Erik Ringmar
Universidade do Minho, Centro de Investigação em Ciência Política - CICP, Department Member
- Yale University, Center for Cultural Sociology, Department Memberadd
- International History, Philosophy of the Social Sciences, History of Ideas, International Relations, International Relations Theory, Imperialism, and 79 moreIdentity, International organizations, Pierre Bourdieu, Hegel, Phenomenology of the body, First World War, British Imperial and Colonial History (1600 - ), 19th Century (History), Warfare, Political Science, Social Theory, Honneth, Recognition, Theory of International Relations, European Imperialism and Colonialism, Spirit of the Age, Moods (Stimmung), Organizational Change, Ontology, Narrative Theory, Hobbes, Sovereignty, Realism (Political Science), George Lakoff, Performance Studies, Performativity, Subjectivities, Nigel Thrift, Experience, Jan Patocka, Martin Heidegger, das Unheimliche, Jonathan Crary, Imagination, Neurophenomenology, Consciousness Studies, Enactivism, Intentionality, Dreams (History), Anthropology of Dreams and Dreaming, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Visions And Dreams, Dreams, Buddhist Philosophy, Sleep & Circadian Rhythms, Embodiment, Phenomenology, Willpower, Will power, Leni Riefenstahl, The Will, Heidegger, Joan Stambaugh, Dogen, Mental Causation, Morris Berman, History of International Thought, Historical maps, History of Geographic Thought, Eurasianism, English School of International Relations Theory, Stateless Societies, Jan Assmann, Colin McGinn, Gendlin, Philosophy of Implicit Experience. Eugene Gendlin, Eugene Gendlin, Attention, Heidegger, Martin Ringmar, Jerome Bruner, David Graeber, Johann P. Arnason, Mikel Dufrenne, Alva Noe, Ivar Hagendoorn, Gerda Walther, Drew Leder, Hamid Dabashi, Old Dongola, and Erika Fischer-Lichteedit
- Erik Ringmar is a fellow at the Centro de Investigação em Ciência Política at the Universidade do Minho, Portugal. He... moreErik Ringmar is a fellow at the Centro de Investigação em Ciência Política at the Universidade do Minho, Portugal. He received his PhD in political science from Yale University in 1993. He taught for 12 years in the Government Department at the London School of Economics, and in China for seven years, where he until 2014 was Zhiyuan Chair professor of international politics at Shanghai Jiaotong University. He has written six books and some 60 academic articles on topics relating to international politics, history and social theory.edit
This is the talk I gave at the College of Islamic Studies at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Doha, Qatar, earlier this week. The talk is ostensibly about European human rights legislation, but what I really wanted to talk about were... more
This is the talk I gave at the College of Islamic Studies at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Doha, Qatar, earlier this week. The talk is ostensibly about European human rights legislation, but what I really wanted to talk about were religious beliefs. I made a distinction between "beliefs that" and “beliefs in.” Beliefs that we arrive at with our eyes, but beliefs in we arrive at with our ears. Beliefs in require trust rather than scientific evidence. It is through religious rituals that trust comes to be established.
Research Interests:
This is a chapter I wrote for a forthcoming Oxford UP handbook on diplomatic history edited by Naoko Shimazu and Christian Goeschel. It is about dancing diplomats and "neurophenomenology" which is exactly as much fun as it sounds. The... more
This is a chapter I wrote for a forthcoming Oxford UP handbook on diplomatic history edited by Naoko Shimazu and Christian Goeschel. It is about dancing diplomats and "neurophenomenology" which is exactly as much fun as it sounds. The chapter also allowed me to finally write something about republican diplomacy in the 19 th century. It is a little known, but I think important, fact that the United States sent no ambassadors abroad for most of the 19 th century. Why?, I wonder. Well, this chapter will explain.
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European human rights legislation makes a sharp distinction between "beliefs," on the one hand, and "manifestations of beliefs," on the other. While no legislation can restrict a person's beliefs, restrictions on manifestations are... more
European human rights legislation makes a sharp distinction between "beliefs," on the one hand, and "manifestations of beliefs," on the other. While no legislation can restrict a person's beliefs, restrictions on manifestations are sometimes required in the name of public order, safety, or because of the rights of others. In this article I question this distinction by pointing out that many religions privilege practices above beliefs. We engage in religious practices not since we believe, but we believe since we engage in religious practices. European human rights law has it precisely backwards, in other words, and this allows the law to be used to restrict the rights of Muslims to practice their religion.
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This chapter discusses not emotions, but moods. Emotions are psychological states, but moods are features of the interaction between a certain situation and the people who find themselves there. We find ourselves in a mood, we say, and... more
This chapter discusses not emotions, but moods. Emotions are psychological states, but moods are features of the interaction between a certain situation and the people who find themselves there. We find ourselves in a mood, we say, and when a large number of people find themselves in the same situation, we can talk about a collective mood. We attune ourselves to moods, meaning that we respond to what the situation calls for. Moods give rise to feelings. When someone asks us "how do you feel?" we answer by giving a report on the state of our attunement. In a case-study, we will investigate the moods of Istanbul, following the lead of Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, Orhan Pamuk and Nuri Bilge Ceylan.
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This is a 3,000 word piece I wrote for the E-International Relations website. It discusses Benedict Anderson's theory of nationalism, and his famous claim that nations are "imagined communities." I agree with Anderson. Nations are indeed... more
This is a 3,000 word piece I wrote for the E-International Relations website. It discusses Benedict Anderson's theory of nationalism, and his famous claim that nations are "imagined communities." I agree with Anderson. Nations are indeed imagined communities, but Anderson knows next to nothing about how the imagination works. The imagination is not a process of seeing pictures "in one's minds eye," but of recalling experiences. Experiences happen in all sensory modalities at once, and they happen to bodies, not just to minds. Rethinking the imagination, we have to rethink nationalism.
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Taking public moods seriously as an analytical concept, this article relies on recent work on the moods of individuals as a means of exploring the moods of the public. To be in a certain mood is to attune oneself to the situation in which... more
Taking public moods seriously as an analytical concept, this article relies on recent work on the moods of individuals as a means of exploring the moods of the public. To be in a certain mood is to attune oneself to the situation in which one finds oneself. Our mood is the report we give on the state of our attunement. A public mood can either be understood as the mood of a certain age, the mood of an audience which jointly attends to a public performance, or the bonding which takes places between bodies which are in closely physical proximity to each other. It is in the public mood that emotions, thoughts and plans for action arise.
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This review article which discusses three books on sleep and dreaming: Evan Thompson's Waking, Dreaming, Being, Andreas Mavromatis' Hypnagogia, and Jonathan Crary's 24/7. Topics include lucid dreaming, what happens when we die, and what... more
This review article which discusses three books on sleep and dreaming: Evan Thompson's Waking, Dreaming, Being, Andreas Mavromatis' Hypnagogia, and Jonathan Crary's 24/7. Topics include lucid dreaming, what happens when we die, and what to do about global capitalism. They day will soon come, I suggest, when multinational corporations can buy advertising space in our dreams.
