Since the publication of Wendt’s Anarchy is what States Make of It (1992), there has been a deep shift into a constructivist alternative in International Theory. Indeed, constructivism tries to shrink the classical epistemological gap between reflexivism and rationalism ; it also endorses the ambition of reshuffling traditional core themes of international relations, that is, anarchy, balance of power, interest, system, structure and institution. While enlisted in Wendt’s article, our (...)  lire suite

Numerous political problems involve normative questions which must be addressed in philosophical terms. International ethics deal with such fundamental issues. The present international context can be characterized by a new set of political and historical circumstances that we commonly depict as the post-Westphalian, post-cold war, new world order. As we enter the era of globalization, it is quite astonishing to grasp the far-reaching scope of Kant’s cosmopolitan intuitions and to (...)  lire suite

International Ethics, Law and Politics are generally considered separate and independent spheres, almost acting as three autonomous branches. In this article, I develop arguments which demonstrate that, in reality, the international realm is a symbiosis between these three domains. The point at which they meet and fuse will be referred to here as the « Global Standard of Civilization ». Next, I demonstrate that a meaningful analysis of international politics needs to seriously consider (...)  lire suite

Since the end of the Cold War, the problem of military intervention has been at the heart of major debates and decisions (or non-decisions) in the majority of occidental countries, namely with regards to Somalia, the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Zaire, Kosovo and Sierra Leone. A multiplicity of debates have formed around what citizens and political and military leaders have the right to expect from these interventions, on their motivations, on the relation between the hypothetical benefits (...)  lire suite

If the concept of the State found its realization in the French Jacobean State, the notion of utopia finds it’s ideal representation in Cuba. Refusing a separation between « critical » and « positive » utopia, the forged concept of « effective utopia » illustrates it’s demonstrative value for the study of geopolitics. It reveals North American diplomacy’s tendency to wander, and begins to explain Cuba’s triple paradox : that one country could transform the Latin American-Caribbean zone into a zone (...)  lire suite

One of the major reasons why the field of international relations has not become an autonomous discipline, resides in the diverse images of the same environment issued by different cultures. The effort to understand the way in which these images form is logically a part of the research of every internationalist. This is why the AFRI decided it would be useful to publish a contribution from an instructor of international relations in Warsaw who dispenses of one of the rare courses in (...)  lire suite

Since the beginning of the process of European integration, the idea that this construction can only be realized through the impulse and workings of the member States has never been fundamentally challenged. The State is perceived as an intangible and stable reality, on which the entire European construction rests. However, since the end of the Cold War, this image of an unchanging reality has been tarnished. The remarks increase, creating an image of the State as a colossus whose feet are (...)  lire suite