International Relations Theory by Knud Erik Jørgensen

Author:Knud Erik Jørgensen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Macmillan Education UK

Research agenda

In this brief overview, the account will be structured by a distinction between three different levels of enquiry: macro, meso and micro. Fields of application include at the macro level the politics of international economic relations among the rich OECD countries, the politics of North–South relations and the politics of South–South economic relations (Box 7.6). Each of these relations is really a cluster of research agendas. At the meso level, we find important issues such as the political economy of war and conflict providing important insights to the dynamics and rationality of conflict. Furthermore, we find the politics of representation in international financial institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank. Finally, we find the political economy of climate change, energy supply and food (safety). Decisions concerning the trade of CO2 quotas are inherently political, whereas the derived consequences of such decisions are economic in nature. At the micro level of political economy, there is an IPE problematique concerning every single commodity and service that is traded internationally. Such single commodity/service studies often tell fascinating stories about how the world of politics and economics hangs together. The production, trade and consumption of, say, bananas, oil, automobiles, wine, cocoa, missiles and, finally, to quote Iggy Pop, ‘sex, drugs and rock’n’roll’ make up a huge and really interesting part of the contemporary research agenda.

The task of further theory building constitutes a crucially important issue on the research agenda. Thus far, the tradition has proven incapable of producing more than a limited number of applicable theories. Somehow theorists have either formalized the tradition too much, thus approaching the dominant research techniques within economics, or they have formalized the tradition too little, sticking to rather lethargic, general and vague theoretical or conceptual constructs. Concerning the former case, analysts appear to believe that the methods of a discipline that has no sense of politics can be used to analyse the intersections between politics and economics. Concerning the latter, analysts seem to be satisfied with cultivating the ontological dimension of theorizing. The unfortunate outcome of this too much/too little theorizing has been that the tradition has been unable so far to develop its full theoretical potential.

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