Vincent Pouliot
Biographic Data
| ID | 270751 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Vincent Pouliot |
| GIVEN NAMES | Vincent |
| FAMILY NAME | Pouliot |
| SIGNATURE | POULIOT V |
| AFFILIATIONS | McGill University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1820-5376 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 46 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1149 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 43 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 3 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 15 |
CAN IR Hear? Grasping the Global Politics of Languages
If we were to ask the average person on the street to share the first idea that pops into their head when they think of the wide world, it seems a safe bet that the multiplicity of languages would be a popular response. And yet, in the discipline of International Relations (IR) this basic fact has traditionally drawn surprisingly little attention. Why has the discipline been so impervious to global language politics, when it is arguably at the ve…
Placing machine learning into the hermeneutic circle: A combined computational-interpretive method for text analysis
Wager upon wager: Assessing Iver B. Neumann’s contribution to International Relations
A key player in the Scandinavian rise in the International Relations discipline, Iver B. Neumann has made significant contributions to several research programs, from Russian and European identity politics to practice theory and discourse analysis, through longue durée analyses of governmentality and diplomacy. At the theoretical level, Neumann has borrowed multiple social-theoretical resources that have allowed him to make a variety of epistemol…
Agency is Positionally Distributed: Practice Theory and (Post)Colonial Structures
Why are some practices available to some actors in world politics, but not to others? In this theory note, we develop a theory of agency as positionally distributed: In global politics, the action potentials of groups and individuals vary depending on their location in the macrostructures inherited from common histories of colonial domination and exploitation. We contribute to the understanding of subordinate agency by exploiting the many synergi…
Domesticating Wealth Inequality
Relative wealth inequality between countries of the North and South has not improved since the era of decolonization, yet the LIO's economic regime has scarcely been challenged since the 1970s' New International Economic Order. This paper seeks to explain this puzzle by theorizing and empirically tracking a pervasive pattern of rhetorical “domestication” through which wealth inequality was framed as a domestic instead of an international problem.…
Global Policymaking: The Patchwork of Global Governance
This book analyzes the politics of global governance by looking at how global policymaking actually works. It provides a comprehensive theoretical and methodological framework which is systematically applied to the study of three global policies drawn from recent UN activities: the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015, the institutionalization of the Human Rights Council from 2005 onwards, and the ongoing promotion of the protect…
Global Policymaking: The Patchwork of Global Governance
Thinking with Diplomacy: Within and Beyond Practice Theory
Following the considerable interest in practice theory, this Collective Discussion interrogates what it means to practice and, ultimately, to think with diplomacy. In asking how empirical, methodological, and axiological disagreements over what constitutes diplomatic practice can be productively employed to develop or revise practice theory, the Discussion engages the historically and culturally contingent practices of diplomacy. In doing so, it …
The Gray Area of Institutional Change: How the Security Council Transforms Its Practices on the Fly
In world politics, institutional development often takes place in a gray area that combines elements of rational design and organic change in practice. Faced with impracticable secondary rules, diplomats evolve semi-formal practices that allow them to make collectively binding decisions even in the absence of a procedure to do so, effectively building the plane while flying it. Changing practices at the United Nations Security Council offer a par…
Global governance in the age of epistemic authority
Today's global governance is qualitatively different from the past, according to Michael Zürn's penetrating analysis. With the rise of epistemic authority, reflexivity, service, and request have come to surpass command and control as key modes of global governance, leading to new forms of legitimation and contestation. I engage with this rich and thought-provoking argument on three counts. First, it remains doubtful that states defer to internati…
Historical Institutionalism Meets Practice Theory: Renewing the Selection Process of the United Nations Secretary-General
The selection process leading to the appointment of Antonio Guterres as Secretary-General of the United Nations gave way to unprecedented practices in world politics, such as public hearings with candidates. A textbook case of what historical institutionalism calls “layering,” this episode of institutional development features intriguing puzzles, including its timing, form, and limits. Drawing on historical institutionalism and practice theory, I…
