Felix Berenskoetter
Biographic Data
| ID | 1370168 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Felix Berenskoetter |
| GIVEN NAMES | Felix |
| FAMILY NAME | Berenskoetter |
| SIGNATURE | BERENSKOETTER F |
| AFFILIATIONS | SOAS University of London |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 334 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Identity in International Relations
The identity perspective first emerged in the international relations (IR) literature in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a result of two overlapping trends. First, the postmodern Zeitgeist encouraged the questioning of accepted and “naturalized” categories associated with modernity. Embracing diversity and committed to an agenda of emancipation, postmodern thinking was to bring about the “death of meta-narratives” and to unravel assumptions whi…
National identities and international relations
Ned Lebow’s latest book addresses the multifaceted nature of ‘identity’ in international relations. It continues a core theme he advanced in The Politics and Ethics of Identity—that, despite illusi
Concepts in World Politics
Unpacking Concepts
Exploring Conflict Dynamics
One of the most important turns in security studies has been the turn to understanding the dynamics of contention, violence, and conflict. As several articles in the first special issue of JoGSS pointed out, the global nature of security studies has led to more actors and more complicated dynamics than have typically been assumed in the security studies field. In different ways, all of the articles in this issue highlight important—and often unde…
Piracy, Censorship, First Impressions, and Support for the Draft in the United States
The final issue of JoGSS’ first volume begins with paired articles on piracy and ends with a forum on censorship. These bracket an innovative argument about the importance of first impressions for threat perception and a careful empirical analysis of why support for the draft in the United States has waned. The articles in this issue showcase a wide variety of methods, many different theoretical starting points, and engage both contemporary and h…
States, Non-State Actors, and Their Implications for Ethics
Journal Article States, Non-State Actors, and Their Implications for Ethics Get access Deborah Avant, Deborah Avant Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Felix Berensköetter, Felix Berensköetter Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Erica Chenoweth, Erica Chenoweth Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Stuart Kaufman, Stuart Kaufman Search for…
Approaches to Concept Analysis
This article takes as its point of departure Stefano Guzzini’s recent call for ‘ontological theorizing’ as a reflexive engagement with central concepts. In an attempt to advance this agenda, the article presents an accessible overview of different approaches to concept analysis to stake out the field for a discussion of what ontological theorising might entail. The article advances the notion of concepts as ‘basic’ and lays out the parameters thr…
Concepts in World Politics
Friendship, Security, and Power
The aim of this paper is to outline the analytical value of a friendship perspective through two of IR's core concepts: security and power. It first discusses the relevance of friendship as a process providing ontological security to actors, including states, and differentiates this from the function of both strategic alliances and security communities. Building on this reading the paper explores the ways power operates in and out of friendship r…
Jumping off the Bandwagon
Engaging two recent articles published in Contemporary Security Policy, this intervention affirms that the emergence of Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) cannot be meaningfully described as European balancing vis-à-vis the United States. It is equally sceptical about attempts to explain it as a bandwagoning move. Instead, it suggests that European investment in CSDP can be most plausibly explained with a constructivist framework that take…
Friendship matters
Parameters of a national biography
This article is concerned with the ontology of political community, specifically the nation-state, as a bounded entity in time and space. Juxtaposed against the reading of it as an autonomous (realism) or permeated (liberalism) unit, or as constituted through Othering (social constructivism), the article conceptualizes the nation-state as a bounded community constituted by a biographical narrative which gives meaning to its collective spatio-temp…
Mapping the Field of UK–EU Policing
This article seeks to improve understanding of the field of policing in an evolving European space. It explores connections between officers working in police institutions affiliated with the European Union and police institutions in the United Kingdom. Its main contribution lies in offering a typology of interactions surrounding the exchange and interpretation of information through (i) shared databases, (ii) liaison officers, (iii) training pro…
