Theorizing the Political Relevance of International Relations Theory
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6273545 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Beate Jahn (0000-0002-6764-6362, University of Sussex, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2016 |
| Pages | sqw035 |
| Publication date | 2016-08-30 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Studies Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0020-8833 • E-ISSN: 1468-2478 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/isq/sqw035 |
| OpenAlex | W2404984390 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 33 |
| References cited | 105 |
Two broad positions—the “gap-bridgers” and the “gap-minders”—dominate the current debate on the (lack of) political relevance of International Relations (IR) theory. Missing from this debate, however, is a broader theoretical framework for contextualizing—and moving beyond—their disagreements. Hence, this article provides a theoretical account of the relationship between politics and knowledge. It shows that, in the modern context, scientific knowledge achieves political relevance by distancing itself—through theorizing—from the particularities of politics. This paradoxical relationship gives rise to three different dimensions of political relevance, which operate at different levels of abstraction. Metatheory plays a crucial role in constituting the modern conception of politics; theories establish concrete political spaces; and empirical studies can influence specific policies. Taking this context into account, moreover, calls for a reassessment of core features of the discipline: its supposed poverty, fragmentation, and immaturity are common features of all modern sciences; they function as a driver of scientific progress; and metatheoretical debates address the political dimension of the modern sciences. Hence, the source of IR’s political relevance lies in its theoretical foundations. Abandoning theory in favor of policy-oriented studies would simultaneously undermine the discipline’s policy relevance and its standing as a modern science
Context (archaeology · Distancing · Economics · Epistemology · International political economy · International relations · Metatheory · Political methodology · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Relevance (law · Social science · Sociology · Systems theory in political science · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Law · Political Conflict and Governance · Political Science Research and Education
The conceptual puzzle of violent non-state actors in Latin America
International Relations as a Social System
Threat inflation as political melodrama
Engagement all the way down
Does grand theory shape officials’ speech
Bringing Morgenthau’s ethics in
The mercenary concepts conditions of possibility
States of emergence, states of knowledge
International Relations Scholarship at 100
Turning’ everywhere in IR
Global international relations and the essentialism trap
Critical international relations and the impact agenda
The Power of Dance
Forum
Bridging the Gap in a Changing World
From Thucydides to 1648
L'International
Explaining the Russian invasion in Ukraine
Failing Is Not an Option, It Is the Only Option
Practices of Policy Orientation
Reification in IR
Toward a Radical IR
Social history from a bird’s eye view
Academic Community and Policymaking in Russia
The ethics of scholarship in a changing region
Doing and mediating critique
Towards an International Political Ergonomics
Does Social Science Inform Foreign Policy? Evidence from a Survey of US National Security, Trade, and Development Officials
Calling for “IR as Becoming-Rhizomatic
Why Does Pluralism Matter When We Study Politics? A View from Contemporary International Relations
Rival Visions of Parsimony
Strategic Ontologies
Deep theorizing in International Relations
Unthinking social science
The age of revolution, 1789-1848
Anthropology
Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge
The Impact of the Social Sciences
Economy of Force
World-Systems Analysis
International Relations and the Problem of Difference
Inside/Outside
The Darker Side of the Renaissance
The dividing discipline
The long twentieth century
Política entre las naciones
Power, Postcolonialism and International Relations
Scholars, Policymakers, and International Affairs
The Open Society and Its Enemies
The Cambridge History of Science
International Institutions
Recovering International Relations
Comparative Civilizations and Multiple Modernities
The Oxford Handbook of International Relations
Still a Discipline After All These Debates?
The Relevance of Political Science
Sixteenth Century Europe
Beyond the Ivory Tower
After the Globe, Before the World
Comparative Civilizations and Multiple Modernities
International Relations
Two Treatises of Government, by John Locke, Peter Laslett
The Origins of Totalitarianism
The Rise of the Global Imaginary
Globalization and the Postcolonial World
Ideology and Utopia
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Bananas, Beaches and Bases
The Darker Side of the Renaissance
Wahn, Wahn, Überall Wahn’
On the Policy Relevance of Grand Theory
In-And-Outers and Moonlighters
Toward “Best Practices” in Scholar-Practitioner Relations
Good Girls, Little Girls, and Bad Girls
IR Theory as International Practice/Agency
The Limitations of the Critical Edge
Advancing a Reflexive International Relations
International Relations, Irrelevant? Don’t Blame Theory
Nuclear Apartheid” as Political Position
Truth and power, monks and technocrats
The Need for Praxis
Diplomatic Investigations
International Relations as a Social Science
Inventing Europe
Janus and Minerva
Modernity and the holocaust
Technique Trumps Relevance
Analytic Eclecticism in the Study of World Politics
Locating Relevance in Security Studies
Rigor Is Not the Enemy of Relevance
How Can We Make Political Science Less Techno-Centric? Widen Rather than Narrow its Distance from the Government
Please Mind the Gap
Introduction
What Do Policymakers Want From Us? Results of a Survey of Current and Former Senior National Security Decision Makers
Critical Reflections on Post-Positivism in International Relations
International Institutions
Paradigmatic Faults in International-Relations Theory
Hobbes and international relations
The end of International Relations theory
Leaving theory behind
Theory is dead, long live theory
In the beginning
Politics is too important to be left to political scientists
Conventionalism as an Adequate Basis for Policy-Relevant IR Theory
The poverty of Grand Theory
Reflectivity, reflexivity, reflexivism
Beyond metatheory
Before the democratic peace
The Division of Labour in Society
Economists and Societies
Experiencing the end and afterlives of International Relations/theory
Strata, Blocks, Pieces, Spirals, Elastics and Verticals
The Superiority of Economists
From Max Weber
Three Concepts of Globalization
Sex and Death in the Rational World of Defense Intellectuals
| Unique citing works | 33 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3,3 |
| Citation span | 2016 - 2025 (10) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 32 |