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WiSe 20/21: Theories of international cooperation

Ingo Peters

Comments

International cooperation is problematic. Some IR theories claim that the problems of international cooperation are due to the characteristics of the international system and thus cannot be cured without a change of that system. Other IR theories – institutional theories – assume that cooperation is feasible, especially with the help of different sorts of international institutions. Rationalist, Neo-Liberal, Actor-Centered, Historical, Sociological, and Constructivist Institutionalism: There are by now so many institutionalisms in political science in general and in International Relations in particular that it is hard to keep up with the theoretical developments. This seminar tries to introduce some order in the debate on and among the various institutionalism in international relations. It covers both the history of institutionalist reasoning and the most recent developments in theory-building, of course including gender, postcolonial and 'non-western' IR approaches. Particular emphasis will be given to the controversy between rationalist (or neo-liberal) institutionalism, on the one hand, and constructivist or sociological institutionalism, on the other. close