Reclaiming the Vision Thing: Constructivists as Students of the Future1
This article argues that constructivists committed to reflexivity should be students of the future. It notes that both conventional and critical approaches do not sufficiently engage with the problem of future uncertainty in the process of identity formation and neglect its behavioural implications. Against this backdrop, the article regrounds constructivism in a temporal ontology and the argument that humans, in the face of contingency, seek to …
From Nato to ESDP: A Social Constructivist Analysis of German Strategic Adjustment after the End of the Cold War
This article addresses the question why Germany invested in what became the European Union's Security and Defense Policy (ESDP), a potential competitor to NATO. In addition to highlighting Germany's role in the development of ESDP, the paper offers a social constructivist explanation for this investment based on the concepts of friendship, estrangement, and emancipation. It develops the argument that (1) states gain ontological security by invest…
Under Construction: ESDP and the ‘Fight Against Organized Crime’
This essay discusses the phenomenon of 'organized crime' as a matter for EU foreign and security policy. Primarily aimed at searching for conceptual guidance, it draws on literature on criminology and policing, presenting two different theoretical perspectives for analyzing the phenomenon of 'organized-crime fighting', a utilitarian and a critical one. Against this backdrop, the essay discusses how ESDP (European Security and Defence Policy) has …
Power in World Politics
"This book gives substance to the view that we need to break with the habit of defining power exclusively in terms of military capabilities of states. Featuring contributions from distinguished and upcoming scholars it explores facets of power in international politics through a variety of conceptual lenses. Drawing on insights from social theory and placing a particular focus on the phenomenon of power, fifteen chapters assess the meaning of pow…
Friends, There Are No Friends? An Intimate Reframing of the International
This article offers an attempt to insert `friendship' into the reading of international relations, a conception which has so far remained outside the analytical focus of IR theorists. It suggests that a major reason for this omission is the common assumption of survival and the state as an autonomy-seeking entity, and it is argued that a conceptualisation of friendship as an intimate relationship must be rooted in an understanding of the human co…
What ‘War on Terror’ are we Talking About? A Response to Alistair Shepherd
Mapping the Mind Gap: A Comparison of US and European Security Strategies
This article analyses the state of the transatlantic security relationship by comparing two recent key documents: the Bush administration’s National Security Strategy (NSS) and the EU’s European Security Strategy (ESS). Deploying Robert Kagan’s caricature of differing strategic cultures between Europeans and Americans as an analytical foil, it assesses both documents with regard to how they define (i) realms of responsibility, (ii) threat assessm…
Parameters of a national biography
This article is concerned with the ontology of political community, specifically the nation-state, as a bounded entity in time and space. Juxtaposed against the reading of it as an autonomous (realism) or permeated (liberalism) unit, or as constituted through Othering (social constructivism), the article conceptualizes the nation-state as a bounded community constituted by a biographical narrative which gives meaning to its collective spatio-temp…
Friends, There Are No Friends? An Intimate Reframing of the International
This article offers an attempt to insert `friendship' into the reading of international relations, a conception which has so far remained outside the analytical focus of IR theorists. It suggests that a major reason for this omission is the common assumption of survival and the state as an autonomy-seeking entity, and it is argued that a conceptualisation of friendship as an intimate relationship must be rooted in an understanding of the human co…
Reclaiming the Vision Thing: Constructivists as Students of the Future1
This article argues that constructivists committed to reflexivity should be students of the future. It notes that both conventional and critical approaches do not sufficiently engage with the problem of future uncertainty in the process of identity formation and neglect its behavioural implications. Against this backdrop, the article regrounds constructivism in a temporal ontology and the argument that humans, in the face of contingency, seek to …
Approaches to Concept Analysis
This article takes as its point of departure Stefano Guzzini’s recent call for ‘ontological theorizing’ as a reflexive engagement with central concepts. In an attempt to advance this agenda, the article presents an accessible overview of different approaches to concept analysis to stake out the field for a discussion of what ontological theorising might entail. The article advances the notion of concepts as ‘basic’ and lays out the parameters thr…
