In this opportunity, I bring to you a set of deeply inter-connected books dealing with issues of causes of war, cultural theory in IR, and political theory.
Richard Ned Lebow’s research in these books seeks to define a theory of politics situated in a theory of history based on ontological and epistomological factors. His theory stems from the the three parts of classical Greek psyche, comprised of appetite, spirit, and reason. Lebow thinks that strong community, and therefore order, stems from a balanced intersection of all three: strength in reason can restrain whims of appetite and spirit, by suggesting that these psychic needs are best sated by the merits of a strong community balanced by reason. Lebow thinks this leads to order, and that order is lost when there is a loss of control over appetite or spirit.
Lebow believed that contemporary theories about order focus on structure and are not theories of change. He is proposing a theory of process and order, infused with his interpretation about the role of psyche and order/disorder, and he theorizes the processes that drive change, not just the structures that are impacted by it.
Enjoy!
[PDF, 2 MB, Cover & Bookmarks]
The Tragic Vision of Politics: Ethics, Interests and Orders (Cambridge University Press, 2003). Winner of the 2004 Alexander L. George Award from the International Society of Political Psychology for the best book in political psychology.
Is it possible to advocate ethical policies to preserve national security? Contrary to some beliefs, Richard Ned Lebow demonstrates that ethics are conducive to the pursuit of national interests. Reinterpreting the writings of key figures in the history of "realpolitik", he argues that national interests are framed in the language of justice, and indicates the dangers arising from the unilateral exercise of American power in the post-Cold War world.
[PDF, 5 MB, Cover & Bookmarks]
A Cultural Theory of International Relations (Cambridge University Press, 2008). Winner of the 2009 Jervis-Schroeder Award from the American Political Science Association for the best book in history and international relations and winner of the Susan Strange Award of the British International Studies Association for the best book of the year.
In this exciting new volume, Richard Ned Lebow introduces his own constructivist theory of political order and international relations based on theories of motives and identity formation drawn from the ancient Greeks. His theory stresses the human need for self-esteem, and shows how it influences political behavior at every level of social aggregation. Lebow develops ideal-type worlds associated with four motives: appetite, spirit, reason and fear, and demonstrates how each generates a different logic concerning cooperation, conflict and risk-taking. Expanding and documenting the utility of his theory in a series of historical case studies, ranging from classical Greece to the war in Iraq, he presents a novel explanation for the rise of the state and the causes of war, and offers a reformulation of prospect theory. This is a novel theory of politics by one of the world's leading scholars of international relations.
[PDF, 2 MB, Cover & Bookmarks]
Why Nations Fight: The Past and Future of War (Cambridge University Press, 2010).
Four generic motives have historically led states to initiate war: fear, interest, standing and revenge. Using an original dataset, Richard Ned Lebow examines the distribution of wars across three and a half centuries and argues that, contrary to conventional wisdom, only a minority of these were motivated by security or material interest. Instead, the majority are the result of a quest for standing, and for revenge - an attempt to get even with states who had previously made successful territorial grabs. Lebow maintains that today none of these motives are effectively served by war - it is increasingly counterproductive - and that there is growing recognition of this political reality. His analysis allows for more fine-grained and persuasive forecasts about the future of war as well as highlighting areas of uncertainty.
[PDF, 6 MB, Cover & Bookmarks]
Coercion Cooperation and Ethics in International Relations (Routledge, 2006).
This volume brings together the recent essays of Richard Ned Lebow, one of the leading scholars of international relations and US foreign policy. Lebow's work has centred on the instrumental value of ethics in foreign policy decision making and the disastrous consequences which follow when ethical standards are flouted. Unlike most realists who have considered ethical considerations irrelevant in states' calculations of their national interest, Lebow has argued that self interest, and hence, national interest can only be formulated intelligently within a language of justice and morality. The essays here build on this pervasive theme in Lebow's work by presenting his substantive and compelling critique of strategies of deterrence and compellence, illustrating empirically and normatively how these strategies often produce results counter to those that are intended. The last section of the book, on counterfactuals, brings together another set of related articles which continue to probe the relationship between ethics and policy. They do so by exploring the contingency of events to suggest the subjective, and often self-fulfilling, nature of the frameworks we use to evaluate policy choices.
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Other links of interest:
P-CON Lecture: Richard Ned Lebow - "Why We Fight"
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