What I loved about the lecture this week was the look at how, since its inception, IR theory has always been focused on the nation-state, sovereignty, and anarchy. Even those theories that try to get away from those ideas still need to be formulated in such a way that it caters to those who view the world that way. And so the idea of a world without sovereign borders, of a truly global village, is absolutely wild when you take a step back and look at it from the theorist's perspective.
Group Blog for Prof. Shirk's International Studies: History, Theory, and Practice Class, May 2018
Week 5 Pre-class
The idea of a world without sovereign states is absolutely mind-boggling from a theoretical standpoint. On its face we look at it and say, "Well, yeah it's been done in Star Trek, Star Wars, and all these other sci-fi universes and it looks pretty achievable." From a theoretical standpoint it seems increasingly difficult and, while not impossible, highly improbable short of a necessary outside stimulus.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Now What?
We've come a long way in this course. I am glad that Hobbes was the foundation on which we built our learning as it provided a good refe...
When we started reading about neoliberalism and moved into constructivism I was looking forward to reading theories that moved away from the idea of sovereignty as the cornerstone for IR theory. I was a little disappointed when, as you put it, they still formulated their ideas in response to the thinking of those who view the world as focused on the nation-state, sovereignty, and anarchy. It seems that no matter the direction theories seem to develop in, they all stem from that ever-present rationalist focus on sovereignty. As professor Jackson mentioned at the beginning of the semester, the study of IR is still a new field of study. I wonder if, as the collective study is advanced, theorists will eventually begin their theories on something other than the idea of sovereignty. I think that would be a true indicator that fundamental change is on the way.
ReplyDelete