Theory Talks is an interactive forum for discussion of debates in International Relations with an emphasis of the underlying theoretical issues. By frequently inviting cutting-edge specialists in the field to elucidate their work and to explain current developments both in IR theory and real-world politics, Theory Talks aims to offer both scholars and students a comprehensive view of the field and its most important protagonists.
On April 15, 2008, Michael W. Doyle started the series with the following interview:
Theory Talk #1: Michael Doyle
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Michael W. Doyle on Markets and Institutions
Theory Talks opens with an interview with leading IR scholar Michael W. Doyle, who has published on issues varying from liberal peace to empires to the foundations for modern day IR theory and is known for its support of liberal democracy and international institutions. Michael Doyle is the Harold Brown Professor of International and Public Affairs, of Law and of Political Science at the Colombia University. Amongst others, Doyle was Assistant secretary-general and special adviser to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan between 2001-2003.
What is, according to you, the biggest challenge in current IR?
I currently focus on the next big issues in International Relations: the legitimate use of force – be it preemptive or preventive – and the legitimacy of global governance of economic, political and social interactions between international actors.
What is your response to this challenge?
Well, to focus on the second issue, I very much think that the legitimacy of international institutions governing social and economic processes should be both broadened and deepened – it is not only desirable but necessary: markets, for example, do not work without institutions. Institutions help to surpass collective action problems of all kinds. But the challenge is to find the right scope these institutions, that is, to find a term that is acceptable to all… MORE
The last article of the series when I opened this entry
Theory Talk #53: Ned Lebow
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Ned Lebow on Drivers of War, Cultural Theory, and IR of Foxes and Hedgehogs
Drawing on classical political theories, International Relations is dominated by theories that presuppose interests or fear as dominant drivers for foreign policy.
Richard Ned Lebow looks further back into the history of ideas to conjure up a more varied set of drives that underpin political action. In this Talk, Lebow, among others, elaborates on the underpinnings of political action, discusses how war drives innovations in IR theorizing in the 20th century, and likens himself to a fox, rather than a hedgehog.
What is, according to you, the biggest challenge / principal debate in current IR? What is your position or answer to this challenge / in this debate?
Well, the big challenge in international politics is always how do we keep from destroying one another and that’s the negative question. But it is mirrored by a positive question which is, how do we build community and tolerance and peace? And that’s not exactly the flip side, but that’s always been the big question in IR. And part of that, I think, is how we learn to manage threatening change. Because in my perspective, that’s the driving force of conflict: ultimately, both World Wars can be attributed to modernization and its destabilizing consequences. That is also the reason why it is a falsehood to base theory on that little select slice of history during the World Wars, extrapolate it, and try to think its universal. Yet that is what IR theory does: so many theorists, and so many of the people you recently interviewed, are guilty of doing that. So that’s the big question and certainly, that’s what drove me to study IR in the hope that I could make some small contribution to figuring out some of the answers or partial answers to these questions. (MORE)
Theory Talk #2: Martin Shaw – War & World State
Theory Talk #3: Alexander Wendt – Social Constructivism & UFO’s
Theory Talk #4: John Agnew – Power & Geopolitics
Theory Talk #5: Timothy Sinclair – Social Forces & Transnational Corporations
Theory Talk #6: Klaus Dodds – Visual Geopolitics & South Pole
Theory Talk #7: Joseph Nye – Soft Power & The US
Theory Talk #8: Arend Lijphart – Democracy & Power Sharing
Theory Talk #9: Robert Keohane – Institutions & Innovation
Theory Talk #10: Timothy Shaw – BRICs & Global South
Theory Talk #11: Peter Haas – Environment & Governance
Theory Talk #12: Robert Jervis – Realism & Bush Administration
Theory Talk #13: Immanuel Wallerstein – World-System & Capitalism
Theory Talk #14: Geoffrey Underhill – State-Market Condominium & Adam Smith
Theory Talk #15: Peter Katzenstein – Anti-Americanism & Analytical Eclecticism
Theory Talk #16: Robert Hayden – Constitutional Anthropology & Balkans
Theory Talk #17: Jerry Cohen – Currency Wars & Systemic Change
Theory Talk #18: James Fearon – Ethnicity & Security Council
Theory Talk #19: Fredrik Söderbaum – NRA & Africa
Theory Talk #20: David Harvey – Marxism & Urbanization
Theory Talk #21: Stephen Krasner – Sovereignty & Failed States
Theory Talk #22: Kevin Dunn – Identity & Africa
Theory Talk #23: Kees van der Pijl – Empires & Left-Wing
Theory Talk #24: Robert Bates – Coffee & Small-N
Theory Talk #25: Antonio Marquina – Energy & Security
Theory Talk #26: Jennifer Mitzen – Ontological Security & Addictive Wars
Theory Talk #27: Christian Reus-Smit – Re-thinking IR & Cultures
Theory Talk #28: Marysia Zalewski – Gender & War
Theory Talk #29: Peter Singer – Private Soldiers & Robots
Theory Talk #30: Mary Kaldor – Old & New Wars
Theory Talk #31: Bruce Bueno de Mesquita – Game Theory & Fear
Theory Talk #32: Miriam Elman – Lakatos & Progress
Theory Talk #33: Stephen Walt – Israel Lobby & Obama
Theory Talk #34: James Ferguson – Foucault & Lesotho
Theory Talk #35: Barry Buzan – Security & International Society
Theory Talk #36: Michael Shapiro – Pictures & Political Philosophy
Theory Talk #37: Robert Cox – World Order & Historical Change
Theory Talk #38: James Scott – Agriculture & Resistance
Theory Talk #39: Abrahamsen & Williams – Private Security & Global Assemblages
Theory Talk #40: Kenneth Waltz – Economic Theory & International Politics
Theory Talk #41: Mark Duffield – Liberal aid & Fortified Compounds
Theory Talk #42: Amitav Acharya – ASEAN & Bhagavad Gita
Theory Talk #43: Saskia Sassen – Sociology & Global Cities
Theory Talk #44: Patrick Jackson – IR & Philosophy of Science
Theory Talk #45: Qin Yaqing – Chinese IR & International Balance
Theory Talk #46: David Lake – International Hierarchy & Open Economy Politics
Theory Talk #47: Jean-François Bayart – Historicity & State Formation
Theory Talk #48: Cynthia Enloe – Militarization & Bananas
Theory Talk #49: John Mearsheimer – Structural Realism & Disciplining the US
Theory Talk #50: Beate Jahn – Classical Theory & the State of Nature
Theory Talk #51: Yan Xuetong – China & Harmony
Theory Talk #52: Iver Neumann – Practices & Diplomacy
- Theory Talks is an ISN Partner Theory Talks is an initiative by Peer Schouten and is registered as ISSN 2001-4732 | 2008-2012