Jorg Kustermans
Biographic Data
| ID | 953526 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jorg Kustermans |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jorg |
| FAMILY NAME | Kustermans |
| SIGNATURE | KUSTERMANS J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Antwerp |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7010-9990 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 94 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
The gift as diplomatic theory
Marcel Mauss’s Essai sur le don remains the go-to reference for scholarship on gift-exchange in the social sciences and humanities. Also in the field of International Relations did a literature develop around the work, which seeks both to describe tangible practices of gift-giving and to exploit the purchase of the gift as a theoretical metaphor. In this latter regard, it has been argued that the gift should be interpreted as an expression of col…
Is Ritual a Useful Resource? Instrumental and Non-Instrumental Interpretations of Ritual Action
This paper seeks to unsettle instrumental interpretations of ritual action, which also frame the current special issue. The instrumental interpretation of ritual action has political actors take deliberate recourse to ritual practices in order to accomplish various political ambitions. In spite of its obvious interpretive merit, the instrumental interpretation of ritual action loses its self-evidence when read in light of the contested history of…
Historicizing theory at the end of the world
The peace/violence nexus: Fundamental, multiple, contingent
This paper finds its point of departure in Murad Idris’s argument about peace being a fundamentally violent ideal marked by an overarching logic of constitutive aggression. It responds to this categorical statement by reconstructing four distinct variants of the peace/violence nexus, each of which involves a different type of violence, performed by a different type of agent, with a different demeanor, at different times and intervals, and in rela…
Whose Revisionism, Which International Order? Social Structure and Its Discontents
While the distinction between status quo and revisionist states is well established in International Relations, only more recently have scholars begun to refine the concept of revisionism itself, emphasizing that revisionism comes in different forms. A number of typologies have been introduced to capture this diversity. In this article, we offer a critique of these typologies, highlighting how many of these works elide the rule-governed and conte…
Four Conceptions of Authority in International Relations
There is increasing agreement that states and other political actors on the world stage sometimes achieve international authority. However, there is less agreement about the nature and functioning of international authority relations. What determines whether an actor will be recognized as an authoritative actor? And what are the effects thereof? In this essay, we identify four distinct conceptions of authority in the study of international relati…
Gift-giving in Byzantine Diplomacy
Gift exchange was an integral and crucial part of Byzantine diplomacy. The practice of Byzantine gift-giving varied with diplomatic context. The main division is that between Byzantine diplomacy with Muslim rulers and Byzantine diplomacy with (Christian) rulers to the North and West. While the former happened on a more egalitarian footing, the latter was structured in more explicitly hierarchical terms. This difference was reflected in the practi…
Diplomatic Gifts: An Introduction to the Forum
1Raison d'étatI: Beware of GiftsAn example that always comes to mind when thinking about diplomatic gifts is from Greek mythology and concerns the huge wooden horse that the Greeks supposedly left outside of the city walls of Troy. The Trojans hauled the wooden horse inside, believing that the Greeks had decided to retreat. They interpreted the strange object as a peace offering. It appeared that the war had come to an end. The gifting of the woo…
Ritual and authority in world politics
The contributions to this Forum on Ritual and Authority in World Politics examine the role that ritual performances play in the constitution of positions of authority and the maintenance of relations of authority in historical and contemporary international relations. The Forum takes as its point of departure three related observations: (i) that recent years have witnessed a remarkable upsurge of interest in ritual as a recurring feature of inter…
On the ethical significance of social practices
In Practice Theory and International Relations , Silviya Lechner and Mervyn Frost make a useful distinction between ‘praxis’ and ‘practices’ and correctly insist on the importance of describing the identity of distinct practices. They also make the important point that practices have ethical value for their participants. There is much to like about Lechner and Frost’s argument, including its solid philosophical grounding. However, from the perspe…
Gift-giving as a Source of International Authority
This article discusses the diplomatic practice of gift-giving in the Ancient Near East and Early Modern East Asia. In both cases, gift-exchange served to consolidate the dominant polity’s international authority. The causal relation between gift-giving and authority is typically rendered in terms of generosity inspiring gratitude, but a different mechanism connects diplomatic gift-giving and the consolidation of international authority. Diplomati…
Non-Nuclear Peace: Beyond the Nuclear Ban Treaty
Henry Maine and the Modern Invention of Peace