Global governance as patchwork: The making of the Sustainable Development Goals
This article develops an analytical framework geared at making sense of global governance as patchwork. Our three-step methodology operationalizes the concept of ‘bricolage’ by focusing on the political practices and the value struggles that underpin the making of global public policies. This framework throws light on the widespread contestation over the objectives and solutions that should be pursued globally, as well as on the dynamics of inclu…
La logique du praticable: Une Théorie De La Pratique Des Communautés De Sécurité
Cet article explore les ramifications théoriques de la logique du praticable en Relations internationales. Tant dans la vie sociale que politique, on ne saurait réduire les pratiques à de simples produits de la rationalité instrumentale, de la conformité avec les normes ou de l'agir communicationnel. Ces trois logiques de l'action sociale révèlent un même penchant pour la connaissance réflexive, se concentrant sur ce à quoi (plutôt que ce à parti…
L'ordre hiérarchique international: Les luttes de rang dans la diplomatie multilatérale
À la table des négociations multilatérales, certains ambassadeurs ont plus de poids que d'autres en dépit du principe d’égalité souveraine qui fonde les rapports internationaux. Partant du constat que les différences de ressources matérielles entre les États ne suffisent pas à expliquer ce phénomène, Vincent Pouliot propose une visite guidée de la salle des machines de la politique mondiale. Il montre que les diplomates participent à des luttes d…
Global Governance: A Struggle over Universal Values
Why is it so complicated to achieve collective action in global governance? This article focuses on one explanatory factor, according to which the global stage is pervaded by normative divisions. Our article helps advance this argument in three ways, by specifying the nature, scope, and mechanics of the global value struggle. First, we show that the distinct visions that clash in the conduct of global governance are formulated in a peculiar idiom…
Hierarchy in practice: Multilateral diplomacy and the governance of international security
In today’s world, a significant portion of international security politics is conducted through multilateral channels, often from the halls of international organisations such as the United Nations or NATO. This article theorises and empirically documents the production, reproduction, and contestation of local diplomatic hierarchies that practitioners often call ‘international pecking orders’. According to conventional wisdom in IR, the sources o…
International Pecking Orders: The Politics and Practice of Multilateral Diplomacy
In any multilateral setting, some state representatives weigh much more heavily than others. Practitioners often refer to this form of diplomatic hierarchy as the 'international pecking order'. This book is a study of international hierarchy in practice, as it emerges out of the multilateral diplomatic process. Building on the social theories of Erving Goffman and Pierre Bourdieu, it argues that diplomacy produces inequality. Delving into the pol…
Diplomacy and the Making of World Politics
This book examines world politics through the lens of diplomatic practice. It argues that many global phenomena of our time, from the making of international law to the constitution of international public power, through humanitarianism and the maintenance of global hierarchies, are made possible and shaped by evolving forms of diplomacy. The study of diplomacy is largely dominated by firsthand accounts and historical treaties, with little effort…
The politics of inclusion: Changing patterns in the governance of international security
The debate on the reform of the Security Council can be conceptualised as the most recent episode in the evolution of World Governing Councils (WGCs), that is, the highest-level intergovernmental bodies charged with regulating the international use of violence. Building on a historical comparison of key formative and transformative moments – 1815, 1919, 1945, and post-Cold War – we argue that the modern evolution of WGCs is characterised by incre…
How much is global governance changing? The G20 as international practice
Is the G20 transforming global governance, or does it reinforce the status quo? In this article we argue that as innovative as some diplomatic practices of the G20 may be, we should not overstate their potential impact. More specifically, we show that G20 diplomacy often reproduces many oligarchic tendencies in global governance, while also relaxing club dynamics in some ways. On the one hand, the G20 has more inductees who operate along new rule…
Practice theory and the study of diplomacy: A research agenda
This introductory article explores the multiple synergies between international practice theory and diplomatic studies. The timing for this cross-fertilizing exchange could not be better, as the study of diplomacy enters a phase of theorization while practice scholars look to confront the approach to new empirical and analytical challenges. The article first defines diplomacy as a historically and culturally contingent bundle of practices that ar…
