Search

Various theorists of international relations have engaged in the process of de-naturalizing nearly every epistemological concept within the discipline. The concept of time, however?the temporality that informs IR?s theorizing of international politics?remains outside the boundaries of analysis. This paper analyzes the temporal conceptions that inform and orient IR analysis in an attempt to demonstrate how IR?s particular conception of temporality privileges those forms of analysis that attempt to make time-less claims that apply across history. This paper will utilize the insights of those who have already engaged in this process in sociology?William Sewell and Andrew Abbott?and extend this critique to the particulars of IR theory, demonstrating how IR theory is informed by a linear notion of time that shapes and constrains our epistemological commitments. In the end, this paper will offer possible alternative formulations that would more effectively take into account the multiplicity of temporal experience that exists in practice, rather than rely on the a-temporal, backward view of the analyst. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A broad array of approaches emerging out of the Third Debate in international relations could be broadly understood to be constructivist. They share a critique of social scientific methods that assume a fixed and objective world, as well as an assumption that international relations is constructed, and thus changeable. Despite the initial ?celebration of difference,? constructivism has since acquired a more narrow meaning, accompanied by debates that more clearly demarcate constructivism, post-structuralism, Critical Theory, etc. This paper will explore the emergence of the demarcations and the ideas that distinguish various constructivisms, including that between construction and performativity, construction and deconstruction, conventional and critical constructivism, and the influence of the philosophers or social theorists such as Wittgenstein, Habermas, Foucault and Derrida. The paper will analyse what is at stake, both positively and negatively, in these acts of boundary construction. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As constructivists and other advocates of constitutive theories have often noted, the natural world is very different from the social one. Our ideas about the social world not only reflect that world, but help shape and create it; we are part of the reality we try to describe and explain, not external to it, and we therefore have the potential to alter the reality a theory is merely intended to describe or explain. Our theories about the social world may thus become self-fulfilling prophecies or autogenetic in character. And yet while constructivists often make this point in epistemological debate, there have been relatively few attempts so far to address its empirical implications. With that objective in mind, this paper examines three prominent IR theories – the democratic peace theory, the interdependence equals peace thesis and the ‘clash of civilizations’ thesis – arguing that each has a self-fulfilling character rather than being true or false in any objective or timeless sense; each is, to paraphrase the now time-honored expression, what the relevant actors make of it. The paper also probes the processes by which theories become self-generating, stressing the role of opinion entrepreneurs in fashioning explanatory and predictive theories which become popularized – usually because they seem to fit the nature of the times in some way - so that people begin to believe that a theory explains reality in a naturalistic sense and that its predictions are therefore bound to hold. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that metageographical distinctions (Lewis and Wigen 1997) ? whether they are taken to refer to something actually existing, or are taken to be ideologically laden power tools ? serve as nodes in relational conceptual networks that form, allow, or authorize certain types of knowledge. Thus, North-South, the West, or the Orient, tie a range of other concepts such as civilization, globalization, universalism, and particularism together in a relational network of meaning. In other words, these concepts derive their meaning from their position in this network, and cannot stand alone. More concretely, why and how do social scientists and historians have the idea that the social world contains something called the West? I argue that it is because several domains of knowledge production ? in this paper I examine IR and anthropology ? cannot do without it. This is not a functionalist argument ? ?the West? does not exist because IR and anthropology needs it. Instead, these disciplines could develop precisely because the concept of the West was formed ? it became a node to which other concepts could be connected and given meaning. IR and anthropology have since been involved in reproducing the concept of the West as a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for knowledge production in their respective fields. The knowledge that the concept of the West has thus allowed, or helped form, feeds into another conceptual network, formed around the metageographical distinction North-South. Using a historical sociology of concept formation, this paper seeks to critically understand the metageographical logic of knowledge production in IR and anthropology. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the transnational political role and activities of two new diasporas: the Acehnese and East Timorese in Australia, North America, Portugal and Scandinavia. It traces their South to North movement and long-distance influence on self-determination conflicts in their country of origin. Sociology and political science research theorizes that diasporas are international players with a capacity for political action in both the host state and the country of origin. This paper tests this hypothesis and examines how and why diaspora goals and strategies of political action as well as the repertoires of political action change over time and through a fusion of national identities and adopted transnationally-defined norms. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a relationship between the proliferation of ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies), globalization and the north-south divide. More importantly, there is a need to better understand the stateless actors, their ability to access technology and our ability to manage the threats associated with it. This paper will investigate the role of Information and Communication Technologies in the ongoing terrorist oriented threat assessment of worldwide security, considering whether or not the north-south debate is applicable and how to manage the threats associated with technology (critical infrastructure, sensor networks, etc.). The research will focus on economic, sociologic and political aspects of those who possess technology vs. those who do not (if this is indeed true). The paper will focus on prediction and detection of technology enabled attacks. Finally, the paper will present an artificial intelligence application, which applies Bayesian filtering to serve as early-warning threat detection system. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While students of international relations have over the last two decades fleshed out the logic of the democratic peace, they have devoted hardly any attention to the effects of war on democracy. Existing approaches, derived from foundational work in macrohistorical sociology, appear to have reached conclusions very much at odds with each other. Some suggest that war preparations underlay the emergence of the absolutist state in Europe, while others maintain that the mobilization of national resources for war has compelled states to bargain with their populations and broaden citizenship. War and war mobilization have thus been portrayed as both inimical and beneficial to democracy. These contending narratives, however, both tell stories of near-uniform effects. They understate the degree of variation with regard to the rapidity with which and the extent to which executives have expanded their authority and liberties have been infringed in times of war and crisis as well as with regard to the lingering postwar impact of such wartime changes. This paper suggests that different kinds of war have different effects (in both degree and kind) on different dimensions of democracy in different kinds of democratic regimes and with different degrees of postwar persistence. The paper will unpack this claim, suggesting and illustrating a number of provisional hypotheses. One implication of the analysis: total wars, on balance, bolster liberal democracy, but the long-run impact of limited wars?including the current ?war on terror??should be a matter of great concern. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are no standard formulas, or universal principles for recognizing, let alone forecasting violent conflict. Still, a set of explanatory factors considering background conditions as well as escalatory dynamics helps simplify the task of recognizing critical situations. The topic of this paper concerns constellations and convergences of specific factors that characterize the pre-conflict phase of violent political conflicts. By the use of quantitative analytical methods, it focuses on the direct interaction between structural and dynamic indicators as precursors to crises. A model of indicators is presented that takes into account structurally determined cleavage lines in equal measure as their very mobilization by dynamic factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has two major objectives. First, it explores the extent of coverage given to the topic genocide in contemporary social science texts. This follows the previous work of Fein (1979) in which she found social science texts were giving inadequate ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper approaches the ways in which movements are respectively encouraged and discouraged by employing the term circulation from the Foucauldian writings on "governmentality". It wants to place current-day concerns over migration and mobility within the historical continuity of the practices of managing circulation. It proceeds in three steps. First, in provides a short introduction to the concept of circulation. Second, it offers a overview of how circulation of people has been governed, relating a few historical examples to the forms of power which Foucault identified. Third, it turns to the stratified mobility rights which follow from contemporary forms of managing the circulation of people, exploring both the forms it takes and how one can conceptualize it from a governmentality perspective. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the relevance of the everyday as the focus of an ‘analytique’ of technocratic practices in the sociology of bureaucratic organisations, drawing from the fieldwork conducted by the author among European Union bureaucracies. It builds on ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the role of social capital in the process of post-communist transition. Social capital is a concept that embodies the potential benefits of norms, networks and trust and is often employed in the study of the relationship between market ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Variants of evolutionary state theory, or institutionalist theory, have become increasingly popular in disciplines ranging from geography, sociology to political economy to neo-classical economics. Evolutionary institutionalists stress the importance of the law, institutions and culture in shaping and direct market relationship. Markets are embedded in cultures and institutions and coordination and control among parties involved in economic exchange emerges as distinct responses to societal conditioning. Despite its increasing popularity, there is no distinct international relations institutionalist theory. The paper presents five principles and a theoretical framework which aims to integrate an evolutionary institutional state theory into a theory of International Relations. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper sets out to present a (rationalist) theoretical model, which predicts and explains behavioral changes that different institutional designs of CSR-PPPs in weak states cause on participating companies. It asks: Which institutional design of CSR-PPPs causes what behav-ioral changes on participating companies? The model focuses on three independent variables: Institutional design of CSR-PPPs, the pre-ference structure of companies that participate in CSR-PPPs, and the strategic environment (consisting of competitors, NGOs and business associations; their preferences and action al-ternatives) within which companies make decisions. A set of hypotheses is generated â€" each focusing on the effects of one variable while the other two are held constant â€", which define minimum requirements for, as well as conditions for more and less, behavioral changes of participating companies. To illustrate how constellations of these variables translate into hy-potheses, consider:H1: If companies face a cooperative collective action problem with respect to CSR-policies, a necessary condition for the institutional design of a CSR-PPP for behavioral change is â€" in case that no other relevant actors like NGOs and business associations are present â€" that it entails CSR-standards which are formulated with high degrees of precision and obligation and that it employs monitoring and sanctioning mechanisms.H2: If participating companies can achieve competitive advantages through a CSR-policy (e.g. in certain cases of HIV-treatment programs), CSR-PPPs need to offer "legitimate" benchmarks or managerial support (e.g. management systems) to have an impact.The applicability of the model will be demonstrated by illustrating examples. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reports the results of experimental research on gender differences in individual reactions to simulated terrorist attacks. Subjects were University of Colorado undergraduates who were given priming vignettes about terrorist situations, followed by reports of terrorist attacks. They were then given questionnaires probing multiple different personality dimensions. Unsurprisingly, men scored higher on masculinity measures. They also tended to be more angry, dominant, experimenting, vengeful, disagreeable, and malevolent. Men reacted more conflictually when responding to terrorist attacks. Counter-intuitively, men were also more forgiving. Women, on the other hand, were generally more feminine, fearful, submissive, conservative, agreeable, and benevolent. They generally reacted less conflictually when responding to terrorist attacks, but they also tended to be less forgiving than men. There were also some interesting gender-related interactions. One of our experiments involved prior priming for forgiveness and retaliation. Women primed for forgiveness, but being less forgiving, responded more conflictually to terrorist attacks on cultural/educational targets than men in either priming condition responded to attacks on such targets. Conversely, women primed for forgiveness also responded less conflictually to terrorist attacks on military targets than men in either priming condition responded to attacks on such targets. The observed gender difference profiles mostly fit in with cultural stereotypes, but they are complex and controversial; they need much further investigation. While there appear to be general tendencies, our findings suggest that public responses to terrorist attacks vary. The purpose of terrorism may be terror, but responses need not be uniform or stereotypical. Terrorist acts unfold as a discontinuous series of events that are reported by news media in real time. As this process occurs, it differentially stimulates predispositions of individuals who feel that they are being attacked. Terrorist attacks and media reports, in turn, have complex direct and indirect effects on a heterogeneous network linking individual political leaders and citizens. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the literature on security studies uses the concept of “transnational organized crime” to deal with a threat they don’t deem necessary to define. Nonetheless, the evolution of organized crime has lead a majority of academics to acknowledge that it has become a threat to our society instead of being viewed as an integral part of it. Such an evolution has had many consequences on the different policies that seek to confront this problem. In fact, there are not one but many concepts behind the one of “organized crime”. From the first use of “Mafia” in the end of the 19th century in Italy to the very American concept of “Transnational organized crime” that United Nations have made its own, the social construction of organized crime has (re)produced it as an external enemy to the society, the State and its institutions. Such a view is not without some ambiguities as it marginalises many important dynamics that characterise organized crime. Drawing mainly upon the work of Michel Foucault and on the theoretical approaches in international political sociology that have integrated his writings (e.g. the “Paris School” and several poststructuralist authors in IR), this paper argues that the dominant narratives about organized crime in the policymaking and strategic circles at the international level don’t represent the entire portray of the phenomena. In the first part, I elaborate a genealogy of the concept of “transnational organized crime”. In the second part, I underline that the subjectivity elaborated around this concept limits the scope of a political and diplomatic apprehension of that “threat” which excludes its co-constitutive nature. