The year 2005 has meant a rejection of a viable constitutional project for the European Union. After a reconsideration and political stylization of the Constitutional Treaty, the Treaty of Lisbon was put together and signed by all of the 27 member states on the 13th of December 2007. What developments did it contain?
This essay argues that the absence of a major war between North (DPRK) and South Korea (ROK) does not disprove the offense-defense theory (ODT) because the theory is capable of explaining the prevalence of peace under conditions when the defense has the advantage.
Those eager to advise the prince often take the logic of Realist IR into dark places where fateful decisions are made. Why are so few voices in IR raised in dissent? And what must/should happen to those who carried the craft towards those fateful moments? And, most importantly, what’s to be done?
Professor Peter Vale’s provocative piece on “The Responsibility of IR Scholars” deserves comment which I suspect many e-IR readers will provide. Let me offer mine in this blog. I must say that I would hardly claim to be an IR Scholar as I was trained in political economy and government […]
Pluralist arguments that human rights can be properly respected through the state system are more convincing than cosmopolitan claims because they recognise the diversity of cultures and national systems which exist in the world.
The weakening of the prohibition on the use of force since 9/11 has been essentially due to other Articles in the UN Charter which act as loop holes. The USA and its allies have undermined Article 2.4 in the Charter by using Article 51, whereas no punishment (except perhaps the general disapproval of the international society) has been issued.
IR – SO, WHO IS IT FOR? It is often said that the study of International Relations is either for the world’s people or for national politics. This cliché usefully explains the chasm between Harvey Sapolsky and myself. And anyone reading his Blogs and my own will recognise that we […]
Europe has imposed its intrinsic identity and revolutionary social and political values and models worldwide, transforming many of them in global standards, shaping the lives of billions of people. It is within the European geographical space that a large number of the world’s greatest empires have developed and some of humanities most valuable technological, spiritual, cultural, economic or political advancements have been achieved.
The convergence of neo-realism and neo-liberalism is self-evident from the fact that scholars of the two great schools, in addition to sharing a set of fundamental assumptions, ended up having the same central theme of reflection: how to assess, in a situation of anarchy, the effects that international structure have on the behaviour of states.
The critique of positivism is fundamentally epistemological. Each side makes compelling arguments showing the strength of their position.
Before you download your free e-book, please consider donating to support open access publishing.
E-IR is an independent non-profit publisher run by an all volunteer team. Your donations allow us to invest in new open access titles and pay our bandwidth bills to ensure we keep our existing titles free to view. Any amount, in any currency, is appreciated. Many thanks!
Donations are voluntary and not required to download the e-book - your link to download is below.