This articles examines Henry Maine’s arguments about the prospects of achieving a lasting and comprehensive peace. In a series of lectures on International Law , Maine famously held that ‘war is as old as mankind but peace is a modern invention’. The sentence situates Maine within a long-standing debate on the state of nature. The article reconstructs the meaning of the sentence by interpreting it in light of Maine’s broader theoretical framework…
Democratic peace as a historical phenomenon
This essay discusses the democratic peace as a historical phenomenon. The fact of democratic peace, as it is being described and accounted for by democratic peace theory, it first argues, is essentially a historical finding. It depends on the interpretation of past events and emerges from a systematic investigation of these events. But as transpires from the four books that the essay reviews, democratic peace is more than an historical finding. D…
A Sense of Place: Understanding the 2013 Stockholm Riots
In May 2013, Stockholm was shaken by six days of riots that started in one of its Northern suburbs, Husby, but soon spread to other parts of the city and country. This essay reports on a field trip to Stockholm and sets the riots within the Swedish urban context
Parsing the Practice Turn: Practice, Practical Knowledge, Practices
A substantial body of literature centers on the concept of 'practice'. This article parses the practice turn in International Relations. It suggests that the meaning of 'practice' is a moving target. Sometimes it means process. Sometimes it refers to a particular type of knowledge and related action. And sometimes it is used as a quasi-synonym for institution. There are actually three concepts animating the practice turn: 'practice', 'practical k…
The category rogue
As a concept of international society, the category 'rogue' can best be understood in relation to the more basic category of the person. Personhood signifies membership, and it is performed in collective, ritual, bodily practices. Modern personhood becomes individuated, and it values mind more than body. However, because it was soon realized that the modern person cannot ultimately sustain modern society, a new notion of personhood was introduced…
The state as citizen: State personhood and ideology
Republican security theory revisited
Republicanism is getting increasing attention in International Relations. Engaging Daniel Deudney's Republican Security Theory , it is argued that republicanism should be interpreted in ideological terms, that it is a polysemous tradition of political thought, and that it matters because it is socially embodied in world political practice. Special attention is given to republicanism's relationship to the question of technology. A short case study…
Modernity, boredom, and war: A suggestive essay
The quest for perpetual peace is a modern phenomenon, associated with a progressive view of history which emerged only in the Enlightenment. In addition, boredom – a feeling of ennui associated with a loss of the ability to act – is a fundamental mood of the modern age. Modern societies are thus, simultaneously, becoming more peaceful and their inhabitants are becoming more bored. As a means of overcoming our boredom, we are increasingly fascinat…
Global Governance: Parsimony and the Strictures of Complexity
The central contribution of the discipline of International Relations to the debate on globalization is its engagement with the process of global governance. This article seeks to map the substance of this engagement through a systematic comparison of three main theoretical approaches to global governance: James Rosenau’s account of the sui generis and complex nature of global governance, Political Realism’s reductive reading of global governance…
EU as Empire: The Nature of the Enlarged European Union
Parsing the Practice Turn: Practice, Practical Knowledge, Practices
A substantial body of literature centers on the concept of 'practice'. This article parses the practice turn in International Relations. It suggests that the meaning of 'practice' is a moving target. Sometimes it means process. Sometimes it refers to a particular type of knowledge and related action. And sometimes it is used as a quasi-synonym for institution. There are actually three concepts animating the practice turn: 'practice', 'practical k…
Four Conceptions of Authority in International Relations
There is increasing agreement that states and other political actors on the world stage sometimes achieve international authority. However, there is less agreement about the nature and functioning of international authority relations. What determines whether an actor will be recognized as an authoritative actor? And what are the effects thereof? In this essay, we identify four distinct conceptions of authority in the study of international relati…
Ritual and authority in world politics
The contributions to this Forum on Ritual and Authority in World Politics examine the role that ritual performances play in the constitution of positions of authority and the maintenance of relations of authority in historical and contemporary international relations. The Forum takes as its point of departure three related observations: (i) that recent years have witnessed a remarkable upsurge of interest in ritual as a recurring feature of inter…
Gift-giving as a Source of International Authority
This article discusses the diplomatic practice of gift-giving in the Ancient Near East and Early Modern East Asia. In both cases, gift-exchange served to consolidate the dominant polity’s international authority. The causal relation between gift-giving and authority is typically rendered in terms of generosity inspiring gratitude, but a different mechanism connects diplomatic gift-giving and the consolidation of international authority. Diplomati…
The state as citizen: State personhood and ideology
Whose Revisionism, Which International Order? Social Structure and Its Discontents
