Being and anarchy: the individual in international order

Thesis

This thesis is a work of normative International Relations (IR) theory which, through significant engagement with philosophical and IR literature, attempts to answer the research question:

How can the paradoxical normative relationship between human freedom and transcendent values be reconciled in the context of the plural international order?

The thesis argues that many contemporary normative approaches to IR provide valuable insights into the research question and its ontological, epistemological and metaphysical aspects, but they do not offer a solution to the paradoxical relationship between seemingly incommensurate human freedom and transcendent value. Instead, it proposes that they key tensions alluded to in the research question are best explained at the individual level of analysis, specifically through a concept of the person provided by Hubert Dreyfus’s interpretation of Søren Kierkegaard’s works. When translated into the terminology of international order through Molly Cochran’s pragmatic approach and Will Bain’s political theology, this opens the door for a coherent existentialist approach to normative IR theory which answers the research question by redefining its key terms in relation to the existentialist individual.

This coherent approach incorporates, alongside Kierkegaard, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. It is a broad normative theory with many potential manifestations, but one illustrative example used in the thesis is the historical struggle for racial justice which demonstrates the value of analytically enhancing the role of the individual in normative IR theory, as well as normatively strengthening individuals in relation to conceptions of international order.

Authors: Botting, L

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-ozgozeddr
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: pluralism; political theology; existentialism; normative international relations; English school; Kierkegaard; international order; international ethics; international relations theory
• Subjects: Religion and international relations; Normativity (Ethics); Christianity and existentialism; Political theology and race; Political theology; Christianity and international relations