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern nation-states, especially those that are builtupon former white settler societies, share a legacy of violence against their indigenous populations, which both serve as the anchor for legitimating the state and justify contemporary political action. I argue that these states operate on a form of "barbaric sovereignty" that is premised on dismantling challenges to its authority, through Eradication and extermination campaigns against indigenous groups. Following a Hegelian conception of history, every historical moment, or moment of consciousness, includes all that precedes it. My claim is that white settler societies employ barbaric sovereignty as a means of Transforming themselves into nation-states, but because total destruction of the past is not possible, such sovereignty produces both the state and a continual anxiety that haunts the nation. Former white settler societies are persistently forced to legitimate their violent histories and reconcile their national anxieties, while disavowing any connections to a larger legacy of colonialism. This paper maps out the historical debates taking place in the United States and in Australia concerning how colonialism in their countries should be written. I use discourse and textual analysis of speeches from political leaders that address their nations’ indigenous populations and colonial past to demonstrate how historical accounts of violence tailor speeches for national leaders when they are responding to national emergencies in their time. I focus on political speeches from political heads of state: Andrew Jackson, Ulysses Grant, Bill Clinton, Paul Keating, and John Howard. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

15 years after the Soviet collapse the four secessionist regions (Karabakh, Abkhazia, S. Ossetia and Transdniester) remain internationally unrecognized and are a major obstacle to the political and economic development of thestates in the region. Why have these conflicts not been resolved, and why have these statelets managed to survive? This paper explores geopolitical and geoeconomic explanations for this situation, and asks what has tohappen before one can expect some substantial progress towards conflict resolution. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nature and conditions of the internationally relating self are of paramount importance when seeking to understand how it is that we 'know' the world. My intention in this short paper is to offer some thoughts about what it might mean to move towards something like a travelling epistemology for IR scholarship. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will address the social and international contexts within which different doctrines of exclusion were implemented: the regulation and exclusion of the *Conversos* in 15th century Spain; competing doctrines ofexclusion and inclusion of the Jews in Revolutionary France; and the social and political regulation of the Poles in 19th century Prussia. For each case, I will recast the contradictory social relations in which an institutionalized doctrine of exclusion mediated the social relations of specific social agencies. Through this comparative analysis, the political position of Torquemada, Alonso de Espina, l'Abbé Grégoire, Clermont-Tonnerre, and Max Weber will be analysed in turn. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historiographical and sociology of science interpretations of IR have sought to account for how authoritative knowledge about international relations is produced from within the discipline itself, thus introducing a considerable degree of sociological reflexivity into the field that has enhanced understanding of how and why IR theorizing has evolved as it has. However, sociological reflexivity has yet to be met with sufficient self-interrogation within Western, hegemonic IR concerning how academic?being-in the-world? itself affects the ways in which scholars make sense of the world around them. Making use of contemporary sociological discussions of everyday life, as well as insights derived from feminist and postcolonial scholarship, this paper provides a more detailed examination of everyday academic life in Western IR. In doing so, it sheds light on the types of knowledge produced by all variants of hegemonic IR as well as attempting to explain the field?s incapacity to engage with worldviews and ways of knowing distinct from its own, unless they are previously reterritorialized and reinscribed within the social canons of first world academia. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Literature on governance recently has come under critique in both sociology and international relations, with governmentality proposed as an alternative. The argument is that governmentality reflects more aptly the power and "rationalities" involved in governing processes. This article argues that while the governmentality approach does access better the content and "mentalities" of governing processes, including global-level processes, it needs to acknowledge and theorize the gradations of eligibility for objectifying (achieving and enacting) government. Some types of "civil society" members and nonstate actors are better positioned to achieve the status of simultaneous object and subject of government-others, largely, remain subjects, depending on their positions within professional hierarchies and locations within inter-state power dynamics. Some nonstate actors are positioned better to define governmentality's content, and even manage the terms under which they themselves, as well as others, are produced as citizen-subjects. In our examinations of the mechanisms of power in governing processes, we need to consider nonstate actors' positions in global social contexts. The paper examines the global governance of mental health as a heuristic case-study, with special attention to processes of diagnosing eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, in which the standard diagnostic code is spreading globally even though its recommended treatments are not working. The case illustrates that within governmentality processes, some actors remain decidedly more subjects than objects. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the speech act of security, the concept of 'act' draws attention to a dual aspect of securitising: the actualisation of a decision with political gravity and the exceptionality of acts of securitising. The decision to securitise enacts the world through a centre of gravity where multiplicity can be brought together around an upping of the bet into a test of the will to survive. At this point a political critique of securitising becomes possible based on assigning political responsibility, demanding political accountability, and the legitimacy of authorisation based on claims of exceptionality. When looking more closely at analyses of surveillance, risk management and precautionary practice, among others, one tends to encounter a highly diffuse process of securitising and its contestation in which decisive acts with gravity are effaced. What can the politics of insecurity be if securitising is a highly diffuse process which effaces 'acts' as the actualisation of a decision with gravity? I propose a political analytics of little nothings that focuses on the critical capacity of mediating actants in situations of disagreement over justifications pertaining injustices and understands these disputes as an ordinary, frequent part of a scattered and scattering process of securitising. It is the basis for a political sociology of securitising in which the distinction between the normal and exceptional, the everyday and the security elite, the habitual and the extra-?-ordinary, which are central to the conception of speech acts of security, no longer organise the politics of insecurity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper seeks to analyse the relation between the declaration of exception and its contemporary practices with the form of governmentality in which this declaration is embedded. It wants to refute the Schmittian, Agamben arguments of exceptionalism and sovereignist view and to propose a more sociological approach of the routines which enact the possibility of the declaration of exception. It is a relational view, analysing from below and not from above the exception. It comes back to a relational approach versus a decisionist one and insists on the importance of Nancy and Foucault. It finished by a critical discussion of the relation between the governmental and the political. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite Marx minuting that, ‘the veiled slavery of the wage workers in Europe needed, for its pedestal, slavery pure and simple in the new world,’ there is a heavily Eurocentric perspective in much historical sociology debate on state formation and the rise of the modern capitalist states-system. This impinges on attempts to understand the origins of capitalism in terms of feudal crisis, agrarian class structures, and economic development in Europe resting on changes in social property relations. In contrast, a contribution is made in this paper to the focus on transformations in social property relations by understanding the social origins of the transition to capitalism in Mexico. There are two principal steps to the argument. First, there is a focus on processes of primitive accumulation that created the conditions of development for capitalist production and national consolidation of the internal market in Mexico. This is understood as a ‘passive revolution’ based on state intervention to guide political modernisation. Second, this account of ‘passive revolution’ in Mexico is related to the subsequent unfolding of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) and specifically its so-called ‘institutional phase’ between 1920-1940. Overall, the argument promotes an understanding of state formation and processes of primitive accumulation by tracing the class strategy, or ‘passive revolution’, of the state in Mexico, which gave capitalism there a particular form consistent with authoritarian and hegemonic influence. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are there long-term structural/historical conditions that alter the importance of the marginal, and the possibilities confronting those who find themselves there? By correlating the principle underpinning the political order, together with the dominant forms and sites of power, to the world-historical predominance of different forms of organization, this paper offers an explanatory account of how and why the meaning and impact of margins has varied across long historical time. Using broad-brush ideal types, the forms of organization are categorized into: "pre-modern"/imperial, "modern"/national-state-dominated, "post-modern". Various possibilities can follow from the findings. They offer, for example, an interpretation of the relative decline of lateral division of space as it functioned in national states' mutual non-interference through their recognition (at least in principle) of sovereign eachothers' autonomy. More broadly they provide a basis for a model of the marginal position with which to compare the way that marginality manifests itself at different times and places, and the possibilities that implies for those at the margin. Such a model can be employed to make an intelligent prognosis of what the future holds for the ever larger number of ?marginal? players on the international scene. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There have been many requirements that theorists have sought to satisfy in developing theories of IR, including explanatory criteria, an ability to predict, and some relevance to policy-making. The use of one form of conventionalism, a view that has received little attention in the social sciences, holds out much promise for solving many of these problems. This paper lays out some of the strengths of such an account of IR theory. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contemporary period is one in which social and political systems are undergoing vast changes: subgroups are proliferating; dominant aggregations are decentralizing; and other aggregations are cohering beyond territorial boundaries. Complexity theory (CT) excels in explaining how such complex behaviors of adaptive systems emerge from simple rules of interactions among members of the system. In applying complexity theory to communications research, the interactive patterns between individuals and subgroups that underlie shifting social aggregations can be better comprehended. The purposes of this paper are as follows: 1.To introduce the principles of applying CT in communications research, thereby providing a new perspective on communication in social systems; 2.To propose a conceptual framework through which to apply CT to communications research; and 3.To provide an example of the application of this framework in a descriptive analysis of contemporary communications landscapes. