Critical theoryA post-positivist approach to IR influenced by Marxist thought advanced by the 'Frankfurt School'.

Critical theory rejects three basic postulates of positivism: 1. an objective external reality, 2. the subject/object distinction, 3. and value-free social science.

Critical theorists emphasize the fundamentally political nature of knowledge. They seek to liberate humanity from the conservative forces and 'oppressive' structures of hegemonic (U.S.-dominated) world politics and global economics. Critical theorists are similar to idealists in their support for progressive change and their employment of theory to help bring about that change.

Neogramscianism

• Based on Machiavelli, Marx, Max Weber, Karl Polányi• Power: exploitation and consent

• Consent leads to formation of a loyal civil society

• Historic blocs: determined by the hegemonic ruling classes• Historical change: through the rivalry of hegemonic interest groups and counter-hegemonic interest groups

• Kees van der Pijl

Hegemonic states vs contender states• Lockean heartland: England, USA

• Contender states: France, Germany, SU, China

• Rivalry• England - France• England, USA - Germany• West - Soviet Union• West - Islam• West - China

Hegemonic states vs contender states• Lockean heartland: England, USA (capitalist interest groups freeing themselves from the state and using the state for their own reasons)• Contender states: France, Germany, SU, China (interest groups positioning themselves around the state and being controlled by the state)

• Rivalry• England - France• England, USA - Germany• West - Soviet Union• West - Islam• West - China

Atlantisation of Europe and Europe’s responses

Charles de Gaulle

Atlantisation of Europe and Europe’s responses

Enrico Mattei

Atlantisation of Europe and Europe’s responses

Willy Brandt

Atlantisation of Europe and Europe’s responses

European Roundtable

of Industrialists

Jacques Delors

Atlantisation of Europe and Europe’s responses

Gerhard Schröder Jacques Chirac

Preparing the neoliberal turn

• Henry Ford, New Deal, Keynes• 1960s and 1970s• Mont Pelerin Society• Chile, Allende vs Pinochet (Milton Friedman as economic advisor)

Preparing the neoliberal turn

Aldo Moro

Making the neoliberal turn

Harold Wilson Margaret Thatcher

Making the neoliberal turn

• Bilderberg Group• Trilateral Commission (CFR, D. Rockefeller)

Making the neoliberal turn

Rupert Murdoch

Making the neoliberal turn

Paul Volcker

Breaking the “Soviet nut”

Gorbachev Yeltsin

Breaking the German will to reunite Europe under German control

Olof Palme

Breaking the German will to reunite Europe under German control

Thatcher and Gorbachev

Breaking the German will to reunite Europe under German control

Helmut Kohl Alfred Herrhausen

Atlantism on the Balkans

Compensating neoliberalism

• Compensating the poors for the losses suffered because of neoliberal structures of the economy• Tobin-tax

Oskar Lafontaine Dominique Strauss-Kahn

China, the rise of the new superpower• Teng Hsiao Ping• Rise of the state capitalist elite + overseas Chinese• Macau, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore

• Since 1979: World Chinese Entrepreneurs Convention

Ratio within population

Quoted capital share

Thailand 10% 81%

Indonesia 3.5% 73%

Malaysia 29% 61%

Philippines 1.8% 60%

China, the rise of the new superpower

Reserves more than $2000 billion

China, the rise of the new superpower

Hu Jintao

Bhumibol AdulyadejThaksin Sinatwatra

“Who owes the money makes the musicians play”

“Hurray! Hurray! I’ve climbed to the top of

the greasy pole!”Benjamin Disraeli

when he was named to be the Prime

Minister in England (1868)

Setting the rules of the game

“The business of business is business.”

(Milton Friedman)

Theorizing the rules of economics

(setting the domain of thinking about socioeconomic

relations)

“History is written by

the winners.”

Writing history

“There is a certain

amount for which my hair gets scaly.”

Thematizing the public

opinion

social sciences: making “truth claims”

“Who owes the money makes the musicians play”

Rules (politics)

Theories(economics)

Making “truth claims”

(history)

Thematizing the society

(media)

opinion shapers influencing the framework according to their own value order and/or interests(influential groups using market mechanisms i.e. money)

Muslim distribution

Muslim distribution

Arab world

Arab world

Arab world

official language: greenone of official languages: blue

Mohammed Mossadegh (1951-53)

Mohammed Mossadegh (1951-53)

Iraq-Iran war 1980-1988

Iraq-Iran war 1980-1988

Tehran hostage crisis 1979

Lockerbie, al Megrahi

April Glaspie - Saddam meeting

Charlie Wilson’s war

Saudi Arabia - JECOR

Dollar for oil, government bonds for dollar, modernization for bond yield

Pakistan - Zia ul Haq

Ahmed Chalabi

Russia

Blue stream

Nabucco

South stream

Russian privatization

Anatoly Chubais

Oligarchs

Berezovsky Khodorkovsky Abramovich

3 Power Centers in Russia

Soskovets Chernomyrdin Luzhkov

Primakov after the crisis

Primakov

And then...

Putin

Hobbes vs Locke

Hobbes Locke

George Bush’s War (ON Terror)

Ahmadshah Massoud

Money spent on terrorsim is 54 times more People killed by coronary heart disiease is 6600 times more $1 spent on a victim of coronary heart disease while $356.400 spent on a victim of terrorism

George Bush’s War (ON Terror)

• 2007: US department of defense spent $161,8 billion on “global war on terrorism”

• 2004: roughly 2000 people were killed internationally due to supposed terrorist attacks (70 were American)

Ahmadshah Massoud

Money spent on terrorsim is 54 times more People killed by coronary heart disiease is 6600 times more $1 spent on a victim of coronary heart disease while $356.400 spent on a victim of terrorism

George Bush’s War (ON Terror)

• 2007: US department of defense spent $161,8 billion on “global war on terrorism”

• 2004: roughly 2000 people were killed internationally due to supposed terrorist attacks (70 were American)

• What is the leading cause of death in America?

• Roughly 450.000 people dies in America in coronary heart disease

• 2007: Government spending on research on coronary heart disiease: $3 billion

Ahmadshah Massoud

Money spent on terrorsim is 54 times more People killed by coronary heart disiease is 6600 times more $1 spent on a victim of coronary heart disease while $356.400 spent on a victim of terrorism