Mutual Aid and International Agency: Building an Anarcho-communist theory of International Relations

IR理论中的一个主要问题是代理与结构的关系，以及这两个部分的构成。在这些辩论中，国家本体论盛行，国家被理解为行为者，结构是国家建立的约束它们的制度。这种世界观不仅倾向于强化我们对国际生活的标准本体论，也倾向于强化与之相伴的等级政治、命令和控制。虽然后人类和后结构的国际关系理论引起了我们对社会生活中替代力量的关注，批判历史社会学试图摆脱这些方法所采用的认识论和方法论民族主义，但很少有人像无政府主义者那样直接挑战这种世界观。无政府主义国际关系理论是当代国际关系中一个虽小但并非微不足道的分支。无政府主义的国际关系理论质疑了“本体论安全”的标准描述如何强化代理和身份的固定概念，强调了全球秩序的不可约性，以及无政府主义对无政府状态的描述如何帮助我们重新思考全球秩序的宪法框架。每一种说法都倾向于呈现一种没有基础的、不稳定的社会网络秩序形式，没有具体的制度或宪法形式供后国家主义团体追求。我博士的目的是利用无政府主义者彼得·克鲁泡特金的互助理论和革命共产主义来发展现有的无政府主义和非无政府主义关于国际无政府状态中集体代理的国际关系理论。主要的焦点将是这些文献的人类中心主义和相对主义性质。从克鲁泡特金的无政府主义理论的立场出发，将无政府主义和集体代理理论化，将极大地改变我们对全球秩序动态的理解，从人类转向生态，而他的政治为我们提供了相对网络的宪政政治选择。世界著名的地理学家彼得·克鲁泡特金（1842-1921）提出，社会性动物通过相互帮助，自己发展出连贯的社会（克鲁泡特金，1989）。人类社会处于一系列社会形态之中，并与这种社会秩序密切互动。亚当·戈德温（Adam Godwin, 2010）是为数不多的将这一举动理论化的红外理论家之一。参见Cudworth和Hobden（2010、2011、2013）。他提出，这些社会形成了可观察的社会本体，称为“复杂系统”，不可简化为其组成部分。对于克鲁泡特金来说，人类是这种社会最发达、最成功的例子之一，但与其他物种共存。人类的这种去中心化使得一种社会本体论的形式类似于拉图尔的行动者网络理论，最近从这种方法进入IR的尝试将在这方面起到重要的辅助作用。这篇论文的目的是发展一种关于人类能动性的规范解释，将无政府主义的非统治概念置于社会组合理论化的核心。本文的主要研究问题是：在彼得·克鲁波特金的著作的指导下，后人类社会本体论如何揭示IR理论中的代理和结构问题？这个问题被分为三个子问题：——全球秩序理论化的集体意向性的局限性是什么？-后人类社会本体论如何帮助我们重新构建新兴的社会秩序？克鲁泡特金的无政府共产主义如何应对后人类全球秩序概念的规范和制度挑战？该项目将广泛利用密切上下文阅读和规范和理论发展的定性和文本方法。主要的历史资料和二手文献都将被分析。该项目直接反映了ESRC的三个战略重点：理解宏观经济、气候变化、动荡时代的信任和全球治理。该项目将大大受益于埃克塞特大学在这一领域的专业知识集群。

One of the primary problems in IR theory is the relationship of agency to structure, and what constitutes both parts. A statist ontology prevails in these debates, where states are understood as actors, and structures are the institutions they build that constrain them. This view of the world tends to reinforce not only our standard ontology of international life, but also the politics of hierarchy and command and control that comes with it. While post-human and poststructural IR theory has drawn our attention to alternative forces in social life, and critical historical sociology has tried to move away from the epistemic and methodological nationalism these approaches take, few have challenged this world view as directly as the anarchists.Anarchist IR theory is a small but not inconsiderable body of contemporary IR. Anarchist IR theory has questioned the way in which standard accounts of 'ontological security' reinforce fixed notions of agency and identity, highlighted the irreducibility of global order, and how an anarchist account of anarchy can help us rethink the constitutional framework of global order. Each of these accounts tends to present a foundationless and fluid form of social network order, with no concrete institutional or constitutional form for post-statist groups to aspire to.The aim of my PhD will be to use the anarchist Peter Kropotkin's mutual-aid theory and revolutionary communism to develop existing anarchist and non-anarchist IR theory on collective agency in international anarchy. The primary focus will be the anthropocentric and relativistic nature of this literature. Theorising anarchy and collective agency from the standpoint of a Kropotkin's anarchisttheory will dramatically shift our understanding of the dynamics of global order from the human to the ecological, while his politics offers us a constitutional political alternative to relativistic networks. Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921), a world renowned geographer, theorised that social animals, through mutual aid, develop coherent societies themselves (Kropotkin, 1989). Human society is on a range of social forms, and interacts intimately with this social order.One of the few IR theorists to theorise this move is Adam Godwin (2010. See also Cudworth and Hobden 2010, 2011, 2013). He proposes that these societies form observable social ontologies called "complex systems", irreducible to their component parts. For Kropotkin, humans are amongst the most developed and successful examples of such societies, but coexist with other species. Thisdecentring of the human enables a form of social ontology akin to Latour's actor network theory, and recent forays into IR from this approach will act as an important foil in this regard. The aim of this thesis will be to develop a normative account of human agency that places the anarchist conception of non-domination at the heart of theorising social assemblages.The main research question for this thesis is: How does a post-human social ontology, informed by the work of Peter Kropotkin, shed new light on the problems of agency and structure in IR theory?This question is divided into three sub-questions:- What are the limitations of collective intentionality for theorising global order?- How does a post-human social ontology help us reframe emergent social order?- How does Kropotkin's anarcho-communism meet the normative and institutional challenges of a post-human conception of global order?The project will utilise broadly qualitative and textual methodologies of close contextual reading and normative and theoretical development. Both primary historical materials and secondary literatures will be analysed. This project speaks directly to three of the ESRC's strategic priorities: understanding the macroeconomy, climate change, and trust and global governance in a turbulent age. The project will benefit greatly from the cluster of expertise in this area at the University of Exeter.