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization, globality and globalism are some of the most commonly used nomenclatures within the various sub-fields of the social sciences and the humanities to address material as well as ideational aspects of global issues. This paper aims at looking at some literatures, particularly those within International Relations, International Political Economy and Sociology, in order to identify and mutually relate some of the key concepts and categories they adopt to address such matters. In so doing, the goal is to build a logical conceptual mapping of what is here termed as global relations; a multi-domain, multidimensional social manifestation. The argument is that a more formal, content specific conceptualization of global relations can help us properly address the various and complex global components of human action and intensions and their interactions. Finally, the case of religion as a global manifestation will be addressed as an example of how the concept of global relations can help us better understand different ways key global topics (and domains) are understood and dealt with within the various branches of social sciences. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of ‘deviance’ and regimes in the international community has tended to treat such actors as ‘aberrations’ or ‘outcasts’, as the terms suggest. Behind this notion is the assumption of a single international community, united under a common normat ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As David Held observes: “There is nothing more central to political and social theory than the nature of the state, and nothing more contested.” "The state" is routinely defined and employed to suit the normative and/or empirical ends of scholars and pra ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a study that argues that hegemonic and counter-hegemonic influences are not bounded within traditional units of analysis, categories or spatial arenas. It conceptualizes conflicts arising through indigenous resistance to resource extraction and export, particularly the case of oil. The research permits an exploration of the interactive relationship between micro- and macro-level developments.

The article focuses on a study that suggests a rationalist concept of power that is sufficiently abstract in order to encompass economic bargaining power as well as legal power within the World Trade Organization (WTO). It cites some general reflections on the conceptualization of power in social sciences. It elaborates the causal model of power to outline its application to power contexts within the WTO.

History is our repository of information about the past, and, as such, offers explanations about the present. As a repository it has the special capacity to reveal the hidden facts of injustice. More indirectly, history is critical to the creation of ethnic groups and nations, given that shared past experience, or the perception of shared past experience, is the strongest rationale for the existence of the group. In addition, history texts, monuments, museums and other forms of public history provide a sense of stability and tradition that assist the legitimation of the existing regime. Beyond their role in group creation and legitimation, history and memory provide material for group myths that are a source of social cohesion because they supply operational codes and a system of ethics. Finally, history and memory are the containers for grievance. If grievances are not addressed, they can be a powerful tool of mobilization by political leaders. The capacity of historical memory to coalesce politicized groups cannot be understood fully without recognizing that simultaneously, historical memories play several critical roles in the lives of individuals. History is a way of recording and remembering traumas of past generations that have an emotional or physiological impact, and possibly a material impact, on their descendants. Trauma that has affected groups is repeatedly relived by the group, contributing to group identity while creating an ongoing sense of victimization. Because of the individual?s biological dependence on the group that supports it, the individual will identify with the group in order to receive what is offered to group members, absorbing cultural elements and a shared sense of the past. In addition, in the process of developing a consistent sense of self, people use historical material to select mental constructs by which to connect inner and outer experience. ..ASA-For all the above reasons, historical memories are deeply rooted in a society and are tenacious. Introducing a different history means challenging psychological and sociological patterns that are of long duration. The instrumental purposes historical memories serve society suggest that contentious history cannot be separated from politics and power relations. To the degree that the political life of a society remains contested, historical memory will be intertwined with that contestation. And yet the need to address the problem of contentious, chauvinist history is crucial for post-conflict reconstruction and the prevention of future conflict. Devotion to ?the truth? is a core aspect of a society?s dedication to justice, even if all acknowledge the difficulties in reaching ?the truth?. Establishing a basis of historical truth in a society places some limit on the possibilities for chauvinist leaders to distort the truth for political ends. A culture of historical debate makes it more likely that past injustices will be brought to light and will be addressed. Acknowledgement of the traumas of the past are a first step in mourning and are essential for individuals and the society as a whole to find healing and move forward. All these processes will assist in the development of a new narrative. At the same time, a rethinking of the past can enable intercultural understanding by helping groups remove their negative stereotypes and accept the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theoretical concepts of culture plurality and identity in various disciplines - psychology, sociology, cultural anthropology etc. Theoretical