Cold War Theoretical Developments: The Second Great Debate

Question 1

What are Laws and Theories according to Waltz?

Answer 1

Laws are facts of observation: theories are speculative processes introduced to explain them

Question 2

What is a paradigm?

Answer 2

Intellectual framework comprising interrelated values, theories and assumptions, within which the search of knowledge is conducted

Question 3

What can empirical theories be?

Answer 3

• Prescrivptive
• Explanatory
• Predicative

Question 4

What was the first great debate?

Answer 4

Realist vs Liberals (aka idealists/utopians)

Question 5

What are the core tenets of realism in regard to the Cold War?

Answer 5

• Anarchy
• State-centricity
• Unitary rational actors assumption
• States are power-seeking
• Zero-sum game

Question 6

What are the core tenets of liberalism in regard to the Cold War?

Answer 6

• Non-zero sum game
• Cooperation is possible
• History is progressive

Question 7

What is neorealism?

Answer 7

• Also called structural realism
• Most often associated with the work
  of Kenneth Waltz
• It focuses less on human nature and
  more on the structure of the
  intertnaional system
• Highlights the security dilemma -
  states efforts to increase its
  security can be perceived as
  a threat by other states
  and lead to greater insecurity
  (Spiral model of Conflict)
• States are concerned about relative
  gains

Question 8

Who was Kenneth Waltz?

Answer 8

- A structural realist focused on
  explaining the causes of ir at the
  systemic level (third image)
- First book: Man, the State, and War
  (1959)
- Outlines causes of war in three
  images (levels of analysis)
- Second (biggest) book: Theory of IR
  (1979)
- Waltz’s systemic structure

Question 9

How did Waltz define structure?

Answer 9

- The principles according to which
  countries are organised or ordered
- By the differentiation of units and
  the specification of their functions
- By the distribution of capabilities
  across units

Question 10

What does Waltz’s structural realism suggest about the level of analysis and international structures?

Answer 10

- If we focus only on internal
  charateristscs of states, we are
  going to be forced back into
  description not explanation
- The systemic level offers a
  simplicity that reductionist (i.e.
  second image) theories cannot offer
- Structures work to keep outcomes in
  narrow confines
- Structures affect behaviour in the
  system through socialisation of the
  actors and competition among them
- We need to omit attributes of states
  and the interactions between the units
- Interaction is an element of the
  units. To define structure we have to
  concentrate on how they stand in
  relation to each other
- International political systems are
  individualist in origin,
  spontaneously generated and unintended

Question 11

What does Waltz’s structural realism suggest about actor’s motivations and cooperation?

Answer 11

- Actors’ motivations are assumed, and
  for Waltz the main motivation is
  state survival not power - maximise
  security to balance power
- In an anarchic world characteristics
  don’t matter
- When referring to states as ‘like
  units’ he is claiming that they are
  ‘alike in the tasks that they face,
  though not in their abilities to
  perform them’. The differences are of
  capability not function
- Overall, Waltz argues that
  cooperation is difficult, because
  security is threatened by your
  reliance on exports from another state
- In the self help system,
  considerations of security
  subordinate economic gain to
  political interests

Question 12

What is neo-liberalism?

Answer 12

- Can be seen as a structural response
  to neo-realism
- Level analysis is also the system
- Mostly influential proponent is
  likely Robert Keohane

Question 13

What are the basic tenets of neoliberalism?

Answer 13

• Absolute gains are important
  
  • The problem for cooperation is
    that states can cheat to maximise
    absolute gains
• Anarchy is moderated by
  interdependence
• Security is not the only issue
• States are not the only relevant
  actors
  
  • Transnational and non-state
    actors also relevant
  • Such actors can reduce states
    transaction costs making
    cooperation easier

Question 14

Who was Robert Keohane?

Answer 14

• Neo-Liberal
  
  • After Hegemony (1984) and
    Neorealism and Its Critics (1986)
  • Argues that realism does not
    provide an adequate theory of
    world politics

Question 15

What was Keohane’s critique of realism?

Answer 15

- It does not provide plausible and
  testable answers to questions about
  state behaviour
- It is especially weak in accounting
  for change, especially where the
  sources of change lie in the world
  political economy or domestic
  political structures
- Structural realists can be criticised
  for ignoring norms, institutions and
  change
- He argues that realists have to go
  outside the bounds of core realist
  theory to fully provide explanation
  of their outcomes
- Realists assume that power is always
  the same across any issue dimenstion
- Keohane argues that modern history
  shows that the type of power focuses
  on by realists (military) does not
  always determine war outcomes as
  realists suggest that it should

Question 16

What did Keohane say of the realist view of state’s motivations?

Answer 16

- No problem with the assumption that
  states, at a minimum, seek self
  preservation
- He does have a problem with the idea
  that, at a maximum, they strive for
  universal domination
    - Reminiscent of Morgenthau’s
      assumption about power seeking
    - These two assumptions
      (self-preservation and universal
      domination) are not internally
      consistent

Question 17

What did Keohane do in 1977?

Answer 17

• Keohane and Nye (1977)
  
  • Introduces the concept of complex
    interdependence

Question 18

What are the characteristics of complex interdependence?

Answer 18

– According to Keohand and Nye…
- Multiple channels of connection (both
formal and informal) between societies
- Absence of hierarchy among issues
- Military security does not always
dominate the agenda
- Minor role of military force among
states with complex interdependence
or within a region

Question 19

What of political processes under complex interdependence?

Answer 19

• According to Keohand and Nye…
• Linkages between unrelated issues
• Politics of agenda formation
  important (both domestically and
  internationally)
• Multiple channels of contact affects
  types of actors involved in
  transnational relations

Question 20

What was the second great debate?

Answer 20

- The 1960s and afterwards saw more
  interest in the philosophy of science
  as new empiracal tools became
  available
- Often seen as a debate between the
  traditionalists and behaviouralists

Question 21

What were the silent questions and issues in the second great debate?

Answer 21

- How do we know what we know about
  politics?
- How do the methods of research affect
  (1) the kinds of questions we can ask
  and (2) the areas we chose to focus on
- View of world: Complexity
  (unpredictability) vs uniformity
  (generalisability)
- Research focus: trees (depth) vs
  forests (breadth)
- Perspective: subjective (unobservable
  ideas, emotions, identity, culture)
  vs objective (quantifiable and
  measurable)

Question 22

Who were the traditionalists?

Answer 22

- Often associated with such scholars
  as Carr, Morgenthau, Waltz and Bull
- An “approach to theorising that
  derives from philosophy, history and
  law, and that is characterised above
  all by the explicit reliance upon the
  exercise of judgement and by the
  assumption that if we confine
  ourselves to strict standards of
  verification and proof there is very
  little significance that can be said
  about international relations”
- Hedley Bull (1932-1985)
    - The Anarchical Society (1977)

Question 23

Who were the behaviouralists?

Answer 23

• (aka positivism)
• Associated with scholars like Singer
  (conflict), Schelling (game theory),
  Bueno de Mesquita (selectorate theory)
• Focus on patterns of behaviour
• And the gradual accumulation of facts
  and knowledge
• Hypotheses should be falsifiable
• Methods can be qualitative or
  quantitative
• Emphasis on understanding cause and
  effect
• Borrowed methods from math, stat,
  econ, psych
• J David Singer (1925-2009)