Disclaimer: To be read like a cool Lord of the Rings voiceover
This course loves its theories. Over the course of the past few months, we've faced a deluge of theories so vast that all the subjects of Raphael's School of Athens would face a hard time completely unraveling them. IR theory is almost Hydra-like in its complexity and enormity. There are hundreds of subfields and theories and counter-theories and meta-theories so numerous that the 3rd Great Debate was about whether IR theory is even going anywhere or is just coming up with more and more theories.
We started off by learning how international relations came into being at the start of the Neolithic era and blah blah Thucidydyes, Herodotus and Machiavelli etc. which our instructor thinks is hackneyed even though he's the one who taught it to us four times. We moved on to something known as the first great debate. The battle for the very nature of man's existence was on, not in the plains of Middle Earth but rather in comfy tenure-soaked armchairs in and around the East Coast university towns. This epic battle between the forces of good i.e. Liberalism, and the forces of evil (or better yet, the forces that acknowledge evil) i.e. Realism, was a discussion of the nature of man and the international system he was born in. In the wake of Nazi Germany and the atrocities of World War II, the Starks who believed in honour and duty were the idealists. The Lannisters who believed in hard power and the paying of debts were the realists. The Debate resulted in the Idealists losing out and getting severely Red Wedding'd by the likes of Morgenthau et al. Realism became the dominant force in International Relations and as for Idealism...the rains weep o'er his halls, with not a soul to hear.
Next came the battle for methodology. The 'scientific/historical' debate pitched the might of the Old world against the new. The new world of the realists and their Seven Gods comes into conflict with the Old World and its old gods that sought to bring the magic of science into mainstream IR theory. It was a struggle for the very soul of the discipline. Which religion should the realm follow? Should it accept the traditional historical accounts of the realists or those of the red priests that wanted to impose the scientific methodology of the Free Cities like Physics and Chemistry on International Relations? The Red God R'hllor eventually won out and there was a mass public burning of all the historians. For the Cold War was dark, and full of terrors. Science and magic prevailed and there was something of a paradigm shift within IR.
Many new houses arose that challenged the supremacy of the Lannisters and failed. It was from within the old school of realism, however, that the dragons were reborn. Kenneth Waltz flew in from Old Valyria on a massively structured dragon that he called NeoRealism. This dragon breathed fire into realism and gave rise to a new order of power. Offensive and defensive realism came about and more and more houses came and vied for the throne. Transnational political theory was on the rise as the Tyrells became interested in the inner workings of the realm. They got involved and tried to marry their own ideas with those of the Lannister realists. Petyr Baelish became Lord of Harrenhal from being Master of Coin which highlighted the importance of bureaucratic politics and the effect it has on the realm itself.
But something remained amiss. The Starks, long defeated, long dormant, had not forgotten. And they had definitely not forgiven. Stark loyalists rose up with the rallying cry 'The North Remembers' and Constructivism was born. The North returned, it gathered its bannermen and challenged the Lannisters where it hurt. It questioned their legitimacy to rule, saying that their claim to the throne was a complete social construction since their kings were not the true heirs to the realm. It brought forth the importance of ideas and honour and said that every core assumption about the Lannisters was subject to question under a historical context.
The realm, however, was not at peace with the resurgence of the North. Single issue houses like the Dornish and their environmentalism or House Arryn with its feminist ideas became more and more fundamental. In the wake of the third Great debate that resulted in this offshoot of lowborn houses contesting for the throne, Lord Varys questions his little birds whether IR theory is even going somewhere. It is immaterial whether or not it is going somewhere. When you play the Game of Thrones, you either theorize or you die.
This course loves its theories. Over the course of the past few months, we've faced a deluge of theories so vast that all the subjects of Raphael's School of Athens would face a hard time completely unraveling them. IR theory is almost Hydra-like in its complexity and enormity. There are hundreds of subfields and theories and counter-theories and meta-theories so numerous that the 3rd Great Debate was about whether IR theory is even going anywhere or is just coming up with more and more theories.
We started off by learning how international relations came into being at the start of the Neolithic era and blah blah Thucidydyes, Herodotus and Machiavelli etc. which our instructor thinks is hackneyed even though he's the one who taught it to us four times. We moved on to something known as the first great debate. The battle for the very nature of man's existence was on, not in the plains of Middle Earth but rather in comfy tenure-soaked armchairs in and around the East Coast university towns. This epic battle between the forces of good i.e. Liberalism, and the forces of evil (or better yet, the forces that acknowledge evil) i.e. Realism, was a discussion of the nature of man and the international system he was born in. In the wake of Nazi Germany and the atrocities of World War II, the Starks who believed in honour and duty were the idealists. The Lannisters who believed in hard power and the paying of debts were the realists. The Debate resulted in the Idealists losing out and getting severely Red Wedding'd by the likes of Morgenthau et al. Realism became the dominant force in International Relations and as for Idealism...the rains weep o'er his halls, with not a soul to hear.
Next came the battle for methodology. The 'scientific/historical' debate pitched the might of the Old world against the new. The new world of the realists and their Seven Gods comes into conflict with the Old World and its old gods that sought to bring the magic of science into mainstream IR theory. It was a struggle for the very soul of the discipline. Which religion should the realm follow? Should it accept the traditional historical accounts of the realists or those of the red priests that wanted to impose the scientific methodology of the Free Cities like Physics and Chemistry on International Relations? The Red God R'hllor eventually won out and there was a mass public burning of all the historians. For the Cold War was dark, and full of terrors. Science and magic prevailed and there was something of a paradigm shift within IR.
Many new houses arose that challenged the supremacy of the Lannisters and failed. It was from within the old school of realism, however, that the dragons were reborn. Kenneth Waltz flew in from Old Valyria on a massively structured dragon that he called NeoRealism. This dragon breathed fire into realism and gave rise to a new order of power. Offensive and defensive realism came about and more and more houses came and vied for the throne. Transnational political theory was on the rise as the Tyrells became interested in the inner workings of the realm. They got involved and tried to marry their own ideas with those of the Lannister realists. Petyr Baelish became Lord of Harrenhal from being Master of Coin which highlighted the importance of bureaucratic politics and the effect it has on the realm itself.
But something remained amiss. The Starks, long defeated, long dormant, had not forgotten. And they had definitely not forgiven. Stark loyalists rose up with the rallying cry 'The North Remembers' and Constructivism was born. The North returned, it gathered its bannermen and challenged the Lannisters where it hurt. It questioned their legitimacy to rule, saying that their claim to the throne was a complete social construction since their kings were not the true heirs to the realm. It brought forth the importance of ideas and honour and said that every core assumption about the Lannisters was subject to question under a historical context.
The realm, however, was not at peace with the resurgence of the North. Single issue houses like the Dornish and their environmentalism or House Arryn with its feminist ideas became more and more fundamental. In the wake of the third Great debate that resulted in this offshoot of lowborn houses contesting for the throne, Lord Varys questions his little birds whether IR theory is even going somewhere. It is immaterial whether or not it is going somewhere. When you play the Game of Thrones, you either theorize or you die.
Hahaha, awesome. I enjoyed this post quite a bit. Perhaps you should become a screen writer instead of an academic?
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, great post and appropriate final synthesis.
Wow! Super cool post!
ReplyDelete