ABSTRACT
The origins of international conflict are often explained by security dilemmas, power-rivalries or profits for political or economic elites. Common to these approaches is the idea that human behaviour is mostly governed by material interests which principally involve the quest for power or wealth. The authors question this truncated image of human rationality. Borrowing the concept of recognition from models developed in philosophy and sociology, this book provides a unique set of applications to the problems of international conflict, and argues that human actions are often not motivated by a pursuit of utility maximisation as much as they are by a quest to gain recognition. This unique approach will be a welcome alternative to the traditional models of international conflict.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|84 pages
Theoretical Preliminaries
part II|122 pages
Empirical Applications
chapter 6|22 pages
World War I from the Perspective of Power Cycle Theory
chapter 7|21 pages
Recognition, Disrespect, and the Struggle for Morocco
chapter 8|17 pages
Self-Identification, Recognition, and Conflicts
part III|19 pages
Conclusions