Diplomacy and the making of world politics
This book examines world politics through the lens of diplomatic practice. We argue that many global phenomena of our time, from international law to world order, through humanitarianism, global hierarchies, and public power, are made possible by evolving forms of diplomacy. In that sense, this book is not about diplomacy per se, but rather about the constitution of world politics in and through diplomatic practice. In order to shed new light on …
Practice tracing
The relationship between interpretivists and process tracers is one of mutual neglect, if not outright suspicion and even contempt. This is arguably puzzling given that on the face of it, these two groups of scholars would seem to have quite a few things in common. For instance, many process tracers and interpretivists share an inductive commitment to fine-grained case studies. They focus on processes and flows as opposed to static structures or …
Setting Status in Stone: The Negotiation of International Institutional Privileges
This chapter forays into contemporary status competition in world politics from a practice perspective. My key premise is that because status is a social ascription, we should begin with the practical logics that fuel competition instead of starting from deductive categories set up by the analyst. Put differently, the best way to understand status struggles in world politics is to zoom in on how international practitioners conceive of status mark…
Power in practice: Negotiating the international intervention in Libya
How does power work in practice? Much of the ‘stuff’ that state agents and other international actors do, on an everyday basis, remains impenetrable to existing International Relations theory. This is unfortunate, as the everyday performance of international practices actually helps shape world policy outcomes. In this article, we develop a framework to grasp the concrete workings of power in international politics. The notion of ‘emergent power’…
The Logic of Practicality: A Theory of Practice of Security Communities
This article explores the theoretical implications of the logic of practicality in world politics. In social and political life, many practices do not primarily derive from instrumental rationality (logic of consequences), norm-following (logic of appropriateness), or communicative action (logic of arguing). These three logics of social action suffer from a representational bias in that they focus on what agents think about instead of what they t…
International practices
In this article, we approach world politics through the lens of its manifold practices, which we define as competent performances. Studying International Relations (IR) from the perspective of international practices promises three key advances. First, by focusing on practices in IR, we can understand both IR theory and international politics better or differently. World politics can be conceived as structured by practices, which give meaning to …
Practice theory and the study of diplomacy: A research agenda
This introductory article explores the multiple synergies between international practice theory and diplomatic studies. The timing for this cross-fertilizing exchange could not be better, as the study of diplomacy enters a phase of theorization while practice scholars look to confront the approach to new empirical and analytical challenges. The article first defines diplomacy as a historically and culturally contingent bundle of practices that ar…
Power in practice: Negotiating the international intervention in Libya
How does power work in practice? Much of the ‘stuff’ that state agents and other international actors do, on an everyday basis, remains impenetrable to existing International Relations theory. This is unfortunate, as the everyday performance of international practices actually helps shape world policy outcomes. In this article, we develop a framework to grasp the concrete workings of power in international politics. The notion of ‘emergent power’…
Sobjectivism: Toward a Constructivist Methodology
This article outlines a "sobjectivist" methodology that is specifically geared toward the constructivist style of reasoning. The main argument is that constructivist inquiries need to develop not only objectified (or experience-distant) but also subjective (experience-near) knowledge about social and international life. This requirement derives from the fact that constructivism is a postfoundationalist style of reasoning which emphasizes the mutu…
Untimely Russia: Hysteresis in Russian-Western Relations over the Past Millennium
This article draws on Pierre Bourdieu's sociology to explain how a lack of fit between a repertoire of bodily practices accumulated through history, on the one hand, (here, Russian habitus) and the field in which it is employed, on the other, (here, diplomacy) can take shape in world politics. Such "hysteresis" provides a longue durée reading that challenges both the realist idea that similar outcomes are due to invariant structures and the const…
