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Rule in International Relations is increasingly observed as an empirical phenomenon and academically conceptualized. This book describes rule in International Relations using four practice-theoretical dimensions. A method is developed to analyze rule from a practice-theoretical point of view - the Practice Analysis of Rule (PAR). The argumentation is followed that resistance is an important dimension of rule, which enables the researcher to understand the quality of rule. However, the empirical analysis of resistance as an indicator of rule does not allow for the analysis of subtle forms of rule sufficiently, which can have grave consequences in international relations. Therefore, to make this possible, the symbolic dimension is formulated after Bourdieu. In the following, three practice-theoretical dimensions are developed and a methodical approach is presented. Resistance is described as a practice-theoretical dimension. Based on actor-network-theory materiality is described a dimension of rule. At last, iterability is described as dimension of rule which can show the repeatability of practices. It can thus indicate the extent of consolidation of rule in each case. Through the analysis of an empirical case using the four practice-theoretical dimensions the researcher will be enabled to analyze transnational relations of rule in a theory guided and history sensitive manner.
International society consists of states and the rules and institutions they share. Although international society has become a mundane feature of the world and the principal research focus of International Relations, it has become meaningless. More specifically, the technical rules that determine what states are and how they relate to other features of the world are units of semantic meaning, but their rampant, unprincipled proliferation has corroded their capacity to contain existential meaning. This deterioration is to be deplored because it alienates subjects from each other, it is totalising and excludes alternatives, and it is theoretically irreversible. To connect the two kinds of meaning, the first step is to reconceptualise international society as consisting strictly of constitutive rules whose meaning depends on the context they jointly compose, which implies that these rules can in turn be represented as signs in a semiotic structure. In order to evaluate the capacity of the signs to contain existential meaning, the next step is to adapt Baudrillard’s hierarchical typology of semiotic systems, ranging from the most meaningful systems based on symbolic exchange value to the vapid terminus of hyperreality based on sign value, in which semantic meaning is without value and existential meaning is impossible. The narrative traces the history of the signs of international law from the premodern period, when Christendom was understood as an approximation of the divine kingdom and a vehicle for salvation, to the present postmodern period, in which hundreds of articles of international maritime law make the decision to go to war over isolated rocks intelligible – even rational – and international trade law catalogues potato products to six digits. Three cases in particular exemplify this devolution in international law: the laws determining the territorial sea, the most-favoured national principle of international trade law, and nationality as a normative basis for statehood.
This dissertation explores the breadth and variation of authoritarian counter-terrorism strategies and their legitimacy-related origins to challenge prevailing assumptions in Terrorism Studies. Research and analysis are conducted in the form of a Structured Focused Comparison of domestic counter-terrorism strategies in two electoral autocracies. The first case is Russia’s domestic engagement against a mix of ethno-separatist and Islamist terrorism emanating from its North Caucasus republics between 1999 and 2018. The second case is China’s engagement vis-à-vis a similar type of terrorism in its Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region between 1990 and 2018.
The comparison shows that, contrary to prevailing assumptions, the two strategies differ immensely from one another while containing significant if not predominant non-coercive elements. It further shows that the two strategies are closely related to the two states’ sources and resources of legitimacy, both in their original motivation to tackle the terrorist threat and in the design of counter-terrorism strategies. Drawing on David Beetham’s theory of The Legitimation of Power and on the Comparative Politics, Terrorism Studies and Civil War literatures, the dissertation explores the influence of five sources and (re)sources of legitimacy on the two counter-terrorism strategies: responsiveness, performance legitimacy, ideology, discursive power and co-optation. While governmental discursive power is discarded as a source of variation, findings are significant with respect to the influence of ideology and performance legitimacy. Reliance on ideology or related patterns for legitimation raise vulnerability to terrorism and constrain or facilitate the adoption of communicative and preventive measures that accommodate the grievances of potentially defective or even violently terrorist groups. Performance legitimacy is a key motivator in counter-terrorism and an influence on certain types of counter-terrorism policies. Responsiveness and co-optation are identified as potential sources of variation, based on idiosyncratic concurrence with policy choices.
Die Auswirkungen der syrischen Flüchtlingskrise auf den zivilgesellschaftlichen Sektor im Libanon
(2021)
Die vorliegende Dissertation analysiert die Auswirkungen der syrischen Flüchtlingskrise auf den zivilgesellschaftlichen Sektor im Libanon, in Anbetracht einer historisch engverwurzelten Beziehung zwischen dem Libanon und Syrien. Die Dissertation wird von dem Interesse geleitet, die Rolle der lokalen zivilgesellschaftlichen NROs zu erforschen, die sich mit syrischen Flüchtlingen im Libanon befassen, und versuchen, die Leere des schwachen bzw. minimalistischen libaneischen Staatensystems zu füllen.Es wird untersucht, welche Effekte der syrische Konflikt auf die zivilgesellschaftliche Landschaft im Libanon gehabt hat und wie sich der Zufluss von internationaler Gelder auf die Aktivitäten dieser lokalen NROs sowie auf ihrer Beziehungen zu den libanesischen Staatsbehörden auf nationaler und lokaler Ebene ausgewirkt hat.
