Misunderstanding International Relations

A Focus on Liberal Democracies

Scott Burchill

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9789811519352
• eBook ISBN:
  9789811519369
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: International Relations
• Index: Social Sciences

This book examines the ways in which the study and practice of international relations are misunderstood, both by scholars and politicians. It begins by examining critical errors in reasoning and argument which determine the way key issues in the field are discussed and explained. It then explores a number of case studies which are affected by these errors, including the legal status of the modern nation-state, the Israel-Palestine conflict, the idea of the Deep State, the relationship between the West and radical Islam, the impact of moral righteousness on historical understanding, and the role of class in modern Western politics.

© The Author(s) 2020

S. BurchillMisunderstanding International Relationshttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1936-9_1

Begin Abstract

1. Introduction

Scott Burchill¹

(1)

School of Politics & International Studies, Deakin University, Burwood, VIC, Australia

Scott Burchill

Email: [email protected]

Abstract

As a discipline, International Relations is widely misunderstood, both in theory and in practice, largely because of its politicised nature. This book explains how thinking about international politics has been affected by critical errors in reasoning, ideology and argument. It introduces a number of case studies which are affected by these errors, including the legal status of the modern nation-state, the Israel-Palestine conflict, the unique relationships constructed by settler-colonial societies, the idea of the Deep State, the relationship between the West and radical Islam, the impact of moral righteousness on historical memory and understanding, and the role played by class conflict in modern Western politics.

Keywords

ChomskyPropagandaZeitgeistNation-stateDeep StateClass

End Abstract

Given the intrinsic political nature of the subject, it is not surprising that International Relations is a widely misunderstood subject.

Some of these misunderstandings come from faulty thinking, theoretical limitations and cognitive bias. In other cases it is the product of ideological indoctrination and state propaganda.

The Western world likes to highlight the shortcomings of international thought and practice in rival states, and amongst rival groups, outside its own domains. However, it remains strikingly allergic to examinations of its own thought crimes and breaches of international law. At its root, this allergy is deeply unethical. As Noam Chomsky points out in his comparison of the West’s responses to conflicts in Kosovo and East Timor, “for profession of high principles to be taken seriously, the principles must first and foremost be applied to oneself, not only to official enemies or others designated as unworthy in the prevailing political culture.”¹

This book treats this sensitivity to introspection in two ways, first by exposing how thinking about international politics has been affected by critical errors in reasoning and argument. It then explores a number of case studies which are affected by these errors, including the legal status of the modern nation-state, the Israel-Palestine conflict, the unique relationships constructed by settler-colonial societies, the idea of the Deep State, the relationship between the West and radical Islam, the impact of moral righteousness on historical memory and understanding, and the role played by class conflict in modern Western politics.

Chapter 2 examines how limitations are placed on the available spectrum of permissible thinking about international relations. Why are some views regarded as mainstream and acceptable, while others are considered to be beyond the bounds of the expressible? Where are those boundaries and who sets them? This chapter looks at the relationship between interests and ideas, the consequences of self-censorship, and the ways in which the particular interests of elites are presented as the national interests of the state.

The literature on totalitarian and authoritarian societies is saturated with studies of how the state indoctrinates citizens with government propaganda. Chapter 3 argues that indoctrination and propaganda, as well as the marginalising of dissent, also exist in self-described free societies where coercive means to achieve conformity and subordination are not so readily available to the state. In fact those strategies need to be subtle and effective if they are to work. The chapter also examines the dangers of presentism and the importance of escaping the zeitgeist of contemporary dramatic events if a deeper understanding of them is to be found.

The claim that states have a “right to exist” has found currency in contemporary discussions of international politics, specifically in relation to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Chapter 4 argues that no such legal or moral right exists today or has ever existed for states. Furthermore, the invocation of such a right by Israeli negotiators was first raised in the 1980s as a way of blocking a resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict by erecting an insurmountable negotiating barrier for their counterparts, thus portraying Palestinian leaders as the obstacles to a peace settlement.