Historical Institutionalism Meets Practice Theory: Renewing the Selection Process of the United Nations Secretary-General
The selection process leading to the appointment of Antonio Guterres as Secretary-General of the United Nations gave way to unprecedented practices in world politics, such as public hearings with candidates. A textbook case of what historical institutionalism calls “layering,” this episode of institutional development features intriguing puzzles, including its timing, form, and limits. Drawing on historical institutionalism and practice theory, I…
The Future of Diplomacy: Changing Practices, Evolving Relationships
As we enter the 21st century, everybody seems to agree that is changing and yet few people can specify exactly how or where it is heading. Since its very inception, International Journal has been a key forum for such discussions. A 1998 exchange between Paul Sharp and Andrew Cooper, for example, gave new scholarly prominence to the ways in which, and degrees to which, state-to-state was being challenged by new actors.1 This has remained a core qu…
The materials of practice: Nuclear warheads, rhetorical commonplaces and committee meetings in Russian–Atlantic relations
In this article I argue that the Cartesian dualism informing dominant theories of International Relations (IR) has limited analytical purchase at the level of practice. The materials that enable and constrain contemporary diplomatic practices between NATO and Russia seamlessly combine natural, cultural and organizational artefacts: nuclear warheads take on a symbolic life of their own; linguistic formulations transform into ‘things’; and committe…
How much is global governance changing? The G20 as international practice
Is the G20 transforming global governance, or does it reinforce the status quo? In this article we argue that as innovative as some diplomatic practices of the G20 may be, we should not overstate their potential impact. More specifically, we show that G20 diplomacy often reproduces many oligarchic tendencies in global governance, while also relaxing club dynamics in some ways. On the one hand, the G20 has more inductees who operate along new rule…
Thinking with Diplomacy: Within and Beyond Practice Theory
Following the considerable interest in practice theory, this Collective Discussion interrogates what it means to practice and, ultimately, to think with diplomacy. In asking how empirical, methodological, and axiological disagreements over what constitutes diplomatic practice can be productively employed to develop or revise practice theory, the Discussion engages the historically and culturally contingent practices of diplomacy. In doing so, it …
Global Governance: A Struggle over Universal Values
Why is it so complicated to achieve collective action in global governance? This article focuses on one explanatory factor, according to which the global stage is pervaded by normative divisions. Our article helps advance this argument in three ways, by specifying the nature, scope, and mechanics of the global value struggle. First, we show that the distinct visions that clash in the conduct of global governance are formulated in a peculiar idiom…
The essence of constructivism
Le monde de Pierre Bourdieu: Éléments pour une théorie sociale des Relations internationales
Cet article jette un regard original sur les débats contemporains en Relations internationales (RI) à la lumière de la sociologie de Pierre Bourdieu. Sa riche théorie sociale permet d'établir des ponts entre les approches conventionnelles et celles qui sont issues de la mouvance critique en RI. Plus précisément, nous identifions six contributions que pourrait apporter une approche bourdieusienne. Sur le plan métathéorique, cette approche se carac…
Diplomats as Permanent Representatives: The Practical Logics of the Multilateral Pecking Order
It is not very well known that term order, which foreign policy practitioners often use to talk about international playing field, was actually coined by Norwegian zoologist Thorleif Schjelderup-Ebbe in 1922 to describe dominance hierarchy of hens.1 Clearly expression, as little flattering for diplomats as its origins may sound, captures a fundamental sociopolitical dynamic in world politics: practice of diplomacy takes place within a highly - th…
International Pecking Orders: The Politics and Practice of Multilateral Diplomacy
In any multilateral setting, some state representatives weigh much more heavily than others. Practitioners often refer to this form of diplomatic hierarchy as the 'international pecking order'. This book is a study of international hierarchy in practice, as it emerges out of the multilateral diplomatic process. Building on the social theories of Erving Goffman and Pierre Bourdieu, it argues that diplomacy produces inequality. Delving into the pol…
Things of Networks: Situating ANT in International Relations
We come to this forum not to advocate for actor-network theory (ANT) but to raise friendly questions about its role in International Relations (IR). As outsiders to ANT, we recognize that these issues may be addressed within that broader literature. But since we are proponents of the use of frameworks that share with ANT a commitment to the analytical priority of processes, relations, and practices, we also have a particular interest in its devel…
