Middle-Range Individualism: Keohane’s Disharmonious Cooperation and “Humility” 226 Complex Interdependence and the Middle-Range Turn 227 Liberal Institutionalism’s Unsustainable Reflexivity 230 Third-Way Individualism: Multiple Paradigms and the “Pirandello Problem” 234 6. Conclusion: Toward Sustainably Critical International Theory 244 The “Hermeneutic Sphere”: Toward a Sustainably Critical Research Program 248 Sympathetic Knowledge 255 A Working Example: The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and IR 259 Building up the Hermeneutic Third Axis 260 Constructing the Constellation: An Analytical Table of Contents 264 The Constellar Production of Compassion 271 Politics without Compassion: More of the Same? 273 Works Cited 278 Index 340 A 340 B 341 C 341 D 342 E 343 F 343 G 343 H 344 I 344 J 345 K 345 L 345 M 346 N 347 O 347 P 347 Q 348 R 348 S 348 T 349 U 350 V 350 W 350 Z 350 Recovering International Relations bridges two key divides in contemporary IR: between 'value-free' and normative theory, and between reflective, philosophically inflected explorations of ethics in scholarship and close, empirical studies of practical problems in world politics. Featuring a novel, provocative and detailed survey of IR's development over the second half of the twentieth century, the work draws on early Frankfurt School social theory to suggest a new ethical and methodological foundation for the study of world politics-sustainable critique-which draws these disparate approaches together in light of their common aims, and redacts them in the face of their particular limitations. Understanding the discipline as a vocation as well as a series of academic and methodological practices, sustainable critique aims to balance the insights of normative and empirical theory against each other. Each must be brought to bear if scholarship is to meaningfully, and responsibly, address an increasingly dense, heavily armed, and persistently diverse world. Surveying Six Decades Of Scholarship, 'recovering International Relations' Suggests New Ethical And Methodological Foundations For The Study Of World Politics. Ir Is Conceived As A Vocation One That Must Balance The Insights Of Normative And Empirical Theory Against Each Other To Address A Densely Populated Heavily Armed, And Persistently Diverse World. Introduction: Sustainable Critique And The Lost Vocation Of International Relations -- For We Born After: The Challenge Of Sustainable Critique -- Sustainable Critique And Critical Ir Theory: Against Emancipation -- The Realist Dilemma: Politics And The Limits Of Theory -- Communitarian Ir Theory -- Individualist Ir Theory: Disharmonious Cooperation -- Conclusion: Toward Sustainably Critical International Theory. Daniel J. Levine. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [259]-319) And Index.