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comment by arguewithatree
arguewithatree  ·  3150 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What are the topics you wish were discussed more on Hubski?

yas do it. international relations is what, for lack of a better term, makes the world go 'round. with it comes theories of war, peace, development... I still get as excited about IR now as I did in high school when I realized "this is a field of study?? people do this as a JOB???"





War  ·  3150 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I always found international relations to be an interesting field, especially in the age of such widespread globalization. A lot of people (even I at first) looked at it through a very basic lens. The intricacies of state relationships is growing more intertwined and complex as time moves forward.

dublinben  ·  3150 days ago  ·  link  ·  

In my experience IR (as taught in universities) it quite outdated. It is still quite focused on state-state relationships, when the world has moved beyond these. The real struggles are happening between states and non-state actors across many unconventional battlefields.

War  ·  3150 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Really? I took quite a few international related course and they could not stop focusing on the interaction between states and non-state actors. In their defense the curriculum gave broad subjects, and material which allowed the classes to take the discussion in a lot of directions.

dublinben  ·  3150 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I definitely had similar classes. The main theoretical frameworks (Realism, Liberalism, Constructivism) were for the most part still concerned with a state-state level of analysis.

War  ·  3150 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Is that really the fault of the classroom then? I mean all those theoretical frameworks were developed during a time when state-state relationships were dominant. I think it's the duty of the present day field to determine whether those frameworks still take the same stage as they did in the years past, and if they can possibly translate to our current international environment. Is it possible we may need new theoretical frameworks for this century?

dublinben  ·  3150 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I definitely think that we need new theoretical frameworks for this century. We also may need to pay greater attention to less prominent theories like Critical Theory. The fault lies equally among the thought leaders of IR, as well as the university professors teaching a new generation of IR students.

Realist authors like Mearshimer and Waltz are easy to teach, but they should be presented as historical artifacts. Just like Fukuyama's The End of History is.

arguewithatree  ·  3150 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I went to school in DC so they're starting to push the boundaries on that. It's still not fully understood though so it's easier to teach state-to-state and then say "this is less relevant post Cold War"