Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of London, 1996. / Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 281-292) and index.

Realist international relations theory is the most influential theoretical approach in the discipline of international relations. Within the realist paradigm there are several realist approaches. Various approaches, including classical realism, neorealism, offensive realism, neo-classical realism, and game theory, are part of the realist paradigm but some make different theoretically relevant assumptions, notably about international politics, international actors and actors' motivations. The first part of this thesis seeks to demonstrate how, despite their other differences, a fundamental assumption that anarchy determines the nature of international politics is characteristic of realist theorists as notable and different as classical realists Thucydides, Niccolo Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbes, Edward Hallett Carr and Hans Morgenthau, structural realist Kenneth Waltz, offensive realist John Mearsheimer, realist game theory analysis of international relations, and neoclassical realists Victor Cha, Thomas Christenson and Gideon Rose. This demonstration establishes the basis for proceeding to a critique of realists' fundamental anarchy assumption. The second part of this thesis presents an argument that realists' fundamental assumption that anarchy determines the nature of international politics has been responsible for theoretical shortcomings of realist analyses, and argues that a complexity basis for international relations theory would offer theoretical and analytical advantages. The cost of the assumption of anarchy for realist analyses is demonstrated in a critique of realist accounts of the outbreak of World War I, the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, and regional political integration in Europe. These major international developments should be readily addressed by the realist or any other paradigm of international relations theory. In all three cases, the factors involved leave realists struggling to re-visit their assumptions about international politics in order to explain what occurred. While such re-assessments have included a variety of efforts to broaden or redefine the factors considered, the role and implications of anarchy as a foundational assumption of realist theorising has rarely been questioned, and it remains a central realist premise. Complexity theory is being embraced in a variety of fields of social inquiry, including politics and international relations. This thesis proposes that the complexity of international politics is something that needs to be embraced and not sidelined. This is the case whether the international politics in question was in ancient times or the twenty-first century. The complexity of international politics, not anarchy, needs to be operationalised as the foundational assumption of international relations theory, in order to build international relations theorising on a more appropriate basis that can be applied more fruitfully in the descriptions and explanations of empirical international relations analyses. / Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2009

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of London, 1996. / Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 281-292) and index.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of London, 1996. / Title from e-book title screen (viewed Oct. 15, 2007). Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 281-292) and index.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2004. / Advisor: Dr. Marilyn Young, Florida State University, College of Communication, Dept. of Communication. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Jan. 14, 2005). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of London, 1996. / Title from e-book title screen (viewed October 15, 2007). Includes bibliographical references (p. 281-292) and index.

Quantum approaches to International Relations theory have proliferated rapidly in recent years, challenging the field to come to terms with the influence of physics at its philosophical foundations. These new theoretical perspectives draw on quantum physics, quantum social theory, and prior quantum interventions in other disciplines of social science. But unlike prior debates around the desirability of "adding" science to the study of world politics (Morgenthau 1946; Kindleberger 1958; Bull 1966), the call of quantum IR theory is one for transformation (Barad 2007; Fierke 2022; Murphy 2021c; O’Brien 2021; Zanotti 2018). In this dissertation, I explore the stakes and scope of this quantum transformation to better understand the process of quantizing inquiry into International Relations. The first chapter sets out the metatheoretical stakes of quantizing IR by engaging with critical responses to prior works of quantum. Situating quantum approaches in the broader intellectual history of the field, I argue that understanding the "cost" of quantizing IR cannot take the form of a cost/benefit logic, instead recognizing the opportunity cost of remaining Newtonian. The second chapter turns to the development of quantum mechanics within physics to demonstrate the relatability of key concepts for social inquiry, despite the vernacular divide. The third chapter turns to methodology, discussing the philosophical sources supporting 'quantizing through translation,' drawing on both the quantum social theory of Karen Barad and broader influences including Walter Benjamin, actor-network theory, and Donna Haraway. The next trio of chapters serve to demonstrate the breadth of quantum's utility across the discipline through a set of conceptual case studies related to major subfields of IR. The fourth chapter speaks to debates in peace and security studies, and provides a quantized account of violence through a diffractive reading of Johan Galtung's "Violence, Peace, and Peace Research." The fifth chapter turns to foreign policy and strategic studies, arguing that the non-traditional diplomatic strategy of "track two diplomacy" abides a quantum game-theoretic logic, and that this can only be fully appreciated by interrogating its quantum-like assumptions. Chapter six then addresses international political economy through an attempt to redefine "the market" in quantum terms. Recognizing the stakes and scope of quantum IR explored through the dissertation, the conclusion reaffirms the case for quantum to be understood as transformation rather than addition, and sets out future directions for research in quantum IR.

