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Symposia

Indeterminacy, Uncertain Contexts and the Dual Nature of Norms

by Lucrecia García Iommi | 8 December 2022, 1241 EST | International Norms in a Time of Uncertainty, International Organization, Security, Theory & Methods | 0 Comments

When it comes norm dynamics and how we theorize them, uncertainty presents something of a paradox. We study norms because we think that they matter. But if norms are inherently uncertain, then how is it possible that they constitute, constrain, and otherwise shape the behavior of global actors? Unless norms produce stable and defined expectations, then how can they have the power to structure international politics?

Autonomous Weapons Systems: Uncertainty and Anticipatory Norm-building

by Berenike Prem | 1 December 2022, 0900 EST | International Norms in a Time of Uncertainty, International Organization, Security, Theory & Methods | 1 Comment

Since 2014 the international community has considered the issue of autonomy in weapons systems under the framework of the United Nations (UN) Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW)....

Making norms for uncertain times to come

by Nils Stockmann | 28 November 2022, 0900 EST | International Norms in a Time of Uncertainty, International Organization, Theory & Methods | 0 Comments

At the 1939 World Fair in New York City, the big attraction was "Futurama," an exhibition put on by the U.S. car manufacturer General Motors. Every visitor to Futurama received a souvenir — a small...

Whither norms research in times of uncertainty? A Symposium

by Sassan Gholiagha, Johanna Speyer, Jan Wilkens & Carmen Wunderlich | 25 November 2022, 0910 EST | International Norms in a Time of Uncertainty, Theory & Methods | 2 Comments

In a world of multiple and overlapping crises, can norms and rules-based institution still create order amidst uncertainty? Do existing norms and frameworks for international cooperation enjoy sufficient legitimacy to help us navigate the interacting and concatenating effects of crises? A new symposium explores the question: “Whither norms (research) in times of uncertainty?”

Some Thoughts on Turkey and the Cuban Missile Crisis

by Hugh Gusterson | 12 November 2022, 2044 EST | Cuban Missile Crisis

Early accounts of the Cuban Missile Crisis, including Graham Allison’s canonical Essence of Decision, tend to represent it as a two-player game in which John F Kennedy and Nikita Krushchev went, in Dean Rusk’s memorable phrase, “eyeball to eyeball” until the Soviets backed down and the crisis was resolved. Although these accounts made clear that Krushchev was bothered by the Bay of Pigs and other attempted incursions against the Cuban Revolution, Cuba was largely represented as a pawn in the rivalry of the two superpowers. As Jutta Weldes and Mark Laffey pithily characterize many early...

A Postcolonial Approach to the Cuban Missile Crisis

by Lorraine Bayard de Volo | 11 November 2022, 1259 EST | Cuban Missile Crisis

The October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis is one of the most closely-studied events of the Cold War. For several decades, the missile crisis literature supported a largely heroic U.S.-centric narrative that relied primarily upon the perspectives of President John F. Kennedy’s administration. This U.S.-centrism is generally acknowledged today, and the literature is increasingly enriched by the emergence of Soviet sources. However, the missile crisis literature’s representation of Cuba remains partial—both incomplete and biased. Six decades after the crisis, postcolonial...

Reframing the Cuban Missile Crisis in (Postcolonial) Time and Space

by Itty Abraham | 1 November 2022, 2045 EDT | Cuban Missile Crisis, Security

Any veteran (or better, victim) of a US grad program in IR will be familiar with the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. The Crisis is widely considered a turning point in the Cold War, the moment when both Soviet and American leaders realized that they had come perilously close to a devastating nuclear exchange that could have led to a global war. From then onwards, we are told, relations between the two superpowers took on a different cast, and indeed they did, but not necessarily only for the reasons usually ascribed to them. With the passage of time and the consolidation of...

On the Legitimating Effects of Brinksmanship

by Anne Harrington | 30 October 2022, 2012 EDT | Cuban Missile Crisis, Security, US Foreign Policy

This post is the first in a four part symposium on the Cuban Missile Crisis, one of the the most studied cases of IR. With the release of documents in recent decades, historical revisions have challenged the received wisdom informed by mainstream approaches to nuclear strategy and a US-centric perspective. However, these revisionist accounts are not well incorporated by IR narratives of the crisis. Sixty years later, a revisiting of the legitimating role that the missile crisis plays in theories of nuclear deterrence and...

Conscious States in a World of Make Believe

by Adam B. Lerner | 11 February 2022, 1551 EST | Conscious States, Theory & Methods

I wrote the first draft of “What’s it Like to Be a State?” sometime in late 2017, during an unusual time in both my personal life and my research career. I was about halfway through my PhD at the University of Cambridge and was feeling both immensely homesick and quite bored—trapped in a small town that felt ripped from the Victorian era. I filled my free time watching large numbers of pre-recorded NBA games and, also, for some reason, reading philosophy of mind….

State Consciousness and Ontological Security

by Brent Steele | 10 February 2022, 1149 EST | Conscious States, Theory & Methods

I appreciate this opportunity to remark on Adam Lerner’s (hereafter, just ‘Adam’), excellent 2020 International Theory article on state consciousness. I recall first chatting with Adam about this paper when it was still in development, over a coffee in Prague at the 2018 European International Studies Association (EISA) annual meeting. Some of what I’ll mention here will be a rehashing – but also rethinking – of what I told him then. To cut to the chase, I still maintain my skepticism regarding how Adam’s article, and those like it, will be received in certain corners of International...

Someone needs to stop these violent psychopaths!

by Alexandria Innes | 9 February 2022, 1425 EST | Conscious States, Security, Theory & Methods

state takes precedence over their own lives. Focusing on states as persons distracts us from how violence travels across levels of analysis. States don’t do violence to one another. They inflict violence on actual living beings.

Awkward States

by Simon Pratt | 8 February 2022, 0910 EST | Conscious States, Theory & Methods

I have mixed feelings about Adam’s article. On the one hand, I think it does a very good job of outlining the realist metaphysical argument for treating states and other similar corporate actors as conscious, or as having minds, if you’re the sort of person who needs that. On the other hand, I am not the sort of person who needs that, and I’m not sure who is. To be clear, I think Adam has applied perspectives from the philosophy of mind in ways that critically examine...

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