Global governance in the age of epistemic authority
Today's global governance is qualitatively different from the past, according to Michael Zürn's penetrating analysis. With the rise of epistemic authority, reflexivity, service, and request have come to surpass command and control as key modes of global governance, leading to new forms of legitimation and contestation. I engage with this rich and thought-provoking argument on three counts. First, it remains doubtful that states defer to internati…
Multilateralism as an End in Itself1: Multilateralism as an End in Itself
Journal Article Multilateralism as an End in Itself Get access Vincent Pouliot Vincent Pouliot McGill University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Studies Perspectives, Volume 12, Issue 1, February 2011, Pages 18–26, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1528-3585.2010.00416.x Published: 20 February 2011
The Global Compact: Shifting the Politics of International Development
The UN Global Compact epitomizes the current state of the politics of international development in three distinct ways. First, the Compact illustrates a major turn in development thinking. After decades of hostile relations, the UN and business now acknowledge their common interest in the promotion of sustainable development. Second, the Compact brings light the gradual emergence of more inclusive forms of global governance, in response the failu…
Global governance as patchwork: The making of the Sustainable Development Goals
This article develops an analytical framework geared at making sense of global governance as patchwork. Our three-step methodology operationalizes the concept of ‘bricolage’ by focusing on the political practices and the value struggles that underpin the making of global public policies. This framework throws light on the widespread contestation over the objectives and solutions that should be pursued globally, as well as on the dynamics of inclu…
The Alive and Well Transatlantic Security Community: A Theoretical Reply to Michael Cox
Hierarchy in practice: Multilateral diplomacy and the governance of international security
In today’s world, a significant portion of international security politics is conducted through multilateral channels, often from the halls of international organisations such as the United Nations or NATO. This article theorises and empirically documents the production, reproduction, and contestation of local diplomatic hierarchies that practitioners often call ‘international pecking orders’. According to conventional wisdom in IR, the sources o…
The politics of inclusion: Changing patterns in the governance of international security
The debate on the reform of the Security Council can be conceptualised as the most recent episode in the evolution of World Governing Councils (WGCs), that is, the highest-level intergovernmental bodies charged with regulating the international use of violence. Building on a historical comparison of key formative and transformative moments – 1815, 1919, 1945, and post-Cold War – we argue that the modern evolution of WGCs is characterised by incre…
Agency is Positionally Distributed: Practice Theory and (Post)Colonial Structures
Why are some practices available to some actors in world politics, but not to others? In this theory note, we develop a theory of agency as positionally distributed: In global politics, the action potentials of groups and individuals vary depending on their location in the macrostructures inherited from common histories of colonial domination and exploitation. We contribute to the understanding of subordinate agency by exploiting the many synergi…
The essence of constructivism
The Alive and Well Transatlantic Security Community: A Theoretical Reply to Michael Cox
The Global Compact: Shifting the Politics of International Development
The UN Global Compact epitomizes the current state of the politics of international development in three distinct ways. First, the Compact illustrates a major turn in development thinking. After decades of hostile relations, the UN and business now acknowledge their common interest in the promotion of sustainable development. Second, the Compact brings light the gradual emergence of more inclusive forms of global governance, in response the failu…
Sobjectivism: Toward a Constructivist Methodology
This article outlines a "sobjectivist" methodology that is specifically geared toward the constructivist style of reasoning. The main argument is that constructivist inquiries need to develop not only objectified (or experience-distant) but also subjective (experience-near) knowledge about social and international life. This requirement derives from the fact that constructivism is a postfoundationalist style of reasoning which emphasizes the mutu…
Pacification Without Collective Identification: Russia and the Transatlantic Security Community in the Post-Cold War Era