I became interested in sleep mainly since I'm not getting enough of it, and writing this essay over the past week has kept me up every night.
I became interested in sleep mainly since I'm not getting enough of it, and writing this essay over the past week has kept me up every night.
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The problem of the modern self is the problem of how to provide a self for oneself in a modern society characterized by uncertainty and risk. Confronting this challenge at the turn of the twentieth-century, many city-dwellers fell ill... more
The problem of the modern self is the problem of how to provide a self for oneself in a modern society characterized by uncertainty and risk. Confronting this challenge at the turn of the twentieth-century, many city-dwellers fell ill with afflictions of the nerves of which neurasthenia was the most common. Neurasthenia could be cured, the sufferers were advised, if they only learned how to strengthen their will and to assert themselves. Violence, exercised both against oneself and against others, was integral to this project of self-assertion. In a society which is becoming ever more peaceful, the rhetoric of violence will become ever more transgressive, and thus more enticing. Such a society is unlikely to be at peace with itself. As a way to avoid this impasse, we need to think again about the notion of “character.” The thought of John Dewey is helpful in this regard.
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Conservatives have always been critical of the changes wrought by modern society, yet they have never known quite what to do about them. Heidegger's discussion of willpower provides an example. Early but also late in his career he... more
Conservatives have always been critical of the changes wrought by modern society, yet they have never known quite what to do about them. Heidegger's discussion of willpower provides an example. Early but also late in his career he advocated a live-and-let-live attitude which reduced the will to an aspect of care, and the self to a socialized being-with-others. For a few years in the 1930s, however, he saw the collective will of the people, as expressed by its Führer, as a way in which the ills of modern society could be overcome. The rhetoric of willpower, we conclude, is not a perennial feature of international politics and peace depends not on philosophy but on moods and the postures that states adopt.
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There is a relationship between modernity and boredom. People in modern society are more bored than people in previous societies. But why? Other authors have identified a number of candidates (alienation, atomization, disenchantment,... more
There is a relationship between modernity and boredom. People in modern society are more bored than people in previous societies. But why? Other authors have identified a number of candidates (alienation, atomization, disenchantment, rationalization, and so on). However, in this article I present a far more straightforward explanation: modern boredom is caused by the new ways in which people in modern society were made to pay attention. If you cannot pay attention, you get bored, and the distinctly modern ways of paying attention created a distinctly modern form of boredom. This is a story about the turn-of-the-20th with obvious implications for today.
Quotes:
"Thumb-twiddling and bubble-wrap popping are the most effective forms of protest under the conditions imposed by global capitalism."
"In the twenty-first-century, only the bored are free."
"Modern boredom, we will conclude, is a result of the way we were separated from tradition, forced to pay attention to our lives rather than to simply live them, and the way we were disciplined and made autonomous and self-directing."
To appear in Boredom Studies: Postdisciplinary Inquiries, edited by Michael E. Gardiner and Julian Jason Haladyn. London: Routledge, 2016.
Quotes:
"Thumb-twiddling and bubble-wrap popping are the most effective forms of protest under the conditions imposed by global capitalism."
"In the twenty-first-century, only the bored are free."
"Modern boredom, we will conclude, is a result of the way we were separated from tradition, forced to pay attention to our lives rather than to simply live them, and the way we were disciplined and made autonomous and self-directing."
To appear in Boredom Studies: Postdisciplinary Inquiries, edited by Michael E. Gardiner and Julian Jason Haladyn. London: Routledge, 2016.
Research Interests:
Experimental psychologists ask whether boredom can help us become more creative, yet they cannot answer the question since they have no way of investigating how boredom feels. For this we need a phenomenological approach. Who better to... more
Experimental psychologists ask whether boredom can help us become more creative, yet they cannot answer the question since they have no way of investigating how boredom feels. For this we need a phenomenological approach. Who better to rely on here than Martin Heidegger? Boredom, we will say, is the affective state in which we find ourselves once our attention no longer is entrained by the world around us. It is when our attention flags that we get bored. Once this has happened, the question is how we can re-engage with the world. Creativity is a matter of the terms on which this re-engagement takes place. Surprisingly, Heidegger suggests that there is a way back from boredom.
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Despite whatever academics say, international politics is not an intellectual enterprise and to intellectualize it is to misunderstand it. Instead international politics, at its most basic level, is a matter of how we, and the... more
Despite whatever academics say, international politics is not an intellectual enterprise and to intellectualize it is to misunderstand it. Instead international politics, at its most basic level, is a matter of how we, and the collectivities we have created for ourselves, find ourselves in the world. Finding ourselves in the world is first and foremost a task which our bodies solve. Eugene Gendlin's phenomenological psychology, and his focus on the “felt sense,” provide ways of investigating the embodied nature of international politics. No one has so far analyzed international politics the way Gendlin's psychology makes possible. The prospects are exciting.
Research Interests: International Relations Theory, Political Psychology, Existential Phenomenological Psychotherapy, Phenomenological Psychology, Existential Psychology, and 12 morePhenomenology, Phenomenology of the body, Existential Psychotherapy, Existential-Experiential Psychotherapy. Focusing Oriented., Philosophy of Implicit Experience. Eugene Gendlin, Phenomenology (Research Methodology), Phenomenology of Space and Place, social consructionism Gendlin Gergen Merleau-Ponty, Eugene Gendlin, Focusing, Gendlin, and Focusing Oriented Existential Experiential Psychotherapy course London UK Greg Madison Gendlin philosophy
In a series of famous experiments, Benjamin Libet claimed to have shown that there is no scientific basis for our commonsensical understanding of freedom of the will. The actions we are about to undertake register in our brains before... more
In a series of famous experiments, Benjamin Libet claimed to have shown that there is no scientific basis for our commonsensical understanding of freedom of the will. The actions we are about to undertake register in our brains before they register in our conscious minds. Consciousness arrives too late, as it were, to be included in the chain of causes. And yet, all that Libet may have shown is that long-invoked notions such as " the will " and " freedom " are poor explanations of how actions are initiated. Actions of both a simple and a complex kind, let us instead conclude, take place as we respond to the call of the mood of the situation in which we find ourselves. Action is a way of attuning ourselves. Simple actions happen as long-established habits kick in, and complex actions happen as the mood of a situation comes to correspond to the mood of a story we have been telling ourselves. When it feels right, we just act.
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The following is a talk I gave at Hamad bin Khalifa University, Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday this week. I’m discuss the failure of the attempts to turn every country into a European-style nation-state, and I look for alternatives that might... more
The following is a talk I gave at Hamad bin Khalifa University, Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday this week. I’m discuss the failure of the attempts to turn every country into a European-style nation-state, and I look for alternatives that might work better. I propose three models – an imperial, a nomadic and a network model. All three are inspired by the way politics, including international politics, worked before European colonialism. Since so many nation-states failed, it’s time to try something new, or rather, it’s time to try something old.
