The tripartite structure of critical international theory
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6431077 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Charlie Thame (0000-0001-7056-4117, Thammasat University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 447-477 |
| Publication date | 2025-08-15 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Theory (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1752-9719 • E-ISSN: 1752-9727 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s1752971925100080 |
| OpenAlex | W4413415875 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 121 |
The breakdown of liberal hegemony, the rise of the New Right, and the violent realignment of world order have been accompanied by a retreat from traditional humanist concerns in critical international theory, including emancipation, political subjectivity, social totality, universal history, and the anticipatory-utopian dimension of critique. Scholars have identified numerous shortcomings in first-generation and contemporary critical International Relations (IR), and our discipline still questions its purpose and object of study. This article proposes a more radical and realistic approach to critical international theory based on a reappraisal of Andrew Linklater’s oeuvre. It frames the critical project in IR as a Lakatosian research programme and calls for a progressive problem shift that foregrounds what Linklater, drawing from Kant and Marx, calls the necessarily tripartite structure of critical theory. I argue that by tracing an alternative path through classical sources of the tradition, pivoting from Hegel and the deep social relationalism that follows, while integrating a tripartite commitment with a more rigorous reflexive methodology, we can revitalise the emancipatory approach to IR and provide renewed purpose and direction to the discipline. Grounded in a left-Hegelian tradition of thought, the argument aspires to resonate with other critical theoretical traditions both within and beyond IR
Political science · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · International Relations and Foreign Policy
Peace & War
The voice and the eye
Grand Narratives in Critical International Theory
Radical Politics
Theory of World Security
The Conduct of Inquiry in International Relations
How the West Came to Rule
The Problem of Harm in World Politics
The Global Transformation
Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes
The End of Progress
Critique, Norm, and Utopia
Communication and the Evolution of Society
The restructuring of social and political theory
Towards the Fifth International?
Critical Theory and World Politics
Critical International Relations Theory after 25 Years
‘A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right
Critical International Theory
Recovering International Relations
The Oxford Handbook of International Relations
Approaches to World Order
The English School of International Relations
The achievements of critical theory
‘On the Jewish Question’
Critical international politics at an impasse
Neoliberal takeover? The dangers of post-critique
Class, States and International Relations
Capital, the State, and War
Violence and Civilization in the Western States-Systems
Anatomies of Revolution
World of the Right
Emancipation After Hegel
Beyond Realism and Marxism
Contemporary Critical Theory and Methodology
The Restructuring of International Relations Theory
The Anarchical Society
Insurgent Universality
Philosophy and Real Politics
Decolonizing Critical Theory
The missing Other
What is a minor international theory? On the limits of ‘Critical International Relations’
Radical conservatism and global order
Traditional, Problem-Solving and Critical Theory
Regrounding Critical Theory
Toward a Radical IR
Distant Suffering and Cosmopolitan Obligations
Globalisation, the State and Class Struggle
Nationalism, Internationalism, and Cosmopolitanism
Doing and mediating critique
Social Forces, States and World Orders
Rethinking Emancipation in a Critical IR
Remapping the Critical
The Limitations of the Critical Edge
Quo vadis IR
The Question of the Next Stage in International Relations Theory
Whither the International at the End of IR1
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
Sleeping Beauty and the Dialectical Awakening
Postcolonial Theory and the Critique of International Relations
The Problem of Community in International Relations
Forum
Civil society at the turn of the millenium
A critical-sympathetic introduction to Linklater’s odyssey
Philosophy and Revolution, From Hegel to Sartre, and from Marx to Mao
The Insurgent Universal
International relations and the revolutionary geopolitics of the European New Right
The untimely historical sociologist
Civilization’ and its subalterns
Poverty of Critical Theory in International Relations
Confronting multiple global crises
Introduction to Special Issue
Conclusion
Society maintains itself despite all the catastrophes that may eventuate
The Vicissitudes of Critique
The external world and the future of political theory
Making International Things
Strategies of critique in International Relations
Critical theory in crisis? a reconsideration
The end of International Relations theory
Myanmar’s redemptive revolution
Relations Before States
Symbols and world politics
The best there is? Communication, objectivity and the future of Critical International Relations Theory
The poverty of Critical Theory in International Relations
Post-Eurocentric grand narratives in critical international theory
The poverty of Grand Theory
Reflectivity, reflexivity, reflexivism
Reflex to turn
Reconstructive Methodology and Critical International Relations Theory
Political Realism and Human Interests
Crisis? Capitalism is Doing Very Well. How is Critical Theory
Critical methods in International Relations
On Left Internationalism
Feminist Theory and the Frankfurt School
Case study research and critical IR
The reactionary internationale
On the Methods of Critical Theory
What's Critical about Critical Theory? The Case of Habermas and Gender
Security in Anarchy
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |