Distinguishes five contending International Relations perspectives on background ideas
Calls for more cross-fertilisation across perspectives to deal with conceptual challenges pertaining to backgrounds, agency, as well as change and persistence
Summarises contributions to forum
The actors we study do not reflect upon their background ideas. They simply take them for granted. Precisely because of this taken-for-grantedness, these ideas are very powerful. They shape world politics in profound ways. The discipline of International Relations has neglected background ideas for a long time. In the last two decades, however, a heterogeneous cluster of research has developed that inquires into what constitutes background ideas, how backgrounds affect politics, and how they come to change. The purpose of this special forum is to take stock of the current state of research, to make authors embracing different perspectives on background ideas engage with one another’s arguments, and thus to improve our explanatory and normative understandings of backgrounds in world politics.
AdlerE (1992) The emergence of cooperation: National epistemic communities and the international evolution of the idea of nuclear arms control. International Organization46(1): 101–145.
2.
AdlerE (2005) Communitarian International Relations: The Epistemic Foundations of International Relations. London: Routledge.
3.
AdlerEHaasPM (1992) Conclusion: Epistemic communities, world order, and the creation of a reflective research program. International Organization46(1): 367–390.
4.
AdlerEPouliotV (eds) (2011) International Practices. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
5.
Adler-NissenR (2011) On a field trip with Bourdieu. International Political Sociology5(3): 327–330.
6.
Adler-NissenR (2014) Opting Out of the European Union: Diplomacy, Sovereignty and European Integration. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
7.
AnievasAManchandaNShilliamR (2015) Confronting the global colour line: An introduction. In: AnievasAManchandaNShilliamR (eds) Race and Racism in International Relations: Confronting the Global Colour Line. London: Routledge, pp. 1–16.
8.
AshleyR (1984) The poverty of neorealism. International Organization38(2): 225–286.
9.
AyersA (ed.) (2013) Gramsci, Political Economy, and International Relations Theory: Modern Princes and Naked Emperors. Basingstoke: Palgrave McMillan.
10.
BaldwinD (ed.) (1993) Neorealism and Neoliberalism: The Contemporary Debate. New York: Columbia University Press.
11.
BaumgartnerFR (2013) Ideas and policy change. Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration, and Institutions26(2): 239–258.
12.
BélandDCoxRH (2013) Introduction to special issue: The politics of policy paradigms. Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration, and Institutions26(2): 193–195.
13.
BermanM (2011) Ideology, history, and politics. In: BélandDCoxRH (eds) Ideas and Politics in Social Science Research. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 105–126.
14.
BourdieuP (1977) Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
15.
CampbellD (1998) Writing Security: United States Foreign Policy and the Politics of Identity. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
16.
CheckelJ (2005) International institutions and socialization in Europe: Introduction and framework. International Organization59(4): 801–826.
17.
ChowdhryGNairS (2002) Introduction: Power in a postcolonial world. race, gender, and class in international relations. In: ChowdryGNairS (eds) Power, Postcolonialism and International Relations. London: Routledge, pp. 1–32.
18.
CoxR (1983) Gramsci, hegemony, and international relations. Millennium12(2): 162–175.
19.
DaigneaultP-M (2014) Reassessing the concept of policy paradigm: Aligning ontology and methodology in policy studies. Journal of European Public Policy21(3): 453–469.
20.
DeitelhoffN (2006) Überzeugung in der Politik. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
21.
DeitelhoffNMüllerH (2005) Theoretical paradise—Empirically lost? Arguing with Habermas. Review of International Studies31(1): 167–179.
22.
DotyRL (1993) Foreign policy as a social construction: A post-positivist analysis of US counter-insurgency policy in the Philippines. International Studies Quarterly37(3): 297–320.
23.
FearonJWendtA (2002) Rationalism v. constructivism: A skeptical view. In: CarlsnaesWRisseTSimmonsB (eds) Handbook of International Relations. London: SAGE, pp. 52–72.