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Existing textbooks on international relations treat history in a cursory fashion and perpetuate a Euro-centric perspective. This textbook pioneers a new approach by historicizing the material traditionally taught in International... more
Existing textbooks on international relations treat history in a cursory fashion and perpetuate a Euro-centric perspective. This textbook pioneers a new approach by historicizing the material traditionally taught in International Relations courses, and by explicitly focusing on non-European cases, debates and issues.
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This is the video of my TEDx talk from 2019, “What is a non-Western IR theory? The talk is intended to provoke — thought, in this case.
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Most universities have courses on "international relations theory" where the basic logic of relations between states is laid out and explained. However, a constant complaint from students is that these theories provide a very... more
Most universities have courses on "international relations theory" where the basic logic of relations between states is laid out and explained. However, a constant complaint from students is that these theories provide a very Western-centric perspective. More than anything the world they describe is made up of nation-states in constant competition with each other. Surely, students argue, it's time to "decolonize the reading list." Many teachers agree and would like nothing more than to add some "non-Western IR theory" to their courses. This, however, is difficult to do since there doesn't seem to be very much of it. Apart from a few notable contributions, writers outside of the West have not had much to say about the way international relations work. This book disagrees. The problem, the argument will be, is the Western description of the world as made up of competitive nation-states. Only writings which take this perspective for granted will be considered as a legitimate contribution to the field. But this was not how the world was understood before Western countries came to colonize it. The logic of the pre-Western world did not operate this way. Moreover, this was not the terms on which many independence movements wanted to achieve their independence. Yet these non-Western alternatives were soon rejected and when the process of decolonization was completed the 2
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It was more than anything by rejecting the lives lived by nomadic peoples that the state came to be seen as legitimate. In the rhetoric of political theorists, the state is legitimate since it is required by Nature, by History and by God.... more
It was more than anything by rejecting the lives lived by nomadic peoples that the state came to be seen as legitimate. In the rhetoric of political theorists, the state is legitimate since it is required by Nature, by History and by God. The state is thrice-born, thrice necessary. The Nature which we find inside us demands it, but so does the Nature in which we find ourselves. History, understood as the process by which we come to fulfill our telos, as individuals and as societies, shows the state to be inevitable. And meanwhile God, hovering in the firmament, is overseeing the whole process, making devout believers out of those who fail to be convinced by rational arguments. Quod erat demonstrandum: nomads and a nomadic way of life are against Nature, against History and against God.
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The Great Wall of China does not exist. There are many walls in China, and bits of walls, and remnants of former walls, but there is no “Great Wall” understood as a unified structure built for a given purpose. The Great Wall is indeed a... more
The Great Wall of China does not exist. There are many walls in China, and bits of walls, and remnants of former walls, but there is no “Great Wall” understood as a unified structure built for a given purpose. The Great Wall is indeed a construction, but it is a social construction erected not in China itself but in the minds of Europeans. In early modern Europe, when China was admired for its wealth and its political stability, the Great Wall was the perfect symbol of the wisdom of mercantilism; in the nineteenth-century, when China was mocked for its lack of progress, the destruction of all Chinese walls was the perfect symbols of the wisdom of exchange. The Great Wall existed because the Europeans decided that it had to exist, and before long they had found it everywhere throughout the country. The eventual result of this work of the imagination was an aggressive European posture and a policy of imperialism.
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In 1915, six months into the bogged-down horror which was the First World War, Sigmund Freud reflected on the world that had been lost. Before the war, Europe belonged to all of us, he recalled, and its achievements were our shared... more
In 1915, six months into the bogged-down horror which was the First World War, Sigmund Freud reflected on the world that had been lost. Before the war, Europe belonged to all of us, he recalled, and its achievements were our shared heritage. We read all the great philosophers and poets and admired all artists regardless of their nationality. None of them were alien to us just because they spoke a different language. And we went to live abroad too, without regard for borders. There was no need to chose between the gray waters of the Baltic or the blue waters of the Mediterranean, between the snow clad Alps or the green river valleys, since all of it belonged to all of us.
And then all hell broke lose, and the war which engulfed Europe was far bloodier and more destructive than anything previously experienced. The war, said Freud, has " brought to light the barely conceivable phenomenon of civilized nations knowing and understanding each other so little that one can turn from the other with hate and loathing. " The European of only a few months ago now " finds himself helpless in a world that has grown strange to him when he sees his great fatherland disintegrated, the possessions common to mankind destroyed, and his fellow citizens divided and debased. "
In 1938, after Hitler and the Anschluss, Freud too was forced to take sides. Friends with connections in high places whisked him off to Britain in the nick of time.
And then all hell broke lose, and the war which engulfed Europe was far bloodier and more destructive than anything previously experienced. The war, said Freud, has " brought to light the barely conceivable phenomenon of civilized nations knowing and understanding each other so little that one can turn from the other with hate and loathing. " The European of only a few months ago now " finds himself helpless in a world that has grown strange to him when he sees his great fatherland disintegrated, the possessions common to mankind destroyed, and his fellow citizens divided and debased. "
In 1938, after Hitler and the Anschluss, Freud too was forced to take sides. Friends with connections in high places whisked him off to Britain in the nick of time.
Research Interests:
Historically speaking democracy, understood as the representation of interests, is intimately linked to nationalism, understood as the representation of identities. In the wake of the French Revolution,'rule by the people'came to be... more
Historically speaking democracy, understood as the representation of interests, is intimately linked to nationalism, understood as the representation of identities. In the wake of the French Revolution,'rule by the people'came to be understood as rule by our people, people who are like us. Yet the two principles do not logically imply each other, and can indeed be regarded as antithetical. While democracy understood as the satisfaction of interests should pay no attention to the identity of a politician, identity is all that many nationalists care about. If this is the case, we have a puzzle which requires an explanation: how did democracy come to be related to nationalism? As I argue, the connection must be understood as a result of the transformation of the concept of the person which took place in the course of the eighteenth-century, and which brought about a new conception of the public sphere. What modern men and women wanted was to have their unique qualities acknowledged and to be listened to as individuals. That is, they wanted their preferences to matter in collective decision making -- hence democracy -- but also that the public sphere be populated by people like themselves with whom they could speak on free and intimate terms -- hence nationalism. Once once public relations came to be interpreted in intimate terms did the character of our leaders, and not just his or her policies, become a paramount concern, and democracy connected to nationalism.
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As a result of globalization societies become more prosperous and their relations more peaceful, but people also come to live more nomadic lives. We become increasingly homeless, as it were, and consequently more susceptible to the... more
As a result of globalization societies become more prosperous and their relations more peaceful, but people also come to live more nomadic lives. We become increasingly homeless, as it were, and consequently more susceptible to the arguments of politicians who promise to create new homes for us. This is how the “first era of globalization” in the nineteenth-century was interrupted and replaced by a century of genocides and wars. For the past couple of decades we have been going through a new, “second,” era of globalization, and once again the result is economic development and peace, but also a renewed rhetoric of homelessness. The terrifying prospect is that we will repeat the horrors of the twentieth-century. As I argue in this chapter, we need to learn to live with rootlessness, and who better to teach us how to do it than nomads? Nomads have no roots, they have paths; they have homes of course, but homes that they take with them. We too must learn to carry everything we need with us.
Refer to as Erik Ringmar, “Order in a Borderless World: Nomads Confront Globalization,” in Theorizing Global Order: The International, Culture and Governance, ed. Gunther Hellman (Frankfurt: Campus, 2018).
Refer to as Erik Ringmar, “Order in a Borderless World: Nomads Confront Globalization,” in Theorizing Global Order: The International, Culture and Governance, ed. Gunther Hellman (Frankfurt: Campus, 2018).
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This article discusses Jeffrey Alexander's work on social performances. All societies, says Alexander, need a measure of integration -- they need to be "fused" -- for a common, properly social, life to be possible. In simple societies... more
This article discusses Jeffrey Alexander's work on social performances. All societies, says Alexander, need a measure of integration -- they need to be "fused" -- for a common, properly social, life to be possible. In simple societies this is achieved by means of rituals; in complex societies it is achieved by means of the theater. In both cases performances are understood in analogy with "texts" which are "read." Although explicit interpretations indeed are crucial for our understanding of a performance, audience members make sense of what they see in more direct, more embodied, ways as well. Cognitive neuroscience can help us understand how performances affect us and thereby how societies are fused.
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This article discusses the heated public debate which erupted in Sweden in the spring of 2018 regarding the right of Muslim congregations to issue public calls to prayer by means of loudspeakers. Critics complained that the calls were... more
This article discusses the heated public debate which erupted in Sweden in the spring of 2018 regarding the right of Muslim congregations to issue public calls to prayer by means of loudspeakers. Critics complained that the calls were noisy and disturbing, while advocates emphasized the right to religious freedom. However, the real issue at stake in this debate concerns an issue of ontology — what Swedish society is and what it should be. Sweden, all Swedish politicians assert, is a perfectly modern country guided by rational principles. The question, in other words, is whether Islam is compatible with modernity. A more basic question, however, is whether modernity is compatible with the human condition. The continuous rationalization of society which the Swedish welfare-state represents makes it it ever-more difficult to confront the fundamental irrationality of human life. By answering the Muslim call to prayer, Swedes have an opportunity to acknowledge the sameness of the other as well as the otherness of the self.
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This is a short, 3,000 word, piece I wrote for the E-International Relations website. It is about Constructivists and their interest in so called “first encounters,” the first meetings of European and non-European societies.... more
This is a short, 3,000 word, piece I wrote for the E-International Relations website. It is about Constructivists and their interest in so called “first encounters,” the first meetings of European and non-European societies. Constructivists argue that first encounters can tell us something about the nature of international relations. I agree, but before that can happen Constructivism must be radically amended. Constructivists are Cartesians who make a sharp distinction between bodies and minds. But that’s not how it works. We’ll come up with better explanations of international politics if we can keep bodies and minds together. The article provides some suggestions for how to do this.
Interestingly, when Europeans and non-Europeans first met, they often spent a long time dancing with each other. That’s right. Before Columbus, da Gama and the other colonizers started killing the natives, they danced with them.
Please refer to as: Erik Ringmar, “Constructivism and First Encounters,” E-International Relations, forthcoming, 2020.
Interestingly, when Europeans and non-Europeans first met, they often spent a long time dancing with each other. That’s right. Before Columbus, da Gama and the other colonizers started killing the natives, they danced with them.
Please refer to as: Erik Ringmar, “Constructivism and First Encounters,” E-International Relations, forthcoming, 2020.
Research Interests:
Cultural historians cannot acknowledge the felt experiences of people of the past since they interpret those experiences and explain them in terms of external factors. Yet felt experiences are not interpreted but instead immediately... more
Cultural historians cannot acknowledge the felt experiences of people of the past since they interpret those experiences and explain them in terms of external factors. Yet felt experiences are not interpreted but instead immediately sensed, and felt experiences cannot be explained but only described. The failure to acknowledge these points is what makes Clifford Geertz deny that animals or newborn children have experiences, and it makes post-modernists such as Foucault into apologists for extra-discursive crimes. As an example of this failure, we will consider the way the outbreak of war was experienced in 1914.
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The received wisdom has long been that people in Europe reacted with great enthusiasm as war was approaching in August, 1914. However, scholars who have investigated the matter have found little evidence of enthusiasm. There was no... more
The received wisdom has long been that people in Europe reacted with great enthusiasm as war was approaching in August, 1914. However, scholars who have investigated the matter have found little evidence of enthusiasm. There was no unique “spirit of 1914,” and people in general were not happy about the prospect of war. This revisionist thesis is now the new orthodoxy and should as such be subject to scrutiny. In this article I focus on the notion of an “experience.” Experiences are felt and gone through, the argument will be, not rationalized after the fact. As such they will always leave only faint traces in the historical sources. It is very difficult to say what people in August 1914 actually felt. As a way around this problem I suggest we should focus on a study of public moods. It is in a public mood that felt experiences arise and public moods are in principle open to historical investigation.
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Abstract The quest for perpetual peace is a modern phenomenon, associated with a progressive view of history which emerged only in the Enlightenment. In addition, boredom–a feeling of ennui associated with a loss of the ability to act–is... more
Abstract The quest for perpetual peace is a modern phenomenon, associated with a progressive view of history which emerged only in the Enlightenment. In addition, boredom–a feeling of ennui associated with a loss of the ability to act–is a fundamental mood of the modern age. Modern societies are thus, simultaneously, becoming more peaceful and their inhabitants are becoming more bored.
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This paper discusses the life and time of the Swedish political science professor Pontus Fahlbeck, 1860-1923. The real topic, however, is what a "public mood" possibly might be. I connect public moods to perceived postures of the "public... more
This paper discusses the life and time of the Swedish political science professor Pontus Fahlbeck, 1860-1923. The real topic, however, is what a "public mood" possibly might be. I connect public moods to perceived postures of the "public body" in a particular era and the way we move our private and public bodies in time and space. Max Weber, Georg Simmel and Theodore Roosevelt providing contrasting examples. The public mood which Fahlbeck described was nevertheless uniquely Swedish.
The paper is forthcoming in Statsvetenskaplig tidskrift (Swedish Political Science Review). Thanks to Peter Baehr, Magnus Jerneck and Gustav Lidén and friends at Mid-Sweden University, Sundsvall for comments on an earlier version.
The paper is forthcoming in Statsvetenskaplig tidskrift (Swedish Political Science Review). Thanks to Peter Baehr, Magnus Jerneck and Gustav Lidén and friends at Mid-Sweden University, Sundsvall for comments on an earlier version.
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Habits mediate between reason and instincts and constitutes the persisting life force that characterizes all human beings. Habits keep our bodies and minds together by placing our minds in our bodies and by placing our bodies in the... more
Habits mediate between reason and instincts and constitutes the persisting life force that characterizes all human beings. Habits keep our bodies and minds together by placing our minds in our bodies and by placing our bodies in the world. Habits are the tools which reason employs in making its schemes, and the tools which the body employs in directing the mind. Habits attune us to the world and account for our automatic reactions to the environment.
As a result of modernization in the latter part of the 19th century, this continuity was broken up and reason, instincts and habits were separated from each other. Reason was used to discipline instinct and to establish good habits, that is habits that assured a well-behaving citizenry and a productive workforce. The enthusiams generated by the outbreak of the First World War, and the temptation to "go native" in the colonies, were attempts to resist this disciplinary compartmentalization.
As a result of modernization in the latter part of the 19th century, this continuity was broken up and reason, instincts and habits were separated from each other. Reason was used to discipline instinct and to establish good habits, that is habits that assured a well-behaving citizenry and a productive workforce. The enthusiams generated by the outbreak of the First World War, and the temptation to "go native" in the colonies, were attempts to resist this disciplinary compartmentalization.
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This is a draft of the keynote to a conference with museum people to be held on March 31 in Amsterdam. My argument is that the European search for rational knowledge made the philosophical subdiscipline of aesthetics possible. As a... more
This is a draft of the keynote to a conference with museum people to be held on March 31 in Amsterdam. My argument is that the European search for rational knowledge made the philosophical subdiscipline of aesthetics possible. As a result, the objects the Europeans found in the countries they colonized came to be treated as aesthetic objects-either as beautiful or as sublime. This provided the excuse to pack them into craters and take them home. This also provided the excuse to destroy them. This is why we, time and again, find Europeans destroying "the most beautiful things we ever saw."
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This article provides a critical assessment of the contributions to this special issue. As these articles show, it is only once we take theatrical metaphors seriously that what can start to understand international politics. The world... more
This article provides a critical assessment of the contributions to this special issue. As these articles show, it is only once we take theatrical metaphors seriously that what can start to understand international politics. The world really is a stage, on which states are the players. Yet the theoretical prejudices displayed in these articles obscure this fact rather than highlighting it. Poststructuralism, Butlerian theories of performativity and actor-network theory are constitutionally incapable of discussing the theater. The reason is that real, theatrical, performances are events that audience members interpret by means of their bodies and their imagination.
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In October, 1860, an Anglo-French army entered Yuanmingyuan, the palace compound of the Chinese emperor north-west of Beijing. First the French looted the palaces then the British burned them to the ground. The reason why they engaged in... more
In October, 1860, an Anglo-French army entered Yuanmingyuan, the palace compound of the Chinese emperor north-west of Beijing. First the French looted the palaces then the British burned them to the ground. The reason why they engaged in this barbarian behavior, they explained, was that they wanted to "civilize the Chinese." This book explains how liberals then as now turn into barbarians when making war in non-European settings. The book discusses 1860, but the implications for today are obvious.
Research Interests: War Studies, Liberalism, British Imperial and Colonial History (1600 - ), Qing Dynasty (Ch'ing Dynasty), 19th Century (History), and 11 moreChina studies, Chinese-English Opium War Literature, Hong Kong, Opium War, Free Trade, Imperialism, European Imperialism and Colonialism, Europe-China relations, Viscount Palmerston, The Empress Dowager Cixi, and Yuanming Yuan
Research Interests:
Ringmar, Erik. “China’s Place in Four Recognition Regimes.” In Recognition in International Relations: Rethinking an Ambivalent Concept in a Global Context, edited by Christopher Daase, Caroline Fehl, Anna Geis, and Georgios Kolliarakis.... more
Ringmar, Erik. “China’s Place in Four Recognition Regimes.” In Recognition in International Relations: Rethinking an Ambivalent Concept in a Global Context, edited by Christopher Daase, Caroline Fehl, Anna Geis, and Georgios Kolliarakis. New York: Palgrave, 2015.
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Abstract This article provides a framework for the comparative study of international systems. By analyzing how international systems are framed, scripted, and performed, it is possible to understand how interstate relations are... more
Abstract This article provides a framework for the comparative study of international systems. By analyzing how international systems are framed, scripted, and performed, it is possible to understand how interstate relations are interpreted in different historical periods and parts of the world. But such an investigation also has general implications—inter alia for a study of the nature of power, the role of emotions in foreign policy-making, and public opinion formation. Case studies are provided by the Sino-centric, the Tokugawa, and the Westphalian systems. As this study shows, the two East Asian systems were in several respects better adapted than theWestphalian to the realities of international politics in the twenty-first century.
Abstract The two main waves of European expansion—those of the Renaissance and of the nineteenth century—cannot simply be explained in economic terms. The high degree of risk and uncertainty associated with overseas ventures meant that... more
Abstract The two main waves of European expansion—those of the Renaissance and of the nineteenth century—cannot simply be explained in economic terms. The high degree of risk and uncertainty associated with overseas ventures meant that they were less than fully rational. An explanation must begin by considering how the Europeans defined the extra-European world, how they defined the exotic.
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The international system of civilized states that came to develop in Europe in the course of the nineteenth century was formed through practices of recognition which created and affirmed similarities between all European states, but also... more
The international system of civilized states that came to develop in Europe in the course of the nineteenth century was formed through practices of recognition which created and affirmed similarities between all European states, but also through practices of non-recognition which created and affirmed differences between Europeans and non-Europeans. Practices of non-recognition are generally ignored in liberal accounts of the origins of international society. A theory of recognition allows us to retrieve this alternative history and make it explicit.
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This article compares the morphological structures of two parks: Disneyland and Yuanmingyuan, the “summer palace” of the emperor of China. Despite obvious differences, the two parks were intended for the entertainment of the sovereigns... more
This article compares the morphological structures of two parks: Disneyland and Yuanmingyuan, the “summer palace” of the emperor of China. Despite obvious differences, the two parks were intended for the entertainment of the sovereigns of their respective countries — the emperor of China and “the people” in the case of the United States. Both parks were also designed to bring ontological reassurance to the sovereigns of two empires which only recently had attained their hegemonic, imperial, status. The parks provided a vision of a universe organized according to each sovereign's specifications. The need for reassurance is reflected in the morphology of the two parks: the use of techniques of dislocation and idealization; the model-making and the use of thematized environments. A study of the morphology of the parks is for that reason a study of imperial ideology.
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Abstract This article explains the destruction of the Yuanmingyuan, the imperial palace compound located northwest of Beijing, by an Anglo-French army in 1860. Bracketing the political and military context, it looks at the ways the... more
Abstract This article explains the destruction of the Yuanmingyuan, the imperial palace compound located northwest of Beijing, by an Anglo-French army in 1860. Bracketing the political and military context, it looks at the ways the emperor's palace has been interpreted in European cultural history and the ways it was understood by the people responsible for its destruction.
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Abstract This article investigates the distinction between wars fought against" civilized states" and wars fought against" savages". It concludes that the United States has been disproportionately engaged in wars of the latter kind. This... more
Abstract This article investigates the distinction between wars fought against" civilized states" and wars fought against" savages". It concludes that the United States has been disproportionately engaged in wars of the latter kind. This fact, the argument will be, has given a particular character to the way Americans deal with foreign threats. There is an" American way of war" of which the Bush administration's response to the terrorist attacks of 2001 is a characteristic expression.
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The destruction by European forces of Yuanmingyuan in 1860 was the inflection point where Europe finally established itself as superior to the Chinese and the Chinese were made inferior. This history of superiority/inferiority has been... more
The destruction by European forces of Yuanmingyuan in 1860 was the inflection point where Europe finally established itself as superior to the Chinese and the Chinese were made inferior. This history of superiority/inferiority has been bad both for the Europeans and for the Chinese. The European way of dominating the world has led to too much destruction, and to a deformed European sense of identity, and Chinese inferiority has provided a legitimation for Communist authoritarianism and misrule. It is time to forget the humiliation and move on. History does not have to be remembered. Memories, both true and constructed, are an obstacle to the kind of mutual respect which peaceful relations between China and the West require. Not surprisingly, my talk was quite controversial with the audience in China.
Research Interests:
In 1860, a combined A nglo-French army looted and burned the Yuanmingyuan, a vast compound of palaces, temples, pagodas and gardens belonging to the Chinese emperor. This act of barbarism, they a rgued, was necessary in order to bring... more
In 1860, a combined A nglo-French army looted and burned the Yuanmingyuan, a vast compound of palaces, temples, pagodas and gardens belonging to the Chinese emperor. This act of barbarism, they a rgued, was necessary in order to bring civilisation to China. This article explains this event as an expression of European'confrontation with theOriental sublime', a fiction created by them as an exotic counterpart to the liberal and rationalistic social order they themselves represented.
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The Bush administration's “Global War on Terror” has, by both defenders and critics, been characterized as unique. However, as this article shows, there is a long tradition, both in the United States and in Europe, of fighting wars... more
The Bush administration's “Global War on Terror” has, by both defenders and critics, been characterized as unique. However, as this article shows, there is a long tradition, both in the United States and in Europe, of fighting wars against “savage tribes”—against enemies who fail to make a distinction between soldiers and civilians, and who use terror as a weapon. The problem of how to fight such groups was much discussed in the legal literature of the nineteenth-century. This is a discussion from which it is possible learn contemporary lessons.
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This article provides a critique of Constructivism and Post-structuralism within IR theory from an embodied, realist, perspective. Meaning is not made as much as experienced, we will argue, and subjectivity is not constructed as much as... more
This article provides a critique of Constructivism and Post-structuralism within IR theory from an embodied, realist, perspective. Meaning is not made as much as experienced, we will argue, and subjectivity is not constructed as much as enacted. The theater illustrates the difference between constructivist, post-structuralist and embodied perspectives. By analyzing international politics in terms of a performance instead of performativity a more credible version of the sovereign subject can be identified. The world is a stage and it is only be appearing on this world stage that the state becomes real. To back up this argument the article draws from recent research in cognitive theory and neuroscience.
Quote as Ringmar, Erik. “How the World Stage Makes Its Subjects: An Embodied Critique of Constructivist IR Theory.” Journal of International Relations and Development 19, no. 1 (2016): 101–25. doi:10.1057/jird.2015.33.
Quote as Ringmar, Erik. “How the World Stage Makes Its Subjects: An Embodied Critique of Constructivist IR Theory.” Journal of International Relations and Development 19, no. 1 (2016): 101–25. doi:10.1057/jird.2015.33.
Research Interests: Ontology, International Relations Theory, Constructivism, Poststructuralism, Embodiment, and 13 morePerformativity, Performance, Postmodernism, Judith Butler, Phenomenology of the body, Philosophy of Cognitive Science, Social Constructivism, IR Theory, History of the Body, Theater and Performance Studies, Ontological Status of the State, World Stage, and Body and Theater
In a recent article Emanuel Adler and Vincent Pouliot argued that attention to practices could help IR scholars overcome ontological gaps and provide a new basis,on which the discipline could be established. Four such dichotomies are... more
In a recent article Emanuel Adler and Vincent Pouliot argued that attention to practices could help IR scholars overcome ontological gaps and provide a new basis,on which the discipline could be established. Four such dichotomies are particularlysalient: between the material and the meaningful, the rational and the practical,between agencies and structures, and between the forces of stability and of change.By failing to provide a theoretical basis for a synthesis, however, this project will fail. What a practice is, and how ontological gaps should be understood, cannot bedetermined outside of the context of a theory. The article reviews theoretical attemptsto deal with the dichotomies Adler and Pouliot identified and investigates the role of practices in the study of international relations.
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'But where does culture go?'Walter Carlsnaes leaned across the table and looked me straight in the eyes.'You're saying there is something missing from my boxes? You want me to include “culture”? But where, Erik, does it go?'I must admit I... more
'But where does culture go?'Walter Carlsnaes leaned across the table and looked me straight in the eyes.'You're saying there is something missing from my boxes? You want me to include “culture”? But where, Erik, does it go?'I must admit I was flustered. Our meeting had been going well up to this point. I had just read his 'agency and structure'paper, fresh in print with International Studies Quarterly (ISQ), and I believed I had found a problem with it (Carlsnaes 1992).
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... more
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.