Does the emergence of a security community require a collective identity? This constitutive relationship has been hypothesized by prominent scholars from Deutsch to Adler & Barnett. Yet the Russian-Atlantic case shows that collective identification is not a necessary condition for a nascent security community to emerge. In less than two decades, the relationship between Russia and the transatlantic community has quickly transformed from a deep-se…
Metaphors of globalization: Mirrors, magicians and mutinies
Introduction: Mirrors, Magicians and Mutinies of Globalization M.Kornprobst, V.Pouliot, N.Shah & R.Zaiotti PART 1: MIRRORS Closed Fist, Empty Hand, or Open Hand? Globalization and Historical Analogies M.Kornprobst Reflexive Mirror: Everything Takes Place As If Threats Were Going Global V.Pouliot Mutiny or Mirror? Politicizing the Limits/Ethics of the Tobin J.Brassett Bridging Commonsense: Pragmatic Metaphors and the 'Schengen Laboratory' R.Zaiott…
Metaphors of Globalization
By revisiting globalization using an analysis of metaphors, such as 'global village' and 'network society', this volume sheds new light on overlooked dimensions of global politics, redresses outdated
The Logic of Practicality: A Theory of Practice of Security Communities
This article explores the theoretical implications of the logic of practicality in world politics. In social and political life, many practices do not primarily derive from instrumental rationality (logic of consequences), norm-following (logic of appropriateness), or communicative action (logic of arguing). These three logics of social action suffer from a representational bias in that they focus on what agents think about instead of what they t…
Le monde de Pierre Bourdieu: Éléments pour une théorie sociale des Relations internationales
Cet article jette un regard original sur les débats contemporains en Relations internationales (RI) à la lumière de la sociologie de Pierre Bourdieu. Sa riche théorie sociale permet d'établir des ponts entre les approches conventionnelles et celles qui sont issues de la mouvance critique en RI. Plus précisément, nous identifions six contributions que pourrait apporter une approche bourdieusienne. Sur le plan métathéorique, cette approche se carac…
International Security in Practice: The Politics of Nato-Russia Diplomacy
How do once bitter enemies move beyond entrenched rivalry at the diplomatic level? In one of the first attempts to apply practice theory to the study of International Relations, Vincent Pouliot builds on Pierre Bourdieu's sociology to devise a theory of practice of security communities and applies it to post-Cold War security relations between NATO and Russia. Based on dozens of interviews and a thorough analysis of recent history, Pouliot demons…
The materials of practice: Nuclear warheads, rhetorical commonplaces and committee meetings in Russian–Atlantic relations
In this article I argue that the Cartesian dualism informing dominant theories of International Relations (IR) has limited analytical purchase at the level of practice. The materials that enable and constrain contemporary diplomatic practices between NATO and Russia seamlessly combine natural, cultural and organizational artefacts: nuclear warheads take on a symbolic life of their own; linguistic formulations transform into ‘things’; and committe…
International practices: Introduction and Framework
In this book, we invite students of International Relations (IR) to approach world politics through the lens of its manifold practices. By focusing on what practitioners do, we zoom in on the quotidian unfolding of international life, from multilateral diplomacy to finance trading through environmental negotiations. We analyze the ongoing accomplishments that, put together, constitute the “big picture” that is variously described by existing IR t…
International Practices
It is in and through practices - deeds that embody shared intersubjective knowledge - that social life is organized, that subjectivities are constituted and that history unfolds. One can think of dozens of different practices (from balancing, to banking or networking) which constitute the social fabric of world politics. This book brings together leading scholars in fields from international law and humanitarianism to nuclear deterrence and the U…
International practices
In this article, we approach world politics through the lens of its manifold practices, which we define as competent performances. Studying International Relations (IR) from the perspective of international practices promises three key advances. First, by focusing on practices in IR, we can understand both IR theory and international politics better or differently. World politics can be conceived as structured by practices, which give meaning to …
Multilateralism as an End in Itself1: Multilateralism as an End in Itself
Journal Article Multilateralism as an End in Itself Get access Vincent Pouliot Vincent Pouliot McGill University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Studies Perspectives, Volume 12, Issue 1, February 2011, Pages 18–26, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1528-3585.2010.00416.x Published: 20 February 2011
Untimely Russia: Hysteresis in Russian-Western Relations over the Past Millennium