Settler colonial societies such as Australia, the United States and South Africa have unique attributes which affect not only the way they interact with each other, but also how they regard their indigenous populations. Chapter 5 argues that the settler-colonial nature of Zionism not only determined the oppressive nature of Israel’s occupation of Palestine, it also explains why other settler-colonial states such as Australia, Canada and the United States have consistently been Israel’s greatest diplomatic defenders. It is the similar colonial history of these political communities that has constructed a supportive and mutually reinforcing political web which pretends to have an even-handed approach to the conflict, but is in fact the very opposite.

The concept of the Deep State has received significant attention since Donald Trump was elected president of the United States in 2016. Much of the discussion, however, has been clouded by conspiracy theories and unsubstantiated claims about unelected political figures pulling the strings of power while lurking in Washington’s political shadows. Chapter 6 examines the claim that there is an unaccountable permanent government which maintains the continuity of its power and the dogged pursuit of its interests, regardless of who is elected to the White House. The idea of the Deep State also challenges the widespread assumption within International Relations theory, that the unitary state is the primary actor on the world stage. By examining tensions between Trump’s White House and the military and intelligence arms of the US government over issues such as the conflict in Syria and the value of intelligence briefings, the claim that in liberal democracies a state exists within the state becomes a more persuasive argument.

Since the events now known as 9/11, the discourse of international politics has featured the central narrative that the West is involved in an existential struggle with radical Islam. This presupposition has been invoked to justify Western interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria. Chapter 7 asks whether modern history bears out this argument. Contrary to official narratives, the consistent thread in US and UK foreign policy since the end of the Second World War has been the formation of alliances with radical Islamists in opposition to secular nationalism across the Muslim world. This struggle against secular nationalism does not arise out of any affection for Islamic extremists, but instead reveals much about the underlying principles of Western foreign policy which go well beyond relations with political Islam.

As Chomsky notes at the beginning of this introduction, if the judgements the West makes about the perfidious behaviour of its enemies are to be taken seriously, the same moral standards must first be applied to its own foreign policy. Chapter 8 describes the double standard which, instead, tends to prevail. The Vietnam War was the worst crime of the second half of the twentieth century; however, terms such as “the invasion of South Vietnam,” “aggression,” “occupation” or “crimes against humanity” rarely enter mainstream discussion about US and Australian intervention in Indochina from the 1950s to the 1970s. It is assumed that the motives of the West were pure and honourable, even if the prosecution of the war was faulty or mistaken. The chapter illustrates how champions of the war in Australia are still defending the crimes of the West over four decades after it ended.

Within modern state capitalist economies, class warfare only arises when the distribution of wealth and income in society is challenged by working people and their political representatives. It is driven by envy and a desire to cut down successful individuals and profitable businesses. Gross inequalities of wealth are not the result of class warfare successfully waged by elites, but are instead the consequences of anonymous market forces. Chapter 9 challenges this narrative and argues that little has changed in the recent development of economic relations within advanced capitalist states across the world: the broad differentials of economic power have barely altered over a century. Political and commercial elites deny the suggestion that they are the beneficiaries of a successful class war in order to maintain both their wealth and the legitimacy of the system in the eyes of the wi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Critical Thinking: Part One—The Limits of the Expressible
• 3. Critical Thinking: Part Two—Escaping the Zeitgeist and Building an Intellectual Self-Defence
• 4. Israel-Palestine: Part One—Do States Have a “Right to Exist”?
• 5. Israel-Palestine: Part Two—Australian Foreign Policy and the Israel-Palestine Conflict—Avoiding the Colonialist Narrative
• 6. Is There a Deep State?
• 7. United States Foreign Policy: Radical Islam and the West
• 8. The Vietnam War: Morality and History
• 9. Class Power in the United States and Australia
• Back Matter