Part I Theoretical Preliminaries Introduction The International Politics of Recognition Erik Ringmar 1 Recognition between States: On the Moral Substrate of International Relations Axel Honneth 2 Prickly States? Recognition and Disrespect between Persons and Peoples Reinhard Wolf 3 Symbolic and Physical Violence Philippe Braud 4 Is a Just Peace Possible without Thin and Thick Recognition? Pierre Allan and Alexis Keller Part II Empirical Applications 5 Spirit, Recognition, and Foreign Policy: Germany and World War II Richard Ned Lebow 6 World War I from the Perspective of Power Cycle Theory: Recognition, "Adjustment Delusions," and the "Trauma of Expectations Foregone" Charles F. Doran 7 Recognition, Disrespect, and the Struggle for Morocco: Rethinking Imperial Germany's Security Dilemma Michelle Murray 8 Self-Identification, Recognition, and Conflicts: The Evolution of Taiwan's Identity, 1949-2008 Yana Zuo 9 Recognition, the Non-Proliferation Regime, and Proliferation Crises Alexandre Hummel 10 Recognizing the Enemy: Terrorism as Symbolic Violence Andreas Behnke Part III Conclusions 11 Concluding Remarks on the Empirical Study of International Recognition Thomas Lindemann
Part I Theoretical Preliminaries Introduction The International Politics of Recognition Erik Ringmar 1 Recognition between States: On the Moral Substrate of International Relations Axel Honneth 2 Prickly States? Recognition and Disrespect between Persons and Peoples Reinhard Wolf 3 Symbolic and Physical Violence Philippe Braud 4 Is a Just Peace Possible without Thin and Thick Recognition? Pierre Allan and Alexis Keller Part II Empirical Applications 5 Spirit, Recognition, and Foreign Policy: Germany and World War II Richard Ned Lebow 6 World War I from the Perspective of Power Cycle Theory: Recognition, "Adjustment Delusions," and the "Trauma of Expectations Foregone" Charles F. Doran 7 Recognition, Disrespect, and the Struggle for Morocco: Rethinking Imperial Germany's Security Dilemma Michelle Murray 8 Self-Identification, Recognition, and Conflicts: The Evolution of Taiwan's Identity, 1949-2008 Yana Zuo 9 Recognition, the Non-Proliferation Regime, and Proliferation Crises Alexandre Hummel 10 Recognizing the Enemy: Terrorism as Symbolic Violence Andreas Behnke Part III Conclusions 11 Concluding Remarks on the Empirical Study of International Recognition Thomas Lindemann
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My assessment of the constructivist IR theorizing of my Yale PhD supervisor, Alexander Wendt. This piece is twenty years old, one of the first things I published, but it's holding up reasonably well. “While I remain convinced that... more
My assessment of the constructivist IR theorizing of my Yale PhD supervisor, Alexander Wendt. This piece is twenty years old, one of the first things I published, but it's holding up reasonably well.
“While I remain convinced that Alexander Wendt's writings constitute a seminal contribution to International Relations scholarship, I must express my reservations regarding many of the conclusions he reaches. Ex-advisees, after all, must not only express their gratitude and their admiration, but also — and perhaps unfortunately — make sure that science makes progress, and that they make careers for themselves.”
The text is also available in Chinese: https://www.academia.edu/attachments/37346663/download_file?st=MTUxOTU2MjE2Niw4MS44OC4xMC4yMzYsNDU3NTAw&s=profile
“While I remain convinced that Alexander Wendt's writings constitute a seminal contribution to International Relations scholarship, I must express my reservations regarding many of the conclusions he reaches. Ex-advisees, after all, must not only express their gratitude and their admiration, but also — and perhaps unfortunately — make sure that science makes progress, and that they make careers for themselves.”
The text is also available in Chinese: https://www.academia.edu/attachments/37346663/download_file?st=MTUxOTU2MjE2Niw4MS44OC4xMC4yMzYsNDU3NTAw&s=profile
Research Interests:
Alexander Wendt was my dissertation adviser and I was his teaching assistant during my last semester in graduate school. Naturally this connection makes it difficult for me to evaluate his work in a fully objective manner. Former students... more
Alexander Wendt was my dissertation adviser and I was his teaching assistant during my last semester in graduate school. Naturally this connection makes it difficult for me to evaluate his work in a fully objective manner. Former students are expected to say nice things about their former teachers, especially when they still depend on them for letters of recommendation.
Research Interests:
During the post-war era the Swedes had thought of themselves as a people apart. They had been rich, socially progressive, a model for others to follow. They were the future–a neutral country, a friend of the Third World, a bridge between... more
During the post-war era the Swedes had thought of themselves as a people apart. They had been rich, socially progressive, a model for others to follow. They were the future–a neutral country, a friend of the Third World, a bridge between both East and West and North and South. Yet within a few years around 1990 several serious construction flaws were discovered in the Swedish model. It was no longer possible to be a neutral when, after the fall of Communism, there no longer was anything to be neutral about.
The Swedish intervention in the Thirty Years War in June 1630 is one of the classical topics of European historiography. All the great German historians wrote about it and it attracted the brightest and the best among their Swedish... more
The Swedish intervention in the Thirty Years War in June 1630 is one of the classical topics of European historiography. All the great German historians wrote about it and it attracted the brightest and the best among their Swedish colleagues. But the intervention is also a classical bone of contention between different schools and traditions. The topic has been discussed with much fervor over the years and the historiography of the event is closely associated with scholarly fights and controversies.
This book offers an original combination of culture and narrative theory with an empirical study of identity and political action. It is at once a powerful critique of rational choice theories of action and a solution to the... more
This book offers an original combination of culture and
narrative theory with an empirical study of identity and
political action. It is at once a powerful critique of
rational choice theories of action and a solution to the
historiographical puzzle of why Sweden went to war in
1630. Erik Ringmar argues that people act not only for
reasons of interest, but also for reasons of identity, and
that the latter are, in fact, more fundamental. Deploying
his alternative, non-rational theory of action in his
account of the Swedish intervention in the Thirty Years
War, he shows it to have been an attempt on behalf of the
Swedish leaders to gain recognition for themselves and
their country. Further to this, he demonstrates the impor-
tance of questions of identity to the study of war and of
narrative theories of action to the social sciences in
general
narrative theory with an empirical study of identity and
political action. It is at once a powerful critique of
rational choice theories of action and a solution to the
historiographical puzzle of why Sweden went to war in
1630. Erik Ringmar argues that people act not only for
reasons of interest, but also for reasons of identity, and
that the latter are, in fact, more fundamental. Deploying
his alternative, non-rational theory of action in his
account of the Swedish intervention in the Thirty Years
War, he shows it to have been an attempt on behalf of the
Swedish leaders to gain recognition for themselves and
their country. Further to this, he demonstrates the impor-
tance of questions of identity to the study of war and of
narrative theories of action to the social sciences in
general
Research Interests:
International law, traditional scholars of international politics tell us, is a useless fiction. Statesmen either do not follow legal stipulations or they do so only when it is in their interest to do it. International law plays no... more
International law, traditional scholars of international politics tell us, is a useless fiction. Statesmen either do not follow legal stipulations or they do so only when it is in their interest to do it. International law plays no independent role in world politics since it can always be reduced to the more fundamental considerations of power politics. National interests simply do not bow to legal requirements.
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Abstract The problem with traditional explanations of relations between states is that they focus on matters of interests and pay insufficient attention to matters of identities. This article seeks to improve on this situation by... more
Abstract The problem with traditional explanations of relations between states is that they focus on matters of interests and pay insufficient attention to matters of identities. This article seeks to improve on this situation by providing a formal discussion of the role of recognition. World politics is best described as a recognition game rather than as a prisoner's dilemma. To prove the applicability of this argument, an analysis is made of the relations that obtained between Soviet Russia and the West.
