Cosmopolitanism and International Relations Theories

Internationale Konferenz

2. und 3. März 2012

Technische Universität Darmstadt, Schloss R. 56

Veranstalter:
Exzellenzcluster "Die Herausbildung normativer Ordnungen"

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Programm (pdf): Hier...

The emerging field of International Political Theory (IPT) increasingly bridges the gulf that opened in the 20th century between normative political theory (PT) and the theory of international relations (IR). Nevertheless, the academic communities of IR theory and political theory remain notably distinct and most IR theorists and political philosophers in their daily routines still turn mainly to their own audience. With this conference we seek to further intensify the intellectual exchange between these two academic communities. Our starting point is the observation that many strands of IR theory have a discernible cosmopolitan dimension (sometimes open and sometimes covert). The liberal internationalism of the early 20th century, for one, was a tradition that openly advocated cosmopolitan idea(l)s. However, there is a more implicit type of cosmopolitanism to be found within a wide range of theories of international relations, such as the universalism of human need in classical functionalism; the universalism of welfare in rationalist theories of international cooperation; or the notion of transnational solidarity inherent in theories of ‘security communities’. Especially since the rise of social constructivism in the discipline of IR, a great number of scholars have turned to the study of empirical phenomena that are easily identified as parts of cosmopolitan projects, such as post-national identities, post-national citizenship, transnational public spheres, and many more.

In recent political theory, a variety of cosmopolitan approaches to transnational justice and supranational democracy have been developed and now occupy a central place on the agenda of the discipline. Interestingly, normative theorists draw on many traditional themes from IR theory when addressing the conditions under which global democracy or the global respect for human rights may or may not come into being, or when debating the feasibility of, and the limits to, cosmopolitan projects. They have mined the rich cosmopolitan traditions of political philosophy and natural international law, in drawing on classical authors from Vitoria and Grotius to Bentham, Kant and Marx. Reconstructing the history of cosmopolitan thought has enabled authors within PT to challenge stale and abstract oppositions between cosmopolitanism and republicanism, between the nation state and the global polity, or between government- and governance-oriented institutional alternatives. 

The goal of this conference is to merge discussions within the disciplines of IR and PT, to discuss theoretically motivated approaches and their normative implications. We will attempt to lay open the cosmopolitan aspects inherent in theories of international relations, both past and present, and to disclose assumptions about international relations made by political philosophers. We will not aim at achieving anything like a new theoretical synthesis. Rather, our aim is to identify new arenas of productive conversation.