Book
Neoclassical Realism in European Politics: Bringing Power Back In
Realism is making a comeback in Europe. This book brings together a new generation of realist scholars. It provides a rigorous survey for specialists seeking to understand the dynamics of international relations in a time of change. The volume thus seeks to explore the European dimension to neoclassical realism. The hope with this book is that it will spark a debate that, in time, might lead to the re-emergence of a distinctly European realist school which draws on the roots of the historical, non-American realist tradition, benefiting from insights in the liberal-constructivist paradigm. Through detailed case studies, the book illustrates that power and influence remain fruitful, even indispensable variables through which to understand the formation of foreign policy.
Publication presents the authors' view of the key events of the past year and a forecast of development in Russia's foreign policy.
In the previous article “The Coming Epoch Of New Coalitions: Possible scenarios of the near future” it was preliminarily demonstrated that the turbulent events of late 2010 and 2011 in the Arab World may well be regarded as a start of the global reconfiguration. The subsequent events have confirmed this supposition. That is why in the present paper we develop this important theme.
The article offers a thorough analysis of the internal conditions of Arab countries on the eve of revolutionary events, as well as causes and consequences of the Arab Revolutions. The article also offers an analysis of similar historical World System reconfigurations starting with the 16th century Reformation. The analysis is based on the theory (developed by the authors) of the periodical catch-ups experienced by the political component of the World System that tends to lag behind the World System economic component. Thus, we show that the asynchrony of development of various functional subsystems of the World System is a cause of the synchrony of major political changes. In other words, within the globalization process, political transformations tend to lag far behind economic transformations. And such lags cannot constantly increase, the gaps are eventually bridged, but in not quite a smooth way.
The article also suggests an explanation why the current catch-up of the World System political component started in the Arab World. In the previous article “The Coming Epoch Of New Coalitions: Possible scenarios of the near future” it was preliminarily demonstrated that the turbulent events of late 2010 and 2011 in the Arab World may well be regarded as a start of the global reconfiguration. The subsequent events have confirmed this supposition. That is why in the present paper we develop this important theme.
The article offers a thorough analysis of the internal conditions of Arab countries on the eve of revolutionary events, as well as causes and consequences of the Arab Revolutions. The article also offers an analysis of similar historical World System reconfigurations starting with the 16th century Reformation. The analysis is based on the theory (developed by the authors) of the periodical catch-ups experienced by the political component of the World System that tends to lag behind the World System economic component. Thus, we show that the asynchrony of development of various functional subsystems of the World System is a cause of the synchrony of major political changes. In other words, within the globalization process, political transformations tend to lag far behind economic transformations. And such lags cannot constantly increase, the gaps are eventually bridged, but in not quite a smooth way.
The article also suggests an explanation why the current catch-up of the World System political component started in the Arab World.
The significance of rational dialogue between believers and secular citizens, which has been offered by J. Habermas, becomes unquestioned because of increase of religion’s activeness in the public sphere. But “postmetaphysical” solution of this problem has been criticized by B. Trainor, D. Uzlaner and other researchers. The paper deals with the strategies of philosophizing, which let to interpret the metaphysics as the discovery of some structures of understanding. This way can avoid some quasi-scientific ambitions of postsecular philosophy as well as the ethical and epistemological relativism.
The Realist interpretation of 'War and Peace' - articulated by Martin Wight and Stanley Hoffmann - is based on Tolstoy's understanding of history as it is elaborated in his account of the Napoleonic invasion in the second epilogue of the book. There Tolstoy puts forward a mechanistic view of international relations which are assumed to be governed by inexorable laws of history determining human behaviour and limiting man's exercise of free will. However, Tolstoy's subjection of man to the workings of impenetrable laws of history in the second epilogue is at variance with a multiplicity of conscious moral choices that his three main characters - Nikolay Rostov, Andrey Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov - make throughout the book. It is argued that the different treatment of the freedom vs. necessity problem in the fictional and historical narrative can only be understood contextually, i.e. from within Tolstoy' rejection of the Enlightenment tradition of scientific and moral inquiry.
Herbarts Allgemeine Metaphysik erscheint 1828-29 als Ergebnis langjähriger Reflexionen und vervollständigt Herbarts konstruktive Kritik des kantschen Werkes, die er bereits in seiner Psychologie als Wissenschaft (1824-25) vorgelegt hat. Herbarts Metaphysik findet zu seinen Lebzeiten kaum Beachtung – woran sich bis heute im deutschsprachigen Raum nichts geändert hat. Aus diesem Grund werden die theo-retischen Grundlagen von Herbarts Metaphysik auf Basis neuerer internationaler In-terpretationen erörtert. Dabei stellt sich heraus, dass Herbarts methodologischer Ansatz und seine relationale Ontologie zur Begründung einer realistischen Metaphysik beitragen. Herbart ersetzt das Inhärenzverhältnis durch eine funktionale Auflösung des Gegenstandes, dadurch rückt sein Werk schließlich in die Nähe zeitgenössischer Diskussionen. Dieser Punkt wird anhand von Paolo Valores Vergleich mit Quines Ontologie gezeigt.
This comparative study shows how the revival of geopolitics came not despite, but because of, the end of the Cold War. Disoriented in their self-understandings and conception of external role by the events of 1989, many European foreign policy actors used the determinism of geopolitical thought to find their place in world politics quickly. The book develops a constructivist methodology to study causal mechanisms, and its comparative approach allows for a broad assessment of some of the fundamental dynamics of European security.
The paper is devoted to the problem of rehabilitation of metaphysics in the contemporary analytic philosophy. It traces the connection of analytic metaphysics with Aristotelian and Kantian approaches to this subject; it also marks its main features and demonstrates a new understanding of realism in analytic philosophy.
The article deals with the processes of building the information society and security in the CIS in accordance with modern conditions. The main objective is to review existing mechanisms for the formation of a common information space in the Eurasian region, regarded as one of the essential aspects of international integration. The theoretical significance of the work is to determine the main controls of the regional information infrastructure, improved by the development of communication features in a rapid process.The practical component consists in determining the future policies of the region under consideration in building the information society. The study authors used historical-descriptive approach and factual analysis of events having to do with drawing the contours of today's global information society in the regional refraction.
The main result is the fact that the development of information and communication technologies, and network resources leads to increased threats of destabilization of the socio-political situation in view of the emergence of multiple centers that generate the ideological and psychological background. Keeping focused information policy can not be conceived without the collective participation of States in the first place, members of the group leaders of integration - Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Currently, only produced a comprehensive approach to security in the information field in the Eurasian region, but the events in the world, largely thanks to modern technology, make the search for an exit strategy with a much higher speed. The article contributes to the science of international relations, engaging in interdisciplinary thinking that is associated with a transition period in the development of society. A study of current conditions in their relation to the current socio-political patterns of the authors leads to conclusions about the need for cooperation with the network centers of power in the modern information environment, the formation of alternative models of networking, especially in innovation and scientific and technical areas of information policy, and expanding the integration of the field in this region on the information content.