HOW INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS SCHOLARS EXPLAIN THE WORLD: A WORLD-ECOLOGICAL CRITIQUE

Abstract

The article is an operationalization of a new theoretical-methodological approach to analyzing International Relations discourse. The approach is based on the Critical Theory of International Relations and the concept of world-ecology. It re-conceptualizes the critique of mainstream International Relations theories and paradigms in a way which foregoes the Cartesian dualism of Society and Nature in order to analyze the subject through the dialectical power-capital-nature relation. The article analyzes two contemporary texts from “Foreign Affairs” which defend the realist and liberal theories. It shows that both discourses only stabilize the existing order without challenging it in any way or proposing radical ways of dealing with the ecological crisis. They either ignore environmental issues or treat them as solvable under the current political-economic status quo.

Keywords

• theory of international relations
• realism
• liberalism
• climate change
• world-ecology
• critical theory