Praxis

There have been many recent works on international practices, practice theory—and even a supposed ‘practice turn’ in International Relations (IR). But these two books are not just addenda to these debates, but highly original contributions. Compared to both the extant practice literature in IR, as well as to each other, however, it is difficult to imagine two works much further apart. Friedrich Kratochwil's Praxis is a (self-confessed) collage, a grand painting that contains so many fascinating details that it is somewhat difficult to get an overall impression. In comparison, Silviya Lechner and Mervyn Frost's Practice theory in international relations is a portrait, an argument sketched in clear lines. In the end, they are united in what they are not rather than in what they are. Kratochwil's is not a book on IR theory. In fact, it is against IR theory in its focus on a ‘closer engagement with the substantive issues characterizing political action’ (p. 1, emphasis in original), rather than on issues of IR theory. If one were to summarize the book in a sentence, it would be that historically and practically informed understanding is the key to a world that is neither simply given, nor invented by theory. Theory is important, yet not as the ultimate arbiter of knowledge, but rather as a tool and the subject of historical and practical understanding. Kratochwil presents his thoughts in ten sometimes closely, sometimes only loosely related chapters. Every one of these dense chapters is well worth reading for its own sake. A large part of the argument emerges from the author's reading of a wide array of thinkers, from Aristotle to Austin, with long stops at Hobbes and Hume. With Kratochwil, ‘reading’ means what it says: not a typical IR reference to some great mind, based on an abridged introductory version of his work, but a deep immersion in the historical context of the texts. However, the trick is never to get lost in a hermeneutic reading, but to demonstrate how the text is used in current debates (usually unacknowledged), and how it bears on practical issues. Kratochwil owes much to a wide array of authors on political and social theory, in particular Niklas Luhmann, whose theoretical vocabulary Praxis makes full use of (and who plays a role somewhere between an Übervater and a lost uncle). It is in this style that Kratochwil guides—or, depending on one's viewpoint, schleps—readers through issues of constitution, change, sanctioning, punishing, etc. He urges readers to acknowledge the Sisyphean task of Praxis, one which requires them always to question taken for granted knowledge and hidden assumptions and read texts and practices in their historical and social context, using the best facilities of judgement available (which in most cases involves more than testing a hypothesis). Writing particularly about the field of International Relations, Kratochwil urges readers always to reopen seemingly ‘closed’ problems and issues, challenging ‘a virtually never-acknowledged conversation-stopper that results from the concentration on principles and ultimate values, which corrupts the discourse and tends to ostracize dissenters’ (p. 463)

Argument (complex analysis · Epistemology · International relations · International relations theory · Linguistics · Political science · Politics · Praxis · Reading (process · Sentence · Sociology · Subject (documents · Computer Science · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Law · Peacebuilding and International Security · Philosophy