Research Blog

Liberalism The four main categories of liberalism, as defined by David Baldwin, are; commercial, republican, sociological and liberal institutionalism. These various approaches to governance and statehood are centred around the core ideal of liberalism which is that states exist within a global environment where they are free to engage with one another in whichever ways they would like so as to foster interdependent and positive relationships for the benefit of both parties. This concept is realised in various forms; through market mechanics, the state's defence of its citizens rights, increased dependancy between states so as to minimise the possibility of unilateral activity, the recognition that states seek to maximise their own interests and thus that cooperation can best achieve multiple goals for states globally.  An example of a current political instrument that exemplifies the concept of liberal institutionalism is the European Union, in that it fea...

Realism The concepts of realism as a political theory and method of governance has been a foundational concept in the formation of the structures of government we currently see operating in the world today. The introduction of realism and its various expressions (statism, neoclassical realism, structural realism) have been influential in defining the role of the state, its governance, and its interaction with other states in what is considered an anarchic global arena where states prioritise their own goals above the needs and wants of other state actors. Various branches of deal with unique issues such as security, and global power structures, in particular the tension between offensive and defensive approaches to security and the value of relative and absolute power to the state. An interesting article on the way Realist and Liberalist approaches to war operate, produced by Thomas S. Mowle on behalf of the United States Air Force Academy, identifies that foreign conflicts, as cons...

Week 3 - From the end of the cold war to a new global era. There is no doubt that from the end of the cold war until today there have been huge changes in the way countries and nation-states interact with one another politically and culturally. Over this period of tumultuous change and progression the concept of international relations took on new meanings and began to express itself in ways in which it had previously never been engaged with before. With the rise of superpowers such as the United States and Russia at the conclusion of the Cold War, and the subsequent effects this had on Asian ascendancy through economic progress, through to the world-changing events of 9/11, the 2008 economic crisis, and the Arab Spring , there has been a tremendous shift in geo-political dynamics and thus so too has the way in which international relations plays its part in global politics. Adam Roberts argued in 2008 that the period in which he was writing remains best described as the post-Cold War...