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The Three Stooges: Realism, Liberalism and Constructivism

By Anonymous -
I have always been more inclined towards the theoretical aspects of my courses, and when I got  this assignment of analyzing a security issue through the lens of a Realist, Liberalist and Constructivist approach to anarchy, an image began to appear in my mind. For the purpose of this blog post, I am personifying these theoretical approaches, and analyzing a security issue through their point of views. The security issue that I have chosen to analyze is the privatization of the military and its role in conflict zones.  I recently stumbled onto articles about this phenomena, and how Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) are playing an increasingly large role in proliferation and distribution of small arms and engaging in conflict zones. PMSCs started emerging in the 1990s for a myriad of reasons. After the Cold War, the world order was shifting to a unipolar system, and the need for a massive military presence was not as important, because no big war was looming in the future.
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Understanding ‘Cis’-temic violence: Surveillance of Trans bodies

By Anonymous -
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Artwork by Anika Vijapur Ken Booth’s ‘Reflections of a Fallen Realist’ made me rethink how far I myself had fallen from the mainstream understanding of security. My first encounter with Security Studies was in 11th grade Political Science class, although I am sure I had unwittingly engaged in discussions about security long before that. I was fascinated by the Realist understanding of security, the strategies of war, until I learnt about the concept of Human Security in 12th grade, which felt like a groundbreaking idea to me at the time. It was only in my second year at college that I realized that even the academic literature that veered away from the mainstream understanding of Security, still seemed restrained in its exploration of the dimensions of security.  Mead’s concept of ‘Me’ vs ‘I’ had a profound impact on me. ‘Me’ is a student of International Relations, with a keen interest in the gendered aspect of security, but has barely scratched the surface of what ‘gender’ means. It
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Black sea: the test of international norms during the war in Ukraine

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Anarchy in popular culture stands and means lawlessness, complete chaos and violence, But in International relations, it simply stands for the absence of higher authority. When we say the international realm is anarchic, we mean there is no one above states that can exercise power, at least on paper there is no hierarchy between states and all states are independent and sovereign bodies. if a conflict arises between state A and state B, where state A attacks state B, state B has to defend itself or ask other states for help, but there is no higher authority to resolve the conflict or tell state A what to do. Theories such as liberalism and realism say that the international system is naturally anarchic and suggest how a state should or might act in this anarchic world, while constructivists say the reality is constructed and anarchy does not determine conflictual or cooperative behaviour and “anarchy is what states make of it”. Realists claim that the international system is anarchi
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The Syrian Dystopia and different theoretical paradigms

By Anonymous -
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  The level of humanitarian suffering in Syria is beyond imagination. Even the best of experts did not expect that Syria would be in the midst of the worst humanitarian crisis the world has witnessed, ten years down the line, but sadly, keeping the media fatigue aside, Syria’s situation remains dystopic. If we compare the amount of investment to fuel this war,  compared to the money to alleviate the impact of this war on the Syrians, the people who have borne the brunt of this crisis, it's very little. More than a decade full of war and hostility has left a very nerve-wracking impact on Syria, birthing and catalyzing mass displacement, devastated public infrastructure, a shattered environment and economy; and thus a full-fledged humanitarian crisis. This, on top of the COVID-19 pandemic has left more than 14 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, 6.5 million of which are children. As elaborated in my previous post, the referent object here remains the Syrian population
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Covid -19 crisis through IRT

By Anonymous -
  Viewing covid-19 through International relations theories The Covid-19 epidemic is a worldwide threat that requires a worldwide response. However, while states show some international collaboration, their actual behaviours are primarily competitive and self-centered.Covid-19 has proven to be one of this generation's most significant worldwide issues. A pandemic knows no national borders, and Covid-19 has put international cooperation to the test. With its interwoven supply chains, continual trans-border flows of products, services, and money, and seamless people-to-people contact, the globalised, interconnected globe is particularly prone to pandemics. The quick spread of Covid-19 from China, where it originally appeared, to the rest of the world is emblematic of our times in this era of hyper-globalization. Logic would argue that concerted international action is both necessary and doable because effectively combating the pandemic is in everyone's best interests.Given the co
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Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan

By Anonymous -
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  "Our commitment to a stable and free and peaceful Afghanistan is a long-term commit- ment." President Bush Statement with Afghanistan's President Karzai (George. W. Bush, 2009)  Afghanistan has been referred to as the “graveyard of invaders”. Following the withdrawal of US military forces in August, Taliban fighters assumed control of practically all of Afghanistan. The Taliban swiftly took control of major cities, and by the 15th of August, the Taliban had taken control of Kabul, and the Afghan government had collapsed. The evacuation of many at-risk Afghans from Kabul's airport was hampered by chaos and violence. The Taliban's military triumphs in rural regions were expected and foreseen, but the conquest of Kabul and the immediate submission of the official Afghan authorities became the regional geopolitics' "black swan." Women’s rights and freedom as well as media and journalistic freedom was curtailed. Not only was it a big shock to the intern
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On the horns of a dilemma: A theoretical road to Kandahar

By Anonymous -
  Theories are essential to all disciplines let alone IR. In IR, theories may be understood as a pair of glasses with different colored lenses i.e each theory showing the same event with a different perspective. While theories, help interpret reality, through different perspectives it is also essential to note, they are not neutral, ie “ theory is always for someone and for some purpose.’​ (Cox, 1986)  This essay that grapples with a realist’s, liberalists and constructivist’s analysis on the the withdrawal of U.S troops from Afghanistan,  needs to be prefaced with the note that this essay  does not provide a birds eye view of the security situation at hand; something essential in understanding security threats, in order to prevent silencing of insecurity or subsuming of security (Hansen, 2000) and further marginalization of referent objects. Lastly, this mainstream theoretical  analysis of the Crisis in Afghanistan, also assumes the absoluteness of security, which is not the case. Whi
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