World Politics: Rationalism and Beyond

200 Pages·2001·1.07 MB·English

by  Ralph Pettman (auth.)

World Politics
Also by Ralph Pettman
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COMMONSENSE CONSTRUCTIVISM, or the Making of World Affairs
HUMAN BEHAVIOUR AND WORLD POLITICS: A Transdisciplinary Introduction
INTERNATIONAL POLITICS: Balance of Power, Balance of Productivity, Balance
of Ideologies
MORAL CLAIMS IN WORLD AFFAIRS (editor)
RETHINKING GLOBAL AFFAIRS (editor)
SMALL POWER POLITICS AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS IN SOUTHEAST
ASIA
STATE AND CLASS: A Sociology of International Affairs
UNDERSTANDING POLITICAL ECONOMY, with Readings for the Fatigued
World Politics
Rationalism and Beyond
Ralph Pettman
Professor of International Relations
Victoria University of Wellington
New Zealand
© Ralph Pettman 2001
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First published 2001 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-42208-1 ISBN 978-0-230-28672-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230286726
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Pettman,Ralph.
World politics :rationalism and beyond / Ralph Pettman.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1.International relations—Philosophy.2.International relations–
–Methodology.3.International relations—Study and teaching.I.Title.
JZ1242 .P48 2000
327.1'01—dc21
00–033298
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01
Contents
Preface vii
Introduction 1
Part 1 World Affairs in Perspective
Introduction to Part I 23
1 The Politico-Cultural Context 40
2 The Politico-Social Dimension 54
3 The Politico-Economic Dimension 65
4 The Politico-Strategic Dimension 73
Part 2 World Affairs Approached
Introduction to Part II 79
5 The Modernist Project 83
6 Individualism, Nationalism, Collectivism 99
7 Liberalism, Mercantilism, Market Universalism and Marxism 108
8 Realism, Internationalism, Globalism 120
Part 3 Taking Part in World Affairs
Introduction to Part III 131
9 Mind-making 132
10 Self-making 139
11 Market-making 143
12 State-making 147
Part 4 Conclusion
13 Conclusion 155
Notes 174
References 178
Index 182
v
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Preface
This book represents the conclusion of a protracted attempt to answer
three very general questions, namely: what are ‘world affairs’, that we
might know them; what are ‘we’, that we might know world affairs;
and what, in this respect, is it ‘to know’? Here I address mostly the last
concern, though in doing so, I am clearly addressing the others as well.
In making the usual noises about those who have helped, I would
like to thank Jim Rolfe in particular, since he has been such an impor-
tant part of this project over the last few years.
I should also add that the initial idea for this work was not mine. It
was that of another esteemed colleague, Paul Morris. For good, ill, or
otherwise, what follows wouldn’t have been written if he hadn’t sug-
gested I do so. Thanks Paul, I think.
And last but not least, there’s Setsuko. Thanks, my love.
RALPHPETTMAN
vii
‘although it might present a clouded surface to the eye of reason, one
sensed a content … solid … consistent … explicit … new … original …
on an equal footing with the ideas of the intellect’.
MARCELPROUST
Introduction
For reasons that will soon become evident, ‘world politics’ is repre-
sented here by the term ‘world affairs’. So, what is ‘world affairs’,
whether in general terms or in the particular? What is our subject?
Our subject is an object, or objects, since a question like this is most
likely to be answered at the moment by putting the world at a mental
distance and reifying it. World affairs studied in this objectifying
fashion get notionally detached from us, becoming in the process such
things as states and firms, nations and social movements.
It is the mental distancing that comes first, particularly for the
legatees of the so-called European Enlightenment. The thinkers of this
place and time prioritized untrammelled reason. They exalted the
objectifying mind-gaze. And every time we use reason the way they
bid us do, we reaffirm the analytic distance they made into a major
cultural project they have been pleased to entitle in retrospect the
‘modernist project’.
And every time the result is reification. Objectivity is had by objec-
tifying, which in turn tends to beget discrete analytic entities and
outcomes, a sequence that is not inexorable, but one that is definitely
a key feature of Euro-American thinking. This includes, of course, the
Euro-American thinking that gets done about (and results in) one
particular analytic ‘object’ – world affairs.
It also behoves us to consider how it is that ‘abstractions … tend to
emphasize the well-being of an aggregate rather than of individuals’,
excepting, that is, the sort of abstraction that constitutes ‘individuals’
themselves (Poovey, 1998: 137). This has implications in turn for
another key feature of Euro-American thinking – the concept of progress.
Those born and raised as rationalists (‘rationalism’ being the use of
reason as an end in itself) use detachment as a matter of course. It
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R. Pettman, World Politics
© Ralph Pettman 2001