While the distinction between status quo and revisionist states is well established in International Relations, only more recently have scholars begun to refine the concept of revisionism itself, emphasizing that revisionism comes in different forms. A number of typologies have been introduced to capture this diversity. In this article, we offer a critique of these typologies, highlighting how many of these works elide the rule-governed and conte…
Gift-giving in Byzantine Diplomacy
Gift exchange was an integral and crucial part of Byzantine diplomacy. The practice of Byzantine gift-giving varied with diplomatic context. The main division is that between Byzantine diplomacy with Muslim rulers and Byzantine diplomacy with (Christian) rulers to the North and West. While the former happened on a more egalitarian footing, the latter was structured in more explicitly hierarchical terms. This difference was reflected in the practi…
Diplomatic Gifts: An Introduction to the Forum
1Raison d'étatI: Beware of GiftsAn example that always comes to mind when thinking about diplomatic gifts is from Greek mythology and concerns the huge wooden horse that the Greeks supposedly left outside of the city walls of Troy. The Trojans hauled the wooden horse inside, believing that the Greeks had decided to retreat. They interpreted the strange object as a peace offering. It appeared that the war had come to an end. The gifting of the woo…
The category rogue
As a concept of international society, the category 'rogue' can best be understood in relation to the more basic category of the person. Personhood signifies membership, and it is performed in collective, ritual, bodily practices. Modern personhood becomes individuated, and it values mind more than body. However, because it was soon realized that the modern person cannot ultimately sustain modern society, a new notion of personhood was introduced…
Modernity, boredom, and war: A suggestive essay
The quest for perpetual peace is a modern phenomenon, associated with a progressive view of history which emerged only in the Enlightenment. In addition, boredom – a feeling of ennui associated with a loss of the ability to act – is a fundamental mood of the modern age. Modern societies are thus, simultaneously, becoming more peaceful and their inhabitants are becoming more bored. As a means of overcoming our boredom, we are increasingly fascinat…
EU as Empire: The Nature of the Enlarged European Union
Global Governance: Parsimony and the Strictures of Complexity
The central contribution of the discipline of International Relations to the debate on globalization is its engagement with the process of global governance. This article seeks to map the substance of this engagement through a systematic comparison of three main theoretical approaches to global governance: James Rosenau’s account of the sui generis and complex nature of global governance, Political Realism’s reductive reading of global governance…
The state as citizen: State personhood and ideology
Republican security theory revisited
Republicanism is getting increasing attention in International Relations. Engaging Daniel Deudney's Republican Security Theory , it is argued that republicanism should be interpreted in ideological terms, that it is a polysemous tradition of political thought, and that it matters because it is socially embodied in world political practice. Special attention is given to republicanism's relationship to the question of technology. A short case study…
Modernity, boredom, and war: A suggestive essay
The quest for perpetual peace is a modern phenomenon, associated with a progressive view of history which emerged only in the Enlightenment. In addition, boredom – a feeling of ennui associated with a loss of the ability to act – is a fundamental mood of the modern age. Modern societies are thus, simultaneously, becoming more peaceful and their inhabitants are becoming more bored. As a means of overcoming our boredom, we are increasingly fascinat…
The category rogue
As a concept of international society, the category 'rogue' can best be understood in relation to the more basic category of the person. Personhood signifies membership, and it is performed in collective, ritual, bodily practices. Modern personhood becomes individuated, and it values mind more than body. However, because it was soon realized that the modern person cannot ultimately sustain modern society, a new notion of personhood was introduced…
Parsing the Practice Turn: Practice, Practical Knowledge, Practices
A substantial body of literature centers on the concept of 'practice'. This article parses the practice turn in International Relations. It suggests that the meaning of 'practice' is a moving target. Sometimes it means process. Sometimes it refers to a particular type of knowledge and related action. And sometimes it is used as a quasi-synonym for institution. There are actually three concepts animating the practice turn: 'practice', 'practical k…
A Sense of Place: Understanding the 2013 Stockholm Riots
In May 2013, Stockholm was shaken by six days of riots that started in one of its Northern suburbs, Husby, but soon spread to other parts of the city and country. This essay reports on a field trip to Stockholm and sets the riots within the Swedish urban context
Henry Maine and the Modern Invention of Peace
This articles examines Henry Maine’s arguments about the prospects of achieving a lasting and comprehensive peace. In a series of lectures on International Law , Maine famously held that ‘war is as old as mankind but peace is a modern invention’. The sentence situates Maine within a long-standing debate on the state of nature. The article reconstructs the meaning of the sentence by interpreting it in light of Maine’s broader theoretical framework…
Democratic peace as a historical phenomenon
