European Security Into the Twenty-First Century: Beyond Traditional Theories of International Relations by Adam Bronstone

Author:Adam Bronstone [Bronstone, Adam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: International Relations, Political Science, General
ISBN: 9781351736008
Google: pX-YDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 5435871
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2000-09-28T00:00:00+00:00

B Summary

In all three instances – Risse-Kappen, Goldtsein and Keohane and Wendt, the language employed sounds like that of Gramsci and Cox. However, it is evident upon further research that the language may sound similar, but the methodology and ontology is quite different. All three purport to overcome the constraints of rationalist arguments, but none succeed. Through their failings, the ideas they speak of become subject to empiricist and other non-dialectical concerns that illustrate this gap between their approaches and that of Gramsci and Cox. Therefore while the Gramscian Marxism applied in this work may not be identical to either that which can be found in The Prison Notebooks or in Production, Power and World Order, this author has attempted to, by way of a similar use of ideas, stay true to the intentions of Gramsci and Cox while adapting their work for the sake of applicability in a matter pertaining to the ‘hard case’ of strategic studies rather than the ‘softer’ one of political economy.

Having said this, the concerns raised by the Burnham and Kenny and Germain articles are important to note and investigate. It is crucial if one is to invoke a certain theorization and tradition that one does not get it wrong and in doing so appear to sound more like those writing from another school of thought. This paradigmatic error would only serve to damage one’s project rather than assist it. But by flagging up these points of concern, and addressing these issues in a forthright manner, they can be aid to rest if gaps between these secondary approaches and the one intended to be used become apparent, as has been the case above through an exploration of pluralist and constructivist accounts of Intemtional Relations.

Having gone through this process only slightly scathed, it is not enough to not present an alternative scenario of the above case study from the vantage of point of one’s desired paradigm. How to do this without reducing one’s alternative to the foundationalism of Realism or losing the essence of the approach along the way? This will be the task of the next section. For Mearsheimer is correct. It is not enough to assert and highlight ‘contradictions’, as has already been accomplished in the preceding chapter. What is required is an explication of an alternative scenario to, in this instance, NATO enlargement that embraces the constituent elements of Cox’s Gramscian without the rationalist and structuralist qualities of Oakeshott, Waltz and Open Marxism.

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