Teschke, Benno and Wyn-Jones, Steffan (2017) Marxism in foreign policy. In: Thies, Cameron (ed.) Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

PDF - Published Version Restricted to SRO admin only Download (259kB)

Abstract

The problematic implications of the long absence of a dedicated encounter between Marxism and FPA (foreign policy analysis) are discussed. This absence has been marked by a series of different starting points and theoretical preferences between both intellectual projects. A paradigmatic turn for the incorporation of FPA and international politics into a revised Marxist research program is needed. Whereas FPA originated within a United States–centric Cold War context, growing out of the subfield of “comparative foreign policy,” which initially pursued a positivistic methodology, Marxism’s European theoretical legacy afforded neither international relations nor foreign policy analysis any systematic place since its inception in the 19th century. Recurring rapprochements were qualified successes due to Marxism’s tendency to
relapse into structuralist versions of grand theorizing. While these could speak to general theories of international relations in the field of IR (international relations) from the late 20th century onward, FPA fell again and again through the cracks of this grand analytical
register. Marxist FPA has only very recently been recognized as a serious research program, notably within the two traditions of neo-Gramscian international political
economy (IPE) and Marxist historical sociology. With this move, Marxism has started to identify a problematique and produced a nascent literature that should bear fruit in the
future.

Item Type:	Book Section
Keywords:	Marxism, foreign policy analysis, capitalism, imperialism, geopolitics, international relations, political Marxism, state theory, class analysis, historical sociology
Schools and Departments:	School of Global Studies > International Relations
Subjects:	J Political Science > JZ International relations
Depositing User:	Benno Teschke
Date Deposited:	02 Nov 2017 11:51
Last Modified:	03 Nov 2017 14:01
URI:	http://srodev.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/70868

View download statistics for this item

📧 Request an update