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The Transcendences Of Liberal-Intergovernmentalism To Neorealism

Posted on:2009-03-01Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:X N WenFull Text:PDF
GTID:2166360245995043Subject:International politics
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After world warâ…¡, realism has been a predominating theory in the international relationship field. Realism is one of the most important international theories, and it provides a basic framework to understand international relationships well. As the representative of realism, neorealism has important academic value and contributions. Neorealists found the nature of international politics, and pointed out that the international society is anarchy and nation is a rational actor, which offers a reference to other international theories, such as neoliberalism. At the same time, it improved largely the development of international politics theory by finishing the theory construction from the system level. By defining the anarchy society and discussing the logic of anarchy society, neorealists have explained accurately the international relationship since cold war. European integration is the highest level's integration in the world, and it is also the example and model for other areas of the world. With the development of the European integration, neorealists can not provide satisfactory answers. The progressive process of integration and the nature of EU made the realism meet the unprecedented challenges, which cause a dilemma of neorealism in interpreting the process and the institutions of integration.The liberal-intergovernmentalism formed in the process of European integration emphasizes the national ration, combines the liberalism explanation for national preferences with the realism explanation for intergovernmental bargain, and emphasizes the functions of supranational institutions in the aspect of declining the bargaining cost, provides the adequate explanations for in dynamic and institutions of European integration. To a certain extent, liberal-intergovernmentalism is a succession of neorealism, and it also transcends neorealism. In this thesis, the writer tries to point out the transcendences, and also tries to find the factors of transcendences, and then gets the conclusion that due to the development of European integration, liberal -intergovernmentalism can transcend neorealism and makes the internal development and innovation on realism. In other words, the process of European integration promotes the development of realism. Therefore, the thesis concentrates on the transcendences of liberal -intergovernmentalism to neorealism. Firstly, the writer studies the theory of neorealism and the hypothesis of anarchy society, and then discusses the ability to explain the international relationships, so we can see the influence and status of neorealism. Secondly, the writer describes the process of European integration and the functions of institutions, defines the nature of EU in order to show that neorealism gets into trouble in explaining the European integration and it has to seek new development. Then, the writer describes the theory system of liberal -intergovernmentalism. Finally, the writer points out that liberal-intergovernmentalism transcends neorealism in explaining the process of European integration, and gets the conclusions.The thesis will be divided into five parts.The first part is the introduction, which mainly poses the subject of this thesis and its value both in theory and in practice, presents the current academic situation of the research and finally makes clear the whole writing arrangement and framework.The second part mainly discusses the theory system of neorealism, and gives the definition of anarchy society, which provides necessary base and preparation for the following text.The third part mainly focuses on the European integration. Firstly, the writer describes the history of European integration, the supranational institutions and their functions. And then discusses the difficulty neorealism meets.The forth part mainly analyzes the theory system of liberal-intergovernmentalism, and points out the transcendences. From this part, we can see that there are two transcendences. First, liberal-intergovernmentalism develops the definition of "national interests". Second, liberal-intergovernmentalism confirms the functions of supranational instituitions.Based on the discussion above, the conclusion part clearly reiterates the major arguments on the transcendences of liberal-intergovermentalism to neorealism, and concludes that the development of European integration promotes the development of international theories.
Keywords/Search Tags:neorealiam, anarchy society, European integration, liberal-intergovernmentalism, transcendences
PDF Full Text Request
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