What's the Point of International Relations casts a critical eye on what it is that we think we are doing when we study and teach international relations (IR). It brings together many of IR's leading thinkers to challenge conventional understandings of the discipline's origins, history, and composition. It sees IR as a discipline that has much to learn from others, which has not yet lived up to its ambitions or potential, and where much work remains to be done. At the same time, it finds much that is worth celebrating in the discipline's growing pluralism and views IR as a deeply political, critical, and normative pursuit. The volume is divided into five parts: * What is the point of IR? * The origins of a discipline * Policing the boundaries * Engaging the world * Imagining the future Although each chapter alludes to and/or discusses central aspects of all of these components, each part is designed to capture the central thrust of the concerns of the contributors. Moving beyond western debate, orthodox perspectives, and uncritical histories this volume is essential reading for all scholars and advanced level students concerned with the history, development, and future of international relations.

Is global climate change likely to become a significant source of violent conflict, and should it therefore be seen as a national security challenge? Most Northern governments, militaries, think tanks and NGOs believe so, as do many academic researchers, on the grounds that increased temperatures, changing precipitation patterns and rising sea levels will worsen existing social stresses, especially within poor societies and marginal communities across Africa and Asia. This book argues otherwise. The first collection of its kind, it brings together leading scholars of Anthropology, Geography, Development Studies and International Relations to provide a series of critical analyses of mainstream thinking on the climate-security nexus. It shows how policy discourse on climate conflict consistently misrepresents the causes of violence, especially by obscuring its core political dimensions. It demonstrates that quantitative research provides a flawed basis for understanding climate-conflict linkages. It argues that climate security discourse is in hoc with a range of questionable military, authoritarian and developmental agendas. And it reveals that the greening of global capitalism is already having violent consequences across the global South. Climate change, the book argues, does indeed have serious conflict and security implications - but these are quite different from how they are usually imagined. This book was published as a special issue of Geopolitics.

What's the Point of International Relations casts a critical eye on what it is that we think we are doing when we study and teach international relations (IR). It brings together many of IR's leading thinkers to challenge conventional understandings of the discipline's origins, history, and composition. It sees IR as a discipline that has much to learn from others, which has not yet lived up to its ambitions or potential, and where much work remains to be done. At the same time, it finds much that is worth celebrating in the discipline's growing pluralism and views IR as a deeply political, critical, and normative pursuit. The volume is divided into five parts: * What is the point of IR? * The origins of a discipline * Policing the boundaries * Engaging the world * Imagining the future Although each chapter alludes to and/or discusses central aspects of all of these components, each part is designed to capture the central thrust of the concerns of the contributors. Moving beyond western debate, orthodox perspectives, and uncritical histories this volume is essential reading for all scholars and advanced level students concerned with the history, development, and future of international relations.

Is global climate change likely to become a significant source of violent conflict, and should it therefore be seen as a national security challenge? Most Northern governments, militaries, think tanks and NGOs believe so, as do many academic researchers, on the grounds that increased temperatures, changing precipitation patterns and rising sea levels will worsen existing social stresses, especially within poor societies and marginal communities across Africa and Asia. This book argues otherwise. The first collection of its kind, it brings together leading scholars of Anthropology, Geography, Development Studies and International Relations to provide a series of critical analyses of mainstream thinking on the climate-security nexus. It shows how policy discourse on climate conflict consistently misrepresents the causes of violence, especially by obscuring its core political dimensions. It demonstrates that quantitative research provides a flawed basis for understanding climate-conflict linkages. It argues that climate security discourse is in hoc with a range of questionable military, authoritarian and developmental agendas. And it reveals that the greening of global capitalism is already having violent consequences across the global South. Climate change, the book argues, does indeed have serious conflict and security implications - but these are quite different from how they are usually imagined. This book was published as a special issue of Geopolitics.

This book examines contemporary militarism in international politics, employing a variety of different theoretical viewpoints and international case studies. Militarism - understood as the social and international relations of the preparation for, and conduct of, organized political violence - is an abiding and defining characteristic of world politics. Yet despite the ongoing social, political and economic reach of military institutions, practices and values, the concept and subject of militarism has not received significant attention within recent debates in International Relations. This book intends to fill the gap in the current body of literature. It has two key overarching aims: to make the case for a renewed research agenda for IR centred on the concept of militarism; and to provide a series of empirically focused and theoretically informed case studies of contemporary militarism in practice. Containing a wide-ranging selection of chapters, the volume presents a diverse and eclectic body of research on militarism, designed to act as a stimulus to further research and debate. This book will be of much interest to students of military studies, war and conflict studies, international political economy and IR/security studies in general.

This book examines contemporary militarism in international politics, employing a variety of different theoretical viewpoints and international case studies. Militarism - understood as the social and international relations of the preparation for, and conduct of, organized political violence - is an abiding and defining characteristic of world politics. Yet despite the ongoing social, political and economic reach of military institutions, practices and values, the concept and subject of militarism has not received significant attention within recent debates in International Relations. This book intends to fill the gap in the current body of literature. It has two key overarching aims: to make the case for a renewed research agenda for IR centred on the concept of militarism; and to provide a series of empirically focused and theoretically informed case studies of contemporary militarism in practice. Containing a wide-ranging selection of chapters, the volume presents a diverse and eclectic body of research on militarism, designed to act as a stimulus to further research and debate. This book will be of much interest to students of military studies, war and conflict studies, international political economy and IR/security studies in general.

What are the implications of climate change for twenty-first-century conflict and security? Rising temperatures, it is often said, will bring increased drought, more famine, heightened social vulnerability, and large-scale political and violent conflict; indeed, many claim that this future is already with us. Divided Environments, however, shows that this is mistaken. Focusing especially on the links between climate change, water and security, and drawing on detailed evidence from Israel-Palestine, Syria, Sudan and elsewhere, it shows both that mainstream environmental security narratives are misleading, and that the actual security implications of climate change are very different from how they are often imagined. Addressing themes as wide-ranging as the politics of droughts, the contradictions of capitalist development and the role of racism in environmental change, while simultaneously articulating an original 'international political ecology' approach to the study of socio-environmental conflicts, Divided Environments offers a new and important interpretation of our planetary future.

This original analysis of the Middle East water problems highlights questions and issues which have so far only received minimal attention. The author develops a multi-layered account of the nature and causes of the conflict and the Pealestinian water crisis. Each chapter addresses a particular aspect of the Israeli-Palestine water conflict and the author uses these to illustrate both the broader nature of Israeli-Palestinian relations and factors that the existing water literature underplays or simply gets wrong. The book should interest students, scholars and practitioners in a wide range of disciplines including Middle East studies, politics and international relations, water policy, geography, environmental studies and environmental management.

What are the implications of climate change for twenty-first-century conflict and security? Rising temperatures, it is often said, will bring increased drought, more famine, heightened social vulnerability, and large-scale political and violent conflict; indeed, many claim that this future is already with us. Divided Environments, however, shows that this is mistaken. Focusing especially on the links between climate change, water and security, and drawing on detailed evidence from Israel-Palestine, Syria, Sudan and elsewhere, it shows both that mainstream environmental security narratives are misleading, and that the actual security implications of climate change are very different from how they are often imagined. Addressing themes as wide-ranging as the politics of droughts, the contradictions of capitalist development and the role of racism in environmental change, while simultaneously articulating an original 'international political ecology' approach to the study of socio-environmental conflicts, Divided Environments offers a new and important interpretation of our planetary future.