ABSTRACT
In Chapters 1 to 4 of this book we have introduced you to the theoretical origins of IR as a discipline and suggested that one perspective in IR, realism, has become the dominant paradigm for the study of IR both within academia (universities) and within the more policy-oriented work of defence analysts, military tacticians and foreign policy makers. Realism, in many ways, appears to be such a straightforward view of international politics. It accords closely to the world of inter-state rivalries that dominate the international pages of the newspapers and the TV news. However, one of the major criticisms of realism has been that it is a state-centric theory that overlooks the role that a whole range of different organizations play in challenging the existence of anarchy. Thus much of this chapter will focus on the growing importance to the study of IR of a range of so-called ‘non-state actors’ or ‘transnational actors’ such as multinational firms or non-governmental organizations. These organizations have become increasingly influential in world politics and their presence often serves to bring new issues onto the agenda of international politics – economic and trade issues, environmental issues, human rights issues and many, many others. Moreover, often the appearance of these issues on the agenda of international politics has resulted in a blurring of the traditional
This exploration of the role of non-state actors in international relations helps to consolidate the critique of realism that was developed in earlier chapters. As we saw, the assumption that states have always existed and that these states are sovereign, territorially bounded, rational actors, is an ideal that has rarely existed. States have never been the principal and only units of political organization, they rarely have complete control over their territories, and, as we saw in Chapter 4, the notion of rational-action is subject to so many qualifying factors that it is almost useless as a concept with any analytical value.