synthese of these approaches and its application into international relations theory and practice. Value paradigm as a main methodological principle of cultural plurality study and its utilization in interpretation of practical problems of contemporary international relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article sets out a theory of differentiation derived from Sociology and Anthropology and argues that it can and should be applied to International relations (IR). Differentiation is about how to distinguish and analyze the components that make up any ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small states are characterised by a deficit of power. Due to their limited capabilities they lack both the capacity to influence other actors and to prevent these actors from influencing them. To overcome this dilemma small states have to choose between e ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, researchers in international relations and security studies have turned their attention to the work of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. However, applications of Bourdieu’s thoughts vary and no systematic way of applying his thoughts beyond th ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Popular culture is a powerful vehicle for the transmission of gender norms. Gender can be understood as socially constructed ideas about how men and women ought to be, and the medium of popular culture disseminates these ideas to the masses. Similarly, po ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last few years a spate of books has rekindled the debate as to the status of American hegemony (eg., P.Khanna, The Second World; F. Zakaria, Post-American World, etc.), and returned systemic inquiry to the earlier 1980s analyses of Robert Gilpin Wa ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In the study of IR, international organizations (IOs) have become increasingly important over the last decade. While for a long time they were either treated as agents of their principals or as an independent variable that influences development discourse and policies in developing countries, recent studies have tried to open the black box IO. Such approaches address both shortcomings: On the one hand, drawing on organizational sociology, they analyze internal organizational processes in order to answer the question how IOs produce, reproduce, and transform norms that in turn shape their policies. On the other hand, they ascribe authority and autonomy to IOs. Concerning policy change of IOs, they often focus on internal norm entrepreneurs that actively and strategically try to influence the organizations discourse and operational reality. Mostly, the World Bank serves as their case in question. Contrary to them, I argue that the World Bank might depict just one, maybe a special, case among different IOs. In this context, I would like to argue for a typology of IOs captured under the concept of organizational personality. According to an organizations personality different mechanisms of policy change are at stake that allow the organization to be more or less active in taking on and processing new ideas, setting agendas and new policies, and consequently, creating new policy norms. Thus, while in the Bank norm entrepreneurs might be successful this could be different in other IOs such as the IMF. Yet, change has taken place in the IMF, implying that there are other triggers at work. This argument of active and passive norm promotion is presented by comparing the evolution of the social dimension in the Banks and the Funds policies over the last 30 years. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Historical sociology," properly understood, is nothing more than the application of sociological frameworks to historical events. Proponents of an "historical sociology of international relations," however, often conflate "sociology" with a set of orientations favorable to particular theories and methods (such as constructivism and historical institutionalism) and antithetical to others (such as rational-choice). But nearly every major methodological approach found in international-relations theory has some cousin in historical sociology. Although some recent work by proponents of "historical sociology of international relations" recognizes the methodological diversity of the subfield of historical sociology, few proponents come to what I believe is the obvious conclusion: we should not be talking about an "historical sociology of international relations" but simply "historical international relations": the engagement of international-relations theories and puzzles with historical analysis. This not only allows us to better focus the issues involved in dialog between historical sociology and international-relations scholarship, but calls our attention to parallel "big issues" in both subfields surrounding inquiry into the development of various dimensions of modernity. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discussions of cultural problems raised in 9/11 report, WMD commission and frequent editorial comments all stress the problems of culture within the Intelligence Community. A few comments selected from recent commentary:? Information sharing is blocked by culture. ? The culture of the Directorate of Operations impedes cooperation with law enforcement organization.? There is a general conflict between civilian and military cultures within the Intelligence Community. ? The Director of the Intelligence Community lacks the authority to direct the community.Sociology and organizational theory dominate the discussion of Intelligence Community reform but the tools of anthropology ? especially those from political and cultural anthropology ? may help us see more clearly the problems that impede effective integration of Community. Among the tools we might take from our anthropologist tool kit are linguistic analysis, organization and concepts of primordial identity, study of status, authority and hierarchy, boundary maintenance and exclusivity of belonging, group responsiveness to external changes, the role of shamans and soothsayers, etc. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]