This article draws on Pierre Bourdieu's sociology to explain how a lack of fit between a repertoire of bodily practices accumulated through history, on the one hand, (here, Russian habitus) and the field in which it is employed, on the other, (here, diplomacy) can take shape in world politics. Such "hysteresis" provides a longue durée reading that challenges both the realist idea that similar outcomes are due to invariant structures and the const…
Diplomats as Permanent Representatives: The Practical Logics of the Multilateral Pecking Order
It is not very well known that term order, which foreign policy practitioners often use to talk about international playing field, was actually coined by Norwegian zoologist Thorleif Schjelderup-Ebbe in 1922 to describe dominance hierarchy of hens.1 Clearly expression, as little flattering for diplomats as its origins may sound, captures a fundamental sociopolitical dynamic in world politics: practice of diplomacy takes place within a highly - th…
The Future of Diplomacy: Changing Practices, Evolving Relationships
As we enter the 21st century, everybody seems to agree that is changing and yet few people can specify exactly how or where it is heading. Since its very inception, International Journal has been a key forum for such discussions. A 1998 exchange between Paul Sharp and Andrew Cooper, for example, gave new scholarly prominence to the ways in which, and degrees to which, state-to-state was being challenged by new actors.1 This has remained a core qu…
International Relations Theory and Regional Transformation
Regional transformation has emerged as a major topic of research during the past few decades, much of it seeking to understand how a region changes into a zone of conflict or cooperation and how and why some regions remain in perpetual conflict. Although the leading theoretical paradigms of international relations have something to say about regional order, a comprehensive treatment of this subject is missing from the literature. This book sugges…
Regional security practices and Russian–Atlantic relations
In this chapter I argue that regions in world politics are constituted by sets of specific ways of doing things – practices – that create more or less ordered spaces and narratives of regional interaction. Because they are socially meaningful and organized patterns of action, practices have structuring effects on politics. At the regional level of analysis, security practices such as war, deterrence, diplomacy, arms control, and military exchange…
Things of Networks: Situating ANT in International Relations
We come to this forum not to advocate for actor-network theory (ANT) but to raise friendly questions about its role in International Relations (IR). As outsiders to ANT, we recognize that these issues may be addressed within that broader literature. But since we are proponents of the use of frameworks that share with ANT a commitment to the analytical priority of processes, relations, and practices, we also have a particular interest in its devel…
Practice tracing
The relationship between interpretivists and process tracers is one of mutual neglect, if not outright suspicion and even contempt. This is arguably puzzling given that on the face of it, these two groups of scholars would seem to have quite a few things in common. For instance, many process tracers and interpretivists share an inductive commitment to fine-grained case studies. They focus on processes and flows as opposed to static structures or …
Setting Status in Stone: The Negotiation of International Institutional Privileges
This chapter forays into contemporary status competition in world politics from a practice perspective. My key premise is that because status is a social ascription, we should begin with the practical logics that fuel competition instead of starting from deductive categories set up by the analyst. Put differently, the best way to understand status struggles in world politics is to zoom in on how international practitioners conceive of status mark…
Power in practice: Negotiating the international intervention in Libya
How does power work in practice? Much of the ‘stuff’ that state agents and other international actors do, on an everyday basis, remains impenetrable to existing International Relations theory. This is unfortunate, as the everyday performance of international practices actually helps shape world policy outcomes. In this article, we develop a framework to grasp the concrete workings of power in international politics. The notion of ‘emergent power’…
Diplomacy and the Making of World Politics
This book examines world politics through the lens of diplomatic practice. It argues that many global phenomena of our time, from the making of international law to the constitution of international public power, through humanitarianism and the maintenance of global hierarchies, are made possible and shaped by evolving forms of diplomacy. The study of diplomacy is largely dominated by firsthand accounts and historical treaties, with little effort…
Political science (37 works) · Sociology (35 works) · Law (32 works) · Politics (30 works) · International Relations and Foreign Policy (25 works) · International relations (19 works) · Economics (18 works) · Epistemology (18 works) · Law (17 works) · Peacebuilding and International Security (16 works)