ABSTRACT
Booth has noted, emancipation is a controversial term: 'ideological critics challenge its implications; friendly critics question its application in specific historical situations; orthodoxies and establishments resist its threat to their interests; and many others do not know what the term means'. This chapter attempts to unravel some of these issues. Christian Welzel explicitly considers enlightenment and emancipation as synonymous. Habermas' work on communicative action focuses on an analysis of the use of language. The emergence of Critical Theory in International Relations can be dated to two articles which appeared in 1981: Cox's distinction between what he called 'problem-solving theory' and 'critical theory', and Richard Ashley's Habermas-influenced discussion of classical realism. Andrew Linklater has provided the most all-encompassing engagement with critical theory, whether that is at a more theoretical level, as in Beyond Realism and Marxism, or in the more practical Transformation of World Politics, which draws heavily on Habermas' thinking.
