International relations and the challenge of postmodernism : defending the discipline / D.S.L. Jarvis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jarvis, D. S. L. (Darryl S. L.), 1963-

Series:

Studies in international relations (Columbia, S.C.)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

International relations--Philosophy.

International relations.

Postmodernism--Political aspects.

Postmodernism.

Physical Description:

xv, 280 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Columbia : University of South Carolina Press, [2000]

Summary:

Promising to stimulate discussion among both those who celebrate the arrival of the "Third Debate" and those who fear its colonization and spread, D. S. L. Jarvis offers an innovative and highly controversial appraisal of the various postmodern and poststructural theories currently sweeping the discipline of international relations. Tracing the development, importation, and application of these new epistemologies, Jarvis develops a series of critical typologies so that scholars working in international relations can assess the utility of these new theoretical mediums for understanding international political relations at the dawn of the twenty-first century.

Jarvis traces the lineage of postmodern theory in international relations and its transformation into a subversive theme, which proposes to deconstruct, "obliterate, " and rebuild the theoretical apparatus that scholars and policy makers alike have traditionally analyzed, modeled, and derived international political relations policy. The critique of postmodern theory's political device, especially its rejection of Enlightenment ideals and the methods of science and rationality, is accomplished by Jarvis through analyzing the politics of rhetoric and tracing its intellectual antecedents to idealist and neo-Marxist thought.

Inspired by a deep-seated concern that theory in international relations is becoming increasingly ethereal and unrelated to the subject matter scholars strive to understand, Jarvis exposes the poverty of much postmodern and poststructural theory, suggesting these discourses have been hijacked from partisan political ends. Jarvis links this with the spread of identity politics, critiquing feminist postmoderntheory, and the increasingly subversive and destabilizing theoretical programs it recommends as central to the research projects for students of international relations. In doing so, Jarvis mounts a ringing defense of the discipline, its research methods and existing epistemologies, and suggests that much harm lies in the threat by the "Third Debate" to transpose the objects and subjects of our studies and dismantle the disciplinary basis of our knowledge.

Contents:

Theory and metatheory in international relations : the third debate and the challenge of postmodernism

Contemplating the crisis in the crisis of contemplation : identity, perception, and derision in international relations

Sentinels of dissidence : a typology of postmodern theory

Richard K. Ashley and the subversion of international political theory : the "heroic" phrase

Continental drift : Ashley and subversive postmodernism

Feminist revisions of international relations : identity politics, postmodern(isms), and gender

In defense of theory : reaffirming reason, rearticulating relevance.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [239]-261) and index.

ISBN:

1570033056

OCLC:

40820863