Why Theories in International Relations

Theories are very important tools for the discipline of international relations, as they enable us to understand past atrocities or events, and are also the only vehicle for states to pursuit and predict their foreign policy in benefit for their nation interest. Although some of the dominant theories have existed since Peloponnesian wars, where Thucydides demonstrates how the pursuit of power and interest shapes the relations between states or reading of Niccolo Machiavelli writings on advice to statesmen on how to maintain power. International Relations as a discipline was established after world war I, in moral grounds, to explain why the war took place and how to prevent one in future; but all these efforts were in vain as they have failed to prevent the WW II.

Nevertheless, studying international relations theories allows to have a better understanding of international politics, make sense of institutions and other events which take place in the world. For example, the atrocities of the two world wars, can be theorised in different ways. Depending on what dimension theorists are looking at:

1. Realists may argue that the reason for war was the struggle for power; as they believe that, states behave in a self-interest manner because the world is anarchic and states have to position themselves within that system.

2. Liberals may say that, the lack of local and international institutions or international governing body, was the cause of the conflict; because they argue that states alone can not maintain peace without a international body.

3. Structuralism would argue that international relations has been shaped by minority capitalists in order to expand their economical ends in exchange of cheap labour from the majority of workers. They believe that capitalism is unjust social and economic order which causes conflict and disharmony between states.

However, both theories seems to present some substance, it is necessary for international relations scholars and students to continue to make analysis and extract a convincing picture of how states behave within the international structure in order to find mechanisms that can prevent future wars.

IR Theories - Why theorising?

In seminar, we have talked about the importance of theories in international relations. We have discussed several points, but what I would like to fo further something, which is the fact that the IR academic began while analysing the causes of the First Wold War. Knowing that after that war came another world ward, is it still relevant to say that?
In my point of view, I would say that wars are not avoided because people know that due to this or that theory certain things would happend... But because nowadays, due to the History and certainly to the mechanism of globalisation, each contry has interest in different places and therefore that has bring a certain neutralization (or stability) in the world. Saying this maybe implies to take into account the rise of nuclear weapons, as well as international, reginal and bilateral agreements.
What do you think?

Hello and Welcome

Welcome to the educational blog for GI2002C Approaches to International Relations, a second-year module at London Metropolitan University. Over the next three months the students in my seminar groups and I will be continuing and developing the discussions on contemporary IR theory we have had in our classes on Tuesday afternoons. Each week a small number of students will write their reflections on the seminar debates of that week and the other students will be invited to respond in order to extend the discussion beyond the fifty minutes we have in class. We will begin next week with a discussion of the nature of IR theory.