This thesis aims to explain the change in developing countries’ intellectual property legislation as a response to their Trade-related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) obligations. When the TRIPs Agreement was negotiated during the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade talks, developing countries resisted its adoption because of their different domestic norms and traditions relating to intellectual property rights and concerns about the administrative costs of implementing the agreement. Nevertheless, when the TRIPs Agreement came into force, almost all developing countries altered their domestic intellectual property laws, and many did so prior to the deadline for implementation and/or adopted more rigorous intellectual property rules than required by TRIPs. That many developing countries have adjusted their domestic intellectual property law poses the puzzle that this thesis seeks to explain. It does so by testing two competing explanations: the role of external pressures (both in terms of great power coercion and legalisation of international institutions) and domestic politics. This thesis combines a survey of the timing and quality of 102 WTO developing country members’ legislation across patents, copyrights, and trademarks, with detailed case studies of changes to intellectual property legislation in India and Indonesia, which are both unlikely cases for compliance, but reflect different domestic political circumstances. The empirical findings demonstrate that external pressures cannot provide a satisfactory explanation, as policy change occurred both with the presence and in the absence of these pressures. In order to fully understand the change in developing countries’ intellectual property legislation, it is also necessary to analyse the preferences of domestic actors (societal and governmental) and how they interact. By arguing this, this thesis thus suggests the importance of taking domestic politics into account to explain change in developing countries’ domestic legislation as a response to inconvenient international obligations.

The concept of order in international politics, despite its very frequent use in all strands of ir literature, is seldom explicitly addressed as an object of analytical reflection and definition, and remains often opaque. This research aims to clarify the nature of order as a concept within ir theory, by highlighting its constitutive elements and by positioning it within the horizon of current political-philosophical and sociological discussions. This thesis starts with a literature review showing the limitedness of the ways in which order is employed as a concept in many ir theoretical works, while underscoring its critical problematisation as the main path towards its clarification. Following and integrating Nicholas Rengger’s seminal work on the topic, this research argues that the concept of order, which entails the double nature of a descriptive/explanatory but also normative account of reality, has to be understood within a philosophical discussion of the political, lying between the two poles of political theology (Carl Schmitt) and the sociological theory of secularisation (Jürgen Habermas). While introducing and discussing the two authors, this thesis illustrates the roles which they have assumed in inspiring ir theoretical work (in critical theory), pointing at the limits of their established readings within the discipline and offering new perspectives, which should essentially rely on a more direct critical politicisation of the sacred. This thesis proceeds with an exploration of the problem of order in the modern condition, through a reconstruction and a discussion of the common Weberian genealogy in both Schmitt and Habermas, focusing on the importance of the sociology of religion for the conceptualisation of the political in modernity (Schmitt) and of the concepts of rationality and rationalisation (Habermas) respectively. Against this background, a critique of the Habermasian view on secularisation is developed, as Habermas’s argument appears to be an incomplete answer to the problem of the symbolic relations between the religious and the political, and hence of his conceptualisation of political order, a problem which is also reflected at the level of international politics. Note: translations of original texts in this thesis are done by the author unless otherwise specified.

Through official and academic circles a particular understanding of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) had spread: an almost devastated terrorist group whose interests in profiting from drug trafficking clouded its political objectives. Its transnational networks were either underestimated, perceiving they didn’t offer much to the organization; or overestimated, believing that every Latin American agent on the Left of the political spectrum was part of a conspiracy against the Colombian state. The dissertation proposes a different narrative to explain the importance of transnational networks and structures, especially how they may serve as a base for FARC to survive. The Colombian insurgency is here addressed as a typical case of a kind of organization in which political and criminal interests are blended. It further develops the concept of ‘commercial insurgencies’, opposing a vision of the insurgency as a monolithic entity, to explain it as a system of interconnected individuals with diverse functions and interests who constitute its three dimensions: political, military and criminal. It is here argued that commercial insurgencies exploit specific elements through the environment to embed its nodes beyond the borders of a single state. These include sympathy from individuals, support from national governments, connections with political and social organizations, alliances with armed actors, the exploitation of empty spaces, and the secretive placement of nodes. Common single-variable explanations to the embedment of insurgents, such as support from a foreign allied government, are insufficient as an objective account of this phenomenon. Furthermore, given certain environmental processes, survival of insurgency elements may contribute to the reconstitution and re-emergence of the organization. In this sense the challenge of the counterinsurgent is two-fold: the insurgency is multidimensional, and it tends to be transnational. Consequently, for an offensive to be successful it needs to address all the dimensions simultaneously and to control the effects of elements existing beyond borders.