24.
FierkeKM (1998) Changing Games, Changing Interests: Critical Investigations in Security. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
25.
FierkeKM (2010) Wittgenstein in international relations theory. In: MooreCFarrandsC (eds) International Relations Theory and Philosophy: Interpretive Dialogues. London: Routledge, pp. 83–94.
26.
FinnemoreMSikkinkK (1998) International norm dynamics and political change. International Organization52(4): 887–917.
27.
FloriniA (1996) The evolution of international norms. International Studies Quarterly40(3): 363–389.
28.
FoucaultM (1970 [1966]) The Order of Things: An Archeology of the Human Sciences. New York: Random House.
29.
FoucaultM (1972) The Archeology of Knowledge and the Discourse on Language. New York: Pantheon Books.
30.
FreedenM (1998) Ideologies and Political Theory: A Conceptual Approach. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
31.
GadamerH-G (1972) Wahrheit und Methode. Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr.
32.
GeorgeAL (1969) The ‘operational code’: A neglected approach to the study of political leaders and decision-making. International Studies Quarterly13(2): 190–222.
33.
GillS (1993) Gramsci, Historical Materialism and International Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
34.
GoldgeierJ (1994) Leadership Style and Soviet Foreign Policy: Stalin, Khrushchev, Gorbachev. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
35.
GoldsteinJKeohaneRO (1993) Ideas and foreign policy: An analytical framework. In: GoldsteinJKeohaneRO (eds) Ideas and Foreign Policy: Beliefs, Institutions, and Political Change. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, pp. 3–30.
36.
GramsciA (1991) Selections from Prison Notebooks. London: Lawrence and Wishart.
37.
HaasPM (1992) Banning chlorofluorocarbons: Epistemic community efforts to protect stratospheric ozone. International Organization46(1): 187–224.
38.
HabermasJ (1995 [1981]) Theorie des kommunikativen Handelns I: Handlungsrationalität und gesellschaftliche Rationalisierung. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
39.
HallPA (1993) Policy paradigms, social learning, and the state: The case of economic policymaking in Britain. Comparative Politics25(3): 275–296.
40.
HermannMG (1980) Explaining foreign policy behavior using the personal characteristics of political leaders. International Studies Quarterly24. 1: 7–46.
41.
HerrmannRShannonV (2001) Defending international norms: The role of obligation, material interest, and perception in decision making. International Organization55(3): 621–654.
42.
HerschingerE (2010) Constructing Global Enemies: Hegemony and Identity in International Discourses on Terrorism and Drug Prohibition. London: Routledge.
43.
HorkheimerM (1962) Ideologie und Handeln. In: HorkheimerMAdornoTW (eds) Sociologica II. Reden und Vorträge. Frankfurt am Main: Europäische Verlagsanstalt, pp. 38–47.
44.
JeppersonRLWendtAKatzensteinPJ (1996) Norms, identity, and culture in national security. In: KatzensteinP (ed.) The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World Politics. New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 33–77.
45.
JoasH (1996) Die Kreativität des HandelnsFrankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
46.
KatzensteinPSilR (2008) Eclectic theorizing in the study and practice of international relations. In: Reus-SmitCSnidalD (eds) The Oxford Handbook of International RelationsOxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 109–130.
47.
KoremenosBLipsonCSnidalD (2001) The rational design of international institutions. International Organization55(4): 761–799.
48.
KornprobstM (2009) International relations as rhetorical discipline: Toward (re-)newing horizons. International Studies Review11(1): 87–108.
49.
KratochwilF (1989) Rules, Norms and Decisions: On the Conditions of Practical and Legal Reasoning in International Relations and Domestic Affairs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
50.
KuhnTS (1996) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
51.
LaclauEMouffeC (1985) Hegemony and the Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics. London: Verso.
52.
LapidY (1989) The third debate: On the prospects of international theory in a post-positivist era. International Studies Quarterly33(3): 235–254.
53.