This essay discusses the democratic peace as a historical phenomenon. The fact of democratic peace, as it is being described and accounted for by democratic peace theory, it first argues, is essentially a historical finding. It depends on the interpretation of past events and emerges from a systematic investigation of these events. But as transpires from the four books that the essay reviews, democratic peace is more than an historical finding. D…
Gift-giving as a Source of International Authority
This article discusses the diplomatic practice of gift-giving in the Ancient Near East and Early Modern East Asia. In both cases, gift-exchange served to consolidate the dominant polity’s international authority. The causal relation between gift-giving and authority is typically rendered in terms of generosity inspiring gratitude, but a different mechanism connects diplomatic gift-giving and the consolidation of international authority. Diplomati…
Non-Nuclear Peace: Beyond the Nuclear Ban Treaty
On the ethical significance of social practices
In Practice Theory and International Relations , Silviya Lechner and Mervyn Frost make a useful distinction between ‘praxis’ and ‘practices’ and correctly insist on the importance of describing the identity of distinct practices. They also make the important point that practices have ethical value for their participants. There is much to like about Lechner and Frost’s argument, including its solid philosophical grounding. However, from the perspe…
Gift-giving in Byzantine Diplomacy
Gift exchange was an integral and crucial part of Byzantine diplomacy. The practice of Byzantine gift-giving varied with diplomatic context. The main division is that between Byzantine diplomacy with Muslim rulers and Byzantine diplomacy with (Christian) rulers to the North and West. While the former happened on a more egalitarian footing, the latter was structured in more explicitly hierarchical terms. This difference was reflected in the practi…
Diplomatic Gifts: An Introduction to the Forum
1Raison d'étatI: Beware of GiftsAn example that always comes to mind when thinking about diplomatic gifts is from Greek mythology and concerns the huge wooden horse that the Greeks supposedly left outside of the city walls of Troy. The Trojans hauled the wooden horse inside, believing that the Greeks had decided to retreat. They interpreted the strange object as a peace offering. It appeared that the war had come to an end. The gifting of the woo…
Ritual and authority in world politics
The contributions to this Forum on Ritual and Authority in World Politics examine the role that ritual performances play in the constitution of positions of authority and the maintenance of relations of authority in historical and contemporary international relations. The Forum takes as its point of departure three related observations: (i) that recent years have witnessed a remarkable upsurge of interest in ritual as a recurring feature of inter…
Four Conceptions of Authority in International Relations
There is increasing agreement that states and other political actors on the world stage sometimes achieve international authority. However, there is less agreement about the nature and functioning of international authority relations. What determines whether an actor will be recognized as an authoritative actor? And what are the effects thereof? In this essay, we identify four distinct conceptions of authority in the study of international relati…
The peace/violence nexus: Fundamental, multiple, contingent
This paper finds its point of departure in Murad Idris’s argument about peace being a fundamentally violent ideal marked by an overarching logic of constitutive aggression. It responds to this categorical statement by reconstructing four distinct variants of the peace/violence nexus, each of which involves a different type of violence, performed by a different type of agent, with a different demeanor, at different times and intervals, and in rela…
Whose Revisionism, Which International Order? Social Structure and Its Discontents
While the distinction between status quo and revisionist states is well established in International Relations, only more recently have scholars begun to refine the concept of revisionism itself, emphasizing that revisionism comes in different forms. A number of typologies have been introduced to capture this diversity. In this article, we offer a critique of these typologies, highlighting how many of these works elide the rule-governed and conte…
Historicizing theory at the end of the world
The gift as diplomatic theory
Marcel Mauss’s Essai sur le don remains the go-to reference for scholarship on gift-exchange in the social sciences and humanities. Also in the field of International Relations did a literature develop around the work, which seeks both to describe tangible practices of gift-giving and to exploit the purchase of the gift as a theoretical metaphor. In this latter regard, it has been argued that the gift should be interpreted as an expression of col…
Is Ritual a Useful Resource? Instrumental and Non-Instrumental Interpretations of Ritual Action
This paper seeks to unsettle instrumental interpretations of ritual action, which also frame the current special issue. The instrumental interpretation of ritual action has political actors take deliberate recourse to ritual practices in order to accomplish various political ambitions. In spite of its obvious interpretive merit, the instrumental interpretation of ritual action loses its self-evidence when read in light of the contested history of…
Political science (17 works) · Law (15 works) · Law (15 works) · Politics (14 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Epistemology (10 works) · International Relations and Foreign Policy (9 works) · Philosophy (9 works) · Philosophy (9 works) · International relations (8 works)