From Nato to ESDP: A Social Constructivist Analysis of German Strategic Adjustment after the End of the Cold War
This article addresses the question why Germany invested in what became the European Union's Security and Defense Policy (ESDP), a potential competitor to NATO. In addition to highlighting Germany's role in the development of ESDP, the paper offers a social constructivist explanation for this investment based on the concepts of friendship, estrangement, and emancipation. It develops the argument that (1) states gain ontological security by invest…
Mapping the Mind Gap: A Comparison of US and European Security Strategies
This article analyses the state of the transatlantic security relationship by comparing two recent key documents: the Bush administration’s National Security Strategy (NSS) and the EU’s European Security Strategy (ESS). Deploying Robert Kagan’s caricature of differing strategic cultures between Europeans and Americans as an analytical foil, it assesses both documents with regard to how they define (i) realms of responsibility, (ii) threat assessm…
National identities and international relations
Ned Lebow’s latest book addresses the multifaceted nature of ‘identity’ in international relations. It continues a core theme he advanced in The Politics and Ethics of Identity—that, despite illusi
Mapping the Field of UK–EU Policing
This article seeks to improve understanding of the field of policing in an evolving European space. It explores connections between officers working in police institutions affiliated with the European Union and police institutions in the United Kingdom. Its main contribution lies in offering a typology of interactions surrounding the exchange and interpretation of information through (i) shared databases, (ii) liaison officers, (iii) training pro…
What ‘War on Terror’ are we Talking About? A Response to Alistair Shepherd
Mapping the Mind Gap: A Comparison of US and European Security Strategies
This article analyses the state of the transatlantic security relationship by comparing two recent key documents: the Bush administration’s National Security Strategy (NSS) and the EU’s European Security Strategy (ESS). Deploying Robert Kagan’s caricature of differing strategic cultures between Europeans and Americans as an analytical foil, it assesses both documents with regard to how they define (i) realms of responsibility, (ii) threat assessm…
What ‘War on Terror’ are we Talking About? A Response to Alistair Shepherd
Power in World Politics
"This book gives substance to the view that we need to break with the habit of defining power exclusively in terms of military capabilities of states. Featuring contributions from distinguished and upcoming scholars it explores facets of power in international politics through a variety of conceptual lenses. Drawing on insights from social theory and placing a particular focus on the phenomenon of power, fifteen chapters assess the meaning of pow…
Friends, There Are No Friends? An Intimate Reframing of the International
This article offers an attempt to insert `friendship' into the reading of international relations, a conception which has so far remained outside the analytical focus of IR theorists. It suggests that a major reason for this omission is the common assumption of survival and the state as an autonomy-seeking entity, and it is argued that a conceptualisation of friendship as an intimate relationship must be rooted in an understanding of the human co…
Under Construction: ESDP and the ‘Fight Against Organized Crime’
This essay discusses the phenomenon of 'organized crime' as a matter for EU foreign and security policy. Primarily aimed at searching for conceptual guidance, it draws on literature on criminology and policing, presenting two different theoretical perspectives for analyzing the phenomenon of 'organized-crime fighting', a utilitarian and a critical one. Against this backdrop, the essay discusses how ESDP (European Security and Defence Policy) has …
From Nato to ESDP: A Social Constructivist Analysis of German Strategic Adjustment after the End of the Cold War
This article addresses the question why Germany invested in what became the European Union's Security and Defense Policy (ESDP), a potential competitor to NATO. In addition to highlighting Germany's role in the development of ESDP, the paper offers a social constructivist explanation for this investment based on the concepts of friendship, estrangement, and emancipation. It develops the argument that (1) states gain ontological security by invest…
Mapping the Field of UK–EU Policing
This article seeks to improve understanding of the field of policing in an evolving European space. It explores connections between officers working in police institutions affiliated with the European Union and police institutions in the United Kingdom. Its main contribution lies in offering a typology of interactions surrounding the exchange and interpretation of information through (i) shared databases, (ii) liaison officers, (iii) training pro…