LeeS-M (2014) Understanding the Yalta Axioms and Riga Axioms through the belief systems of the advocacy coalition framework. Foreign Policy Analysis. Epub ahead of print 3April. DOI: 10.1111/fpa.12040.
54.
LegroJ (2000) Whence American internationalism. International Organization52(4): 253–289.
55.
MarcuseH (1970) Der eindimensionale Mensch. Neuwied: Luchterhand.
56.
MartinLLSimmonsBA (1998) Theories and empirical studies of international institutions. International Organization52(4): 729–757.
57.
MearsheimerJJ (2001) The Tragedy of Great Power Politics. New York: Norton.
58.
MehtaJ (2011) The varied roles of ideas in politics: From ‘Whether’ to ‘How’. In: BélandDCoxRH (eds) Ideas and Politics in Social Science Research. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 28–63.
59.
MorinJ-FCartaC (2014) Overlapping and evolving European discourses on market liberalization. British Journal of Politics and International Relations16(1): 117–132.
NeumannIB (2002) Returning practice to the linguistic turn: The case of diplomacy. Millennium31(3): 627–651.
62.
PetrovaM (2003) The end of the cold war: A battle or bridging ground between rationalist and ideational approaches in international relations?European Journal of International Relations9(1): 115–163.
63.
PouliotV (2010) International Security in Practice: The Politics of NATO-Russia Diplomacy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
64.
RuggieJ (1993) Territoriality and beyond: Problematizing modernity in international relations. International Organization47(1): 139–174.
65.
SabatierPAJenkins-SmithHC (1993) Policy Change and Learning: An Advocacy Coalition Approach. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
66.
SchaferMWalkerSG (eds) (2006) Beliefs and Leadership in World Politics: Methods and Applications of Operational Code Analysis. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
67.
SchmidtVA (2008) Discursive institutionalism: The explanatory power of ideas and discourse. Annual Review of Political Science11: 303–326.
68.
SchmidtVA (2011) Ideas and discourse in transformational political economic change in Europe. In: SkogstadG (ed.) Policy Paradigms, Transnationalism, and Domestic Politics. Toronto, ON, Canada: Toronto University Press, pp. 36–63.
69.
SchmidtVAThatcherM (eds) (2013) Resilient Liberalism in Europe’s Political Economy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (Kindle Edition).
70.
SearleJ (1995) The Construction of Social Reality. New York: Free Press.
71.
SewellWF (1992) A theory of structure: Duality, agency, and transformation. American Journal of Sociology98(1): 1–29.
72.
SkogstadG (ed.) (2011) Policy Paradigms, Transnationalism, and Domestic Politics. Toronto, ON, Canada: Toronto University Press.
73.
SnyderJ (2015) Dueling security stories: Wilson and Lodge talk strategy. Security Studies24: 171–197.
74.
StegerMB (2008) The Rise of the Global Imaginary: Political Ideologies from the French Revolution to the Global War on Terror. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
75.
TannenwaldN (2007) The Nuclear Taboo: The United States and the Non-Use of Nuclear Weapons since 1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
76.
Villumsen BerlingT (2012) Bourdieu, international relations, and European security. Theory & Society41(5): 451–478.
77.
WalkerR (1993) Inside/outside: International Relations as Political Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
78.
WalkerSG (1990) The evolution of operational code analysis. Political Psychology11(2): 403–418.
79.
WaltS (1990) The Origins of Alliance. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
80.
WaltzKN (1979) Theory of International Politics. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
81.
WeberM (1919) Politik als Beruf. München: Duncker und Humboldt.
82.
WeberM (1920) Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus. In: WeberM (ed.) Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Religionssoziologie I. Tübingen: Mohr, pp. 17–206.
YeeAS (1996) The causal effects of ideas on politics. International Organization50(1): 69–108.
85.
ZwingelS (2012) How do norms travel? Theorizing international women’s rights in transnational perspective. International Studies Quarterly56(1): 115–129.
