Beyond international relations theory

Robert W. Cox and approaches to world order

Bibliographic Data

ID23144591
AuthorsRobert W Cox (0000-0002-0031-1568, York University), Timothy J Sinclair (0000-0002-3590-5905, University of Warwick)
Year1996
Pages3-18
Publication date1996-03-28
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
VenueApproaches to World Order (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherCambridge University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1017/cbo9780511607905.002
OpenAlexW194551137
ISBN9780511607905
LanguageEN
Citations received10

Robert W. Cox's work stands outside the usual parameters of international relations theory. Strongly historical in perspective, Cox's method of understanding global change represents a challenge to conventional ontological assumptions about international relations. These assumptions, the central of which is that states are the major actors whose interaction is to be explained, are qualified by Cox based on his observation that the major driving forces of world order change, albeit slowly, over time. Rather than discuss “the state,” Cox's focus has been on forms of state and how these change under pressure from forces from above (world order) and from below (civil society). Cox considers states to be focal terrains of conflict and institutional means of action internationally and nationally. In Cox's worldview the future represents an opportunity to break with the structures of the past and thus the potential to escape the strictures that bind human potential.

Action (physics) · Economics · Epistemology · International relations · International relations theory · Order (exchange) · Perspective (graphical) · Physics · Political science · Politics · State (computer science) · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Law · Mathematics · Philosophy