Political Realism, Freud, and Human Nature in International Relations

Schuett, Robert

doi:10.1057/9780230109087

Cited by 36 publications

(22 citation statements)

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“…Neoclassical realism outstrips standard realism's summary of human nature, the anthropomorphism of the state (classical realism), and the material balance of power that affects states (neorealism). As Schuett (:81–82) explains: “Neoclassical Man is not a one‐dimensional creature merely seeking survival in an anarchical system.” Rather, “Men and states are driven by multiple motivational forces” (Schuett :81–82). Neoclassical realists can do much to explain and reduce discrepancies between structural theory and empirical reality.…”

Section: The Triple Bridging Identity Of Ncrmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neoclassical Realism: Challengers and Bridging Identities

Foulon

2015

Int Stud Rev

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This article anchors neoclassical realism (NCR) as a solid theoretical framework which departs from Wendtian constructivism, Moravcsik's liberal theory, and Putnam's two‐level game liberalism. NCR moves away from these other approaches by bridging three divides: the spatial (domestic–international), the cognitive (matter‐ideas), and the temporal (present–future). What matters is not what states have to do because the structure compels them so (as Waltz and Wendt would want us to believe). Looking at what domestic interest groups want states to do (as Moravcsik and Putnam suggest) is also unsatisfactory. Rather, what can states do to represent domestic economic interests within the predefined geopolitical context? The argument here is that a version of geopolitical structure is external to the state and binds. However, a perceptual layer at the level of state policymaker affects the operationalization of that structure. Domestic economic forces make themselves felt through state‐level policymakers, but only within the predefined context of binding structural factors that constrain. The findings from this study are vastly different from previous studies, suggesting that NCR's triple bridging identity distinguishes it from other IR theories.

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Section: The Triple Bridging Identity Of Ncrmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neoclassical Realism: Challengers and Bridging Identities

Foulon

2015

Int Stud Rev

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“…36 By locating Freud and the concept of human nature as "the sole philosophical starting point for international-political theory," 37 the shift in focus toward "inward-looking and self-contained politics of psychoanalytic theory and practice," 38 compels a narrow and refined (almost literary) application to issues of international significance like terror. 39 This first assumption --whose intention is to usher theory away from the fallacy of composition--may be misguided.…”

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confidence: 99%

"All The Things We Could [Se]e by Now [Concerning Violence & Boko Haram], If Sigmund Freud's Wife was Your Mother": Psychoanalysis, Race, & International Political Theory

Ajishafe¹

2017

IJPT

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In response to the sonic media and ludicrosity of her time, Hortense J. Spillers' paradigmatic essay ""All the Things You Could Be by Now, If Sigmund Freud's Wife Was Your Mother": Psychoanalysis and Race," transfigures Charles Mingus' melodic, cryptic, and most puzzling record title into a workable theoretical cacophony. Closely written within the contexts and outside the confines of "some vaguely defined territory between well established republics," Spillers is able to open up the sarcophagus of meaning(s) within the Black occupation of the psychoanalytic discourse. Mingus' original assertion, "all the things you could be by now, if Sigmund Freud's wife was your mother," means absolutely nothing insofar as it means everything in the face of constructed openings and invitations into "extending the realm of possibility for what might be known." As such, this article asks a similar question relating to what might be known about the sensual convergence of media, violence, and representation ('all the things we could see by now') of international, political, and theoretical significance. If anything, Spillers and Mingus compel us toward locating some semblance of forgotten relationality between what appears to be abstract, distant, and unfamiliar. Given our contemporary era of violent post-colonial terror and desires for alternatives to the afterlife of slavery, this article endorses the free-floating investigation into the live survey of unprotected human flesh in the specific case of Boko Haram's explosion in modern media. Is it possible that such a study is able to uncover the motive behind the assembly of spectatorship? Through a Freudian reading of human nature into international political theory, this article indicates that narrative formation and transmission is an essential component to the development of both ethno-universalisms and global constructions of race and captivity.

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“…Since they can be based on selective observation, motivated misperception, or ex post facto reasoning, such concepts then are not only an “untestable bedrock of many theories of politics” (Smith 1983:2), but may also introduce powerful biases (Sterling‐Folker 2006). They can be sensed in the traditional foundationalist IR paradigms (Freyberg‐Inan 2004, 2006; Brown 2009; Crawford 2009; Schuett 2010) as well as in post‐foundationalist scholarship (Hall 2006), are employed at different levels of analysis (Mercer 2006), and manifest themselves crucially even if tacitly in our research findings.…”

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confidence: 99%