Theoretical approaches
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Discourse analysis as a method for studying CFSP : an important contribution
par - 2005Theoretical debates in the field of International Relations and the relative success of constructivism have led an increasing number of researchers to use tools and concepts borrowed from sociology and linguistics. At the same token, discourse analysis arose as an interesting method. If adapted for use in the discipline of IR, it could contribute to a comprehensive approach for analysing power relations in the international society, in particular regarding the definition of interests and (...) -
About the necessity of a theory for international relations
AFRI 2003, volume IV
par - 2004In the field of international relations, social sciences paradigms -not without prejudices- hide an unexpected object within their self-deprecation : political ideas. Realists often summon, yet not without a pinch of salt, concepts borrowed from pessimistic philosophies of human nature and voluntarism. Liberal ironicism, with its penchant for anti-state and cosmopolitist trans-nationalist ideas, hypertrophies cooperation and integration with law or morale. Structuralists, and other (...) -
History of mental maps and perceptions
AFRI 2003, volume IV
par - 2004Historians Pierre Renouvin and Jean-Baptiste Duroselle have extended the practice of diplomatic history to transform it into the history of international relations, a history of the relationships between peoples, not only state. The former, by inventing the notion of « deep forces », has attempted to measure the weight of demographic and economic forces, the weight of mentalities and great collective feelings on the evolutions and quakes of international relations. The latter has studied (...) -
The international object in the economic theory
AFRI 2003, volume IV
par - 2004This essay tries to analyse the illegitimate status of the international object in standard pure economics. It shows that the difficulty to think the international object is related to the foundations of standard economics, as it was elaborated during the last two centuries. From this starting point, the essay tries to interpret the « new international economics » which appeared in the last fifteen years. These works contribute to show, partly unintentionally, that by becoming more realistic (...) -
Constructivism and reflexivism in international relations theory
AFRI 2002, volume III
par - 2003Since 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 project (...) -
Using Force and the Conceptual Framework of the Cosmopolitan Paradigm in International Ethics
AFRI 2002, volume III
par - 2003Numerous 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 (...) -
For a Global Standard of Civilization : the Triangle of Ethics, Law and Politics
AFRI 2001, volume II
par - 2002International 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 (...) -
The Realists against intervention. Arguments, deliberation and foreign policy
AFRI 2001, volume II
par - 2002Since 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 (...) -
Cuba : the Power and Powerlessness of a Utopia
AFRI 2001, volume II
par - 2002If 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 of (...) -
The laws governing the development of international relations
AFRI 2001, volume II
par - 2002One 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 (...)
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