Inequality and Theorizing in International Relations: The Case for Subaltern Realism
Inequality and Theorizing in International Relations: The Case for Subaltern Realism
复制标题
国际关系中的不平等和理论化：底层现实主义的案例
DOI：
10.1111/1521-9488.00263
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发表时间：
2002
影响因子：
3.3
通讯作者：
M. Ayoob
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
M. Ayoob
我认为，国际关系的主流范式未能充分解释国际体系中的两个核心问题：大多数冲突的起源和大多数国家的行为。这些范式之所以失败，是因为它们是从一个有限的宇宙中提取的数据进行概括的，而且它们缺乏历史深度。这两个缺陷都与国际关系中知识生产领域的不平等有关，而知识生产领域的不平等又是国际体系中物质能力不平等的一个函数。
I argue that the dominant paradigms in IR fail to explain adequately two of the central issues in the international system: the origins of the majority of conflicts and the behavior of the majority of states. These paradigms fail because they formulate generalizations from data drawn from a restricted universe and because they lack historical depth. Both these flaws are related to inequality in the arena of the production of knowledge in IR, which in turn is a function of the inequality in material capabilities in the international system.
A supplementary, if not alternative, perspective is needed to correct this situation and fill this gap. We can fashion such a perspective by drawing upon classical realist thought, the historical sociology of state formation, and the normative perspicacity of the English School. Combining their insights and applying them to the analysis of Third World conflict patterns and the external and domestic behavior of Third World states is likely to provide more satisfactory explanations for the origins of the majority of contemporary conflicts.
Such an exercise will also shed light on the crucial variables that determine the behavior of the majority of states in the Third World. Moving postcolonial states into the mainstream of theorizing in IR will also help reduce the impact of inequality on the field and open new vistas for theoretically informed scholarly research. I also call for pluralism in international relations theorizing rather than a search for universally applicable law–like generalizations divorced from historical and social contexts.