International Politics最新文献

This article demonstrates that concept of ‘Islamism’ is sometimes used arbitrarily in political science literature to describe ideological political activism, supposedly grounded in Islam, and argues that descriptive work can improve the academic engagement with Islam by acknowledging the pitfalls of naming ideologies that are affiliated with religions. Instead of labeling a broad range of political activism as Islamism in an arbitrary fashion and/or taking such labels for granted and proceeding with causal inquiry and inferences in reference to such labels, scholars can communicate the nuances in different forms and actors of activism to the readers by descriptively specifying the who, the what, and the when of the activisms that quote particular religions as their subject matters or motives—the histories, agencies, contexts, and contents that elaborate on what is in a name.

This is the introduction to the special issue 'Adam Watson and International Relations: A Contemporary Reassessment'. In this short piece, the guest editors outline the genesis, development, and purpose of the project, offer a rationale for the special issue, summarise the papers in it, and reflect on the importance of Adam Watson within the English School and International Relations canons.

In my engagement with Richard Saull’s important work Capital, Race and Space, I focus on the nexus between belief in conspiracy theories and right-wing radicalization. I want to suggest that a conspiracy theory is a particular form of social imaginary. In this case, the social imaginaries that lend themselves to right-wing or fascistic political movements concern claims about global pathologies that appear hidden from the social reality of the nation-state. To his credit, Saull takes seriously the role that such ideas have. I extend the analysis by turning to George Bataille’s understanding of fascism. For Bataille, fascism is about creating a feeling of necessity to confront the abject forces (global in scope) that seek to undermine a particular way of life.

This paper investigates how the International Law Commission (ILC), a subsidiary body of the UN General Assembly, constituted itself as a collective actor with a distinct identity as an international legal expert and a set of preferences in legal norm development. I use description as a method to analyze archival data to show how the ILC established a set of preferences, formed an understanding of its relationship with the UN General Assembly, and defined its role in fulfilling mandated tasks. Description, focusing on pattern observation and documentation, makes visible how social interactions lead to the emergence of a collective entity with the independent capacity to act. Understanding how entities with delegated authority like the ILC achieve actorhood, develop preferences and strategies, and define their roles in relation to states and other actors is an important step in evaluating their impact on global governance and the development of international law.

Drawing on ontological security studies and Lacanian theory, the article examines the role of ?spiritual-moral values? (SMV) in Russian politics. It argues that SMV have been employed by the Russian political elite to construct an (illusory) sense of ontological security, presented as attainable via the promotion of sovereignty and national unity. Through the analysis of policy documents and Vladimir Putin?s speeches for the period 2012?2023, the article outlines three interlocking narratives: (a) Russian cultural norms are under attack; (b) attacks can be resisted through cultural sovereignty, with SMV playing a crucial role; and (c) the Russian population is united through the same SMV. These narratives (?fantasies? in the Lacanian sense) create promises destined to remain unfulfilled: cultural sovereignty is based on the unrealistic belief that culture can remain unaltered, while existing policies fragment society, causing the ontological insecurity of ethnic and sexual minorities, but also the Russian population more widely.

The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has significantly strained relations between Russia and the European Union (EU) in the energy sector leading to severe turmoil. This crisis has further jeopardized the energy security of EU member states, particularly smaller countries such as Lithuania, which heavily relies on Russia for its energy resources. Nevertheless, even before this crisis, Lithuania’s energy security was already deemed inadequate despite the relatively favorable state of EU–Russia energy cooperation. This research paper aims to analyze the EU–Russia energy cooperation before and during the war. It also explores the implications of the EU–Russia energy cooperation and the Russia–Ukraine war on Lithuania’s energy security. This article concludes that with the start of the Russia–Ukraine war, the EU–Russia energy relation is experiencing a severe crisis. Before and during the ongoing Ukrainian crisis, Lithuania—compared to Western European states—received different and unexpected treatment from the EU, impacting its energy security.

Growing great power competition, a changing security environment and the acclaimed de-institutionalisation of security policy in the twenty-first century demand adaptations in national security approaches and institutional settings. States have benefitted differently from the post-Cold War European security order. While Germany presents itself as a prime beneficiary from Europe’s multilateral structures, the US has sought to shift its focus away from Europe, and Russia’s foreign policy has become increasingly aggressive, eventually culminating in the return of war to Europe. Such developments lead to new transformations and fundamental re-arrangements of the present security order that require states to rethink their national foreign and security policies and relationships. This article examines the relations between Germany, Russia and the US using the analytical concept of triangular relations. Used as an analytical tool, the examination of the Germany–Russia–US triangular relationship helps to investigate and trace how we got to the contemporary European security order.

This short article seeks to extend Richard Saull’s analysis of the relationship between capitalism and the far right in his “Capital, Race and Space”, focusing specifically on the Global South and its unique context within neoliberalism and its crises. Saull's framework, which explores the far right's rise through the uneven and combined development of capitalism over an extended historical period, offers valuable insights for understanding these dynamics outside the traditional centers of capitalism in the Global North. By examining the uneven and combined effects of capitalist neoliberalism, this piece argues that while the mechanisms driving the far right in Europe and the United States through neoliberal policies and crises provide a useful lens, they are not wholly sufficient to explain the distinct forms of far right regimes emerging in the Global South. These regimes are shaped by relational global contexts, which require a tailored approach to fully grasp their development and implications. Furthermore, this geographical extension of Saull’s analysis aims to enrich discussions about the contemporary relevance of fascism, drawing parallels with the historical experiences of nations like Italy and Germany that emerged as incubators of interwar fascism in the early 20th century. By shifting focus to the far right in rising or emerging nations, this work highlights the importance of considering how aspirations for great power status in the Global South may similarly foster expansionist forms of far right regimes today.

Existing research has documented a gender gap in political knowledge. The current study uses white women and men’s beliefs about drug abuse and addiction in the USA as a case study to observe how they rationalize about social issues. I introduce a novel typology of political knowledge stemming from proximal contact with social problems. Drawing on a content analysis of 1,292 open-ended survey responses, I found that both white men and women commonly referred to information gathered from media sources and their local community when justifying their beliefs about drug abuse and addiction. However, women nearly as frequently mentioned the experiences of members of their social network when justifying their beliefs. Given these findings, I conclude that broadening our conceptualization of political knowledge offers researchers an opportunity to observe how gender roles and cultural expectations may be informing how men and women express political ideas and information.

In this forum introduction I outline the core argument of my book, Capital, Race, and Space (CRS) and its main empirical substance, and then I address how and why I came to write it and how the argument is important for considering the state of the world today. The two volumes of CRS provide the first international historical sociology of Western far-right movements from their emergence in the second half of the nineteenth century up until the far-right upsurge after the 2007–8 North Atlantic financial crisis.