Synopses & Reviews
Critical international theory encompasses several distinct, radical approaches that focus on identity, difference, hegemonic power, and order. As an applied theory, critical international theory draws on critical social theories to shed light on international processes and global transformations. While this approach has led to increasing interest in formulating an empirically relevant critical international theory, it has also revealed the difficulties of applying critical theory to international politics. What are these difficulties and problems? And how can we move beyond them? This book addresses these questions by investigating the intellectual currents and key debates of critical theory, from Kant and Hegel to Habermas and Derrida, and the recent work of critical international theory, including Robert Cox and Andrew Linklater. By drawing on these debates, the book formulates an original theory of complementarity that brings together critical theory and critical international theory. It argues that complementarity?a governing principle in international law and politics?offers a conceptual framework for working toward two goals: engaging the changing contexts and forms of resistance and redressing some of the difficulties of applying critical theory to international relations.
In adopting three critical perspectives on complementarity to analyze the evolving social and political contexts of global justice, this book provides an essential resource for undergraduate and graduate students and scholars interested in the application of critical theory to international relations.
Synopsis
This is first detailed account on the origins of critical theory and how it has developed and influenced international relations. Making complex ideas accessible to all, it discusses Marx and post-Marxist thinkers; the Frankfurt School; Adorno, Benjamin and Marcuse; Habermas, Gramsci and Foucault alongside critical IR scholars Robert W. Cox, Rob Walker, James Der Derian, Christine Sylvester, Richard Ashley and Andrew Linklater.
Synopsis
Critical international theory encompasses several distinct, radical approaches that focus on identity, difference, hegemonic power, and order. In recent years, a growing number of International Relations (IR) scholars and students have drawn on critical theory to shed new light on global transformation(s). This book provides the first detailed account for students of the origins of critical theory and explains how it has developed and influenced IR and the difficulties of applying critical theory to international politics.
Written to make these complex ideas accessible for advanced undergraduates and graduates, Critical Theory and International Politics:
- outlines the origins of critical theory in Marx and post-Marxist thinkers such as Lukacs and in the radical critiques of Freud and Nietzsche
- details the development of the Frankfurt School and the influential work of Adorno, Benjamin and Marcuse
- explains how Habermas, Gramsci and Foucault came to have a lasting impact on international relations
- delineates the recent work of critical IR scholars such as Robert W. Cox, Rob Walker, James Der Derian, Christine Sylvester, Richard Ashley and Andrew Linklater
- draws on past and present critical theory to formulate three interrelated perspectives on complementarity in international politics.
Critical theory has emerged as a major new school of international relations theory over the past decade and this textbook is the ideal guide for all students of international politics.