a CRITICAL TOPICAL REVIEW ASSIGNMENT Name Course Title Professors Name Institution Affiliation Date Critical Topic Review Introduction ‘On War' which is Carl von Clausewitz famous work, it is a prism on the essential understandings of the war theory. There are dominant political positions that he talks about to back his statement such as political situations being the basis of conflict, war's subordination as a tool of policy and war as a continuance for politics (Clausewitz 2008). To Clausewitz, the only way to comprehend war is in the framework of politics as he openly states that, "politics is the womb in which war develops, where its outlines already exist in their hidden rudimentary form, like
In this essay, Benjamin critically assesses the whole historical structure of the law by applying the explicitly Sorelian ideas of violence and the general proletarian strike. However, as I will try to
According to him, the state is based on the authoritarian sovereignty - as it is in the classical defense of divine favor - monarchical sovereignty - and in the authoritarian sovereignty - which Hobbes is in Leviafhan - which is a lot of free from hegemony, on the contrary to the free union of the citizens. According to Rousseau, only such domination is prevalent . Contractual thought and the doctrine of sovereignty were developed during the period of religious wars and civil wars in Europe. They are the answer to the weaknesses of the social and political institutions that characterize this age, to unbridled authority, to wars and social miseries. According to him, sovereignty is indivisible and
Bart and Jean Baudrillard. In the view point of post-modernists, international relations-is not only the result and process of political and other actions, but also it’s the product of our knowledge, inherent research funds, the language that is used and depend on the interpretation of the relevant texts. (Torkunov, 2004, p.17). As a result, they do not exist as some independent "objects”, instead, they are “collective subjects”. Postmodernism criticize the fundamentals of knowledge related with the origins and contents of knowledge, truth, values etc., and attracts the ideas of genealogy, deconstruction of texts, semantic structure etc.
In different generations, they play distinct roles of the history. Power politics suggests the relationship between independent powers, and we take such a state of affairs for granted. However, we must note in conclusion that the phrase power politics in common usage means, not only the relations between independent powers, but something more sinister. At the same time, because there exist fundamental powers, states were compelled to pursue their fighting for their individual interest. Therefore, some of the states protect their own interests by threatening one another with military, economic or political aggression.
Additionally, Woodward’s (1999: 11) assessment that non-essentialist definitions highlight difference confirms this perspective. But why is this distinction so important? In short, non-essentialist theories about identity lay the foundation to deconstruct unquestioned worldviews or generally accepted assumptions. The term deconstruction actually goes back to Derrida and describes the undoing or taking apart of media, aiming at dismantling hierarchies in conceptual oppositions (Barker 1990: 36). Such binary oppositions, in our instance British/American, can become dangerous as soon as (de-)valuations are attached to them.
As the last one, neoliberalism could be seen in governmentality approaches. The concept of ‘governmentality’ is a term used by Michel Foucault (1991) in his work on modern forms of political power. It is a term that combines ‘government’ and ‘rationality’, suggesting a form of political analysis that focuses on the forms of knowledge that make objects visible and available for governing. In Foucault’s terms, governmentality refers to a distinctive modality for exercising power, one which is not reducible to ‘the state’ This interpretation of neoliberalism centers on acknowledging a processual character where neoliberalism’s articulation with existing circumstances comes through endlessly unfolding failures and successes in the relations between
Hayward (2006) adds to this that Lukes wrote that absolute power is being able to get others to desire what you want them to desire. Both Morris (2006) and Hayward (2006) identify that for Lukes the relation between power and responsibility are crucial to his radical view. Furthermore, Lukes denies the notion of ‘power to’ and thus his exclusive notion of power is that of ‘power over’ while in fact ‘power over’ is merely a sub-set of ‘power to’. (Isaac, 1987; Morriss, 2006). Hayward (2006) and Morriss (2006) revisit Lukes’ book on Power as Lukes revised and republished the book.
Author suggests that today, international order and the conditions of coexistence are not based only on anarchical nature of the world. Hurrell thinks that we need to capture common interests, the imperatives to manage unequal power and the essential need to take such concepts as cultural diversity and values conflict into account to understand the main challenges of the international order. “Contemporary international society is characterized by a complex of plurality of ideas, views and values” (Hurrell, 2007). For the author only analyzing the differences in ideas, views and principles can provide a better answer to the question of the future challenges of global order. He also considers the declining importance of sovereign states because due to globalization the world is becoming a global village.
It provides a reference point for contemporary scholars who wish to analyse current events based on activities that took place in the history. Moreover (######) states that although the First Great Debate has been labelled as a historical myth, it provides even today a basis for the analysis of global issues some similar to what the utopians and realists were facing during the 1930s and 1940s. As a result of the First Debate, the flaws and limitation of the 2 rival theories were brought to surface, this revelation has great relevance even in contemporary politics due to the fact that, the realists and idealist scholars of today use the limitations of the great debate to transform and better their arguments in their