The purpose of this assignment is to further develop your ability to think across the range of thinkers and themes in this module. Select the question from the list below, again referring to primary and secondary texts where appropriate to advance an argument. We expect you to give us an exposition of the main arguments and issues being considered in the text(s) that you analyse, and to give us an evaluation (which can be positive or negative) based on your understanding of the main issues at stake, and the debates in the existing literature.
For this assignment, you MUST consider THREE theories (or at least three leading thinkers ) in answering your question, and at least one of these MUST be a critical theory or thinker (the ones we cover in semester two). You MUST also select different thinkers/ theories to those you wrote about in your earlier assignments. Any submission that does not follow these instructions will fail this assignment for inadequate task fulfilment. The aim is to allow students to engage with as many theories as possible during the course of the year.
Just to be clear, aside from the material on the radical right, all theories we engage with this term are within the broad family of critical theories of IR, and most of them have some lineage to Marxism. You can nevertheless use two or three of those theories if you wish to do so as they differ considerably from one another, and you will have not written on any of those theories in your previous assignments. But make sure you do so in a way that clearly answers the question.
For example, you could use Marx, Lenin and Gramsci if you wanted to — as long as you use them as three distinct thinkers with distinct contributions. It is also perfectly fine to refer to other theories that you have covered previously if you do so to illustrate a wider point. You could, for example, explain Robert Cox’s distinction between Critical Theory and “problem- solving theory” by exposing his critique of neorealism even if you have already covered neorealism in your previous essays. As long as you do not pick neorealism here as one of your three theories.
Question: Is capitalism a major cause of interstate war?
The three theorists: Marx, Lenin and Cox
Sources:
Marx, K. and Engels, F. (1848) The Communist Manifesto (online version, available at https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/Manifesto.pdf), Parts I-II; Part III, section 3; Part IV
Anievas, A. (ed.) (2010) Marxism and World Politics: Contesting Global Capitalism (London: Routledge). [TColl JC471.MAR]
Lenin, V. I. (1999 [1916]) Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism (Sydney: Resistance Books), skim ch. I IV (get a general gist of the argument; the empirics are not too important given they are so old); read ch. V-IX carefully. Available at http://www.readingfromtheleft.com/Books/Classics/LeninImperialism.pdf. [other editions: HB501.LEN]
Callinicos, A. (2009) Imperialism and Global Political Economy (Cambridge: Polity). [TColl: JC359.CAL]
Lenin, V.I. (1917) War and Revolution, lecture, 14 May; available at: https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/may/14.htm.
Alavi, H. (1964) Imperialism Old and New, in Miliband, R. and Saville, J. (eds.) Socialist Register (London: Merlin), pp. 104-126; available at http://socialistregister.com/index.php/srv/article/download/5932/2828.
Cox, R.W. (1981) States, Social Forces and World Orders: Beyond International Relations Theory, Millennium 10(2): 126-155.
Cox, R.W. (1983) Gramsci, Hegemony and International Relations: An Essay in Method, Millennium 12(2): 162-175.
Cox, R.W. with Sinclair, T.J. (1996) Approaches to World Order (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). [ebook/ JX1954.COX]
Cols, A. (2002) The Class Politics of Globalisation, in Rupert, M. and Smith, H. (eds.) Historical Materialism and Globalization (London: Routledge), pp. 191-209 [and other essays in this collection] [HF1359.HIS]
For the remaining two sources please choose any relevant one’s you may find.
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