Reclaiming the Vision Thing: Constructivists as Students of the Future1
This article argues that constructivists committed to reflexivity should be students of the future. It notes that both conventional and critical approaches do not sufficiently engage with the problem of future uncertainty in the process of identity formation and neglect its behavioural implications. Against this backdrop, the article regrounds constructivism in a temporal ontology and the argument that humans, in the face of contingency, seek to …
Parameters of a national biography
This article is concerned with the ontology of political community, specifically the nation-state, as a bounded entity in time and space. Juxtaposed against the reading of it as an autonomous (realism) or permeated (liberalism) unit, or as constituted through Othering (social constructivism), the article conceptualizes the nation-state as a bounded community constituted by a biographical narrative which gives meaning to its collective spatio-temp…
Jumping off the Bandwagon
Engaging two recent articles published in Contemporary Security Policy, this intervention affirms that the emergence of Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) cannot be meaningfully described as European balancing vis-à-vis the United States. It is equally sceptical about attempts to explain it as a bandwagoning move. Instead, it suggests that European investment in CSDP can be most plausibly explained with a constructivist framework that take…
Friendship matters
Friendship, Security, and Power
The aim of this paper is to outline the analytical value of a friendship perspective through two of IR's core concepts: security and power. It first discusses the relevance of friendship as a process providing ontological security to actors, including states, and differentiates this from the function of both strategic alliances and security communities. Building on this reading the paper explores the ways power operates in and out of friendship r…
Concepts in World Politics
Unpacking Concepts
Exploring Conflict Dynamics
One of the most important turns in security studies has been the turn to understanding the dynamics of contention, violence, and conflict. As several articles in the first special issue of JoGSS pointed out, the global nature of security studies has led to more actors and more complicated dynamics than have typically been assumed in the security studies field. In different ways, all of the articles in this issue highlight important—and often unde…
Piracy, Censorship, First Impressions, and Support for the Draft in the United States
The final issue of JoGSS’ first volume begins with paired articles on piracy and ends with a forum on censorship. These bracket an innovative argument about the importance of first impressions for threat perception and a careful empirical analysis of why support for the draft in the United States has waned. The articles in this issue showcase a wide variety of methods, many different theoretical starting points, and engage both contemporary and h…
States, Non-State Actors, and Their Implications for Ethics
Journal Article States, Non-State Actors, and Their Implications for Ethics Get access Deborah Avant, Deborah Avant Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Felix Berensköetter, Felix Berensköetter Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Erica Chenoweth, Erica Chenoweth Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Stuart Kaufman, Stuart Kaufman Search for…
Approaches to Concept Analysis
This article takes as its point of departure Stefano Guzzini’s recent call for ‘ontological theorizing’ as a reflexive engagement with central concepts. In an attempt to advance this agenda, the article presents an accessible overview of different approaches to concept analysis to stake out the field for a discussion of what ontological theorising might entail. The article advances the notion of concepts as ‘basic’ and lays out the parameters thr…
Concepts in World Politics
Identity in International Relations
The identity perspective first emerged in the international relations (IR) literature in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a result of two overlapping trends. First, the postmodern Zeitgeist encouraged the questioning of accepted and “naturalized” categories associated with modernity. Embracing diversity and committed to an agenda of emancipation, postmodern thinking was to bring about the “death of meta-narratives” and to unravel assumptions whi…
National identities and international relations
Ned Lebow’s latest book addresses the multifaceted nature of ‘identity’ in international relations. It continues a core theme he advanced in The Politics and Ethics of Identity—that, despite illusi
Political science (17 works) · Sociology (16 works) · Law (12 works) · Law (11 works) · Philosophy (9 works) · Epistemology (8 works) · International Relations and Foreign Policy (8 works) · Politics (8 works) · Philosophy (7 works) · Political economy (7 works)