In which sense can we say that a state “exists”? According to the realist school, the state is an a priori given; according to the pluralist school, it is nothing but a collection of various sub-stat actors. As I argue, however, neither... more
In which sense can we say that a state “exists”? According to the realist school, the state is an a priori given; according to the pluralist school, it is nothing but a collection of various sub-stat actors. As I argue, however, neither solution is satisfactory. If we give the state a transcendental status, it disappears from the world; if we see it merely as a set of empirical attributes, it disappears in the world. The way out of this dilemma is to stop talking about what states really are, and start instead to talk about what things they resemble. We make sense of our collective selves in the same way as we make sense of our individual selves – with the help of metaphors that are expanded into narratives. A question of “being” is consequently always a question of ''being as,” and states are constructed through the stories told about them.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Alexander Wendt was my dissertation adviser and I was his teaching assistant during my last semester in graduate school. Naturally this connection makes it difficult for me to evaluate his work in a fully objective manner. Former students... more
Alexander Wendt was my dissertation adviser and I was his teaching assistant during my last semester in graduate school. Naturally this connection makes it difficult for me to evaluate his work in a fully objective manner. Former students are expected to say nice things about their former teachers, especially when they still depend on them for letters of recommendation.
Research Interests:
This is a talk I gave on Sept 23, 2019, to the Ibn Haldun University community at the start of the academic year. It outlines some of my ideas about culture, civilization, and how to survive capitalism.
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This is the manuscript for a TED talk I’ll be recording later this week. The topic is “What is a non-Western IR theory?,” and the argument draws heavily on a paper I just finished for a special issue of All Azimut, a Turkish journal of... more
This is the manuscript for a TED talk I’ll be recording later this week. The topic is “What is a non-Western IR theory?,” and the argument draws heavily on a paper I just finished for a special issue of All Azimut, a Turkish journal of international relations. No, there are no footnotes, and yes, the talk is intended to provoke — thought, in this case.
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The argument picks up from points made by G.K. Chesterton, Mahatma Gandhi and Ashis Nandy and argues that someone who gains independence on someone else’s terms never will be truly free. Likewise, a non-Western IR which takes the master... more
The argument picks up from points made by G.K. Chesterton, Mahatma Gandhi and Ashis Nandy and argues that someone who gains independence on someone else’s terms never will be truly free. Likewise, a non-Western IR which takes the master metaphors of the Western discipline for granted is bound to replicate Western examples. Such a normal science will always be a Western science, and non-Westerners will fail at it, just as non-Western states fail at being Western states. This is why a non-Western IR must be a revolutionary science. A revolutionary IR is based on alternative metaphors — that is, alternatives to the Western idea of an anarchical system based on sovereign nation-states. In concluding the article, a few suggestions are given for what such a revolutionary science might look like.
Research Interests: International Relations, International Relations Theory, Postcolonial Studies, State Formation, Nationalism And State Building, and 9 moreState Theory, Non-Western Social Theories, Failed States, State-building in the Failed States, Decolonization, Ashis Nandy, Gandhian Thought, G K Chesterton, and Non-Western International Relations Theory
In the 25 years that have passed since the publication of Huntington's “Clash of Civilizations” article it has become clear why his thesis fails. Understood as an explanation of the logic of world politics his argument is simply... more
In the 25 years that have passed since the publication of Huntington's “Clash of Civilizations” article it has become clear why his thesis fails. Understood as an explanation of the logic of world politics his argument is simply untenable. Moreover, the argument is offensive. It is offensive to be boxed into a “civilization” and to be told that you are the same as the people confined to the same box, and that you are sufficiently different from the people confined to other boxes for there to be confrontations between you. For the past 25 years, Huntington's thesis has encouraged an expansionist foreign policy which has produced just the kinds of wars it purports to explain.
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This is a chapter I wrote for a book, International Relations: A Beginner's Guide, edited by Stephen McGlinchey and forthcoming with E-International Relations Publishing in January 2017. It is my attempt to describe the origin of the... more
This is a chapter I wrote for a book, International Relations: A Beginner's Guide, edited by Stephen McGlinchey and forthcoming with E-International Relations Publishing in January 2017. It is my attempt to describe the origin of the state, and the European interstate system, as they came to develop from the Middle Ages onwards, and also to say something about how the European system spread to the rest of the world. It is very much an entry-level chapter, intended for first-year undergraduates.
Yes, it is an example of the future of academic publishing — open source, open access, no profit, etc. This is the final, published, version.
Please cite as:
Ringmar, Erik. “The Making of the Modern World,” International Relations: A Beginner's Guide, edited by Stephen McGlinchey, E-International Relations Publishing, 2017.
Yes, it is an example of the future of academic publishing — open source, open access, no profit, etc. This is the final, published, version.
Please cite as:
Ringmar, Erik. “The Making of the Modern World,” International Relations: A Beginner's Guide, edited by Stephen McGlinchey, E-International Relations Publishing, 2017.
Research Interests:
This is my review of Kenneth Pomeranz, The Great Divergence
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Radical politics in modern society was premised on a constructivist ontology which now increasingly has been abandoned in favor of political solutions based on an ontology of self-organization. As a result, radical politics is in decline.... more
Radical politics in modern society was premised on a constructivist ontology which now increasingly has been abandoned in favor of political solutions based on an ontology of self-organization. As a result, radical politics is in decline. Yet the self-organizing model is unable to explain the most salient feature of modern society — the relentlessness and automaticity of social change. Change can only be explained by an ontology which focuses on the self-actualization of the potential. This alternative ontology can also serve as the foundation for a new form of radical politics.
Research Interests:
This is a short, 5-page, comment on two articles that recently appeared in Scandinavian Economic History Review, one by Deirdre McCloskey and the other by Barry Weingast. The topic is “Why Europe Was First?” — that is, why Europe and not,... more
This is a short, 5-page, comment on two articles that recently appeared in Scandinavian Economic History Review, one by Deirdre McCloskey and the other by Barry Weingast. The topic is “Why Europe Was First?” — that is, why Europe and not, say, China came to experience “the great enrichment” after the year 1700. This is a topic about which I've written a book, and McCloskey, amazingly generously, discusses my argument at some length. No, she doesn't agree with me. In these comments, I develop my original argument and add some points. Yes, I still think her view is too limited. No, I don't agree with Weingast either. Unfortunately, or thankfully, the editors only gave me 1,500 words.
If you are interested in this debate, I would love to have your comments.
If you are interested in this debate, I would love to have your comments.
Research Interests:
For most of its history Europe was a thoroughly average part of the world: poor, uncouth, technologically and culturally backward. By contrast, China was always far richer, more sophisticated and advanced. Yet it was Europe that first... more
For most of its history Europe was a thoroughly average part of the world: poor, uncouth, technologically and culturally backward. By contrast, China was always far richer, more sophisticated and advanced. Yet it was Europe that first became modern, and by the nineteenth century China was struggling to catch up. This book explains why. Why did Europe succeed and why was China left behind? The answer, as we will see, does not only solve a long-standing historical puzzle, it also provides an explanation of the contemporary success of East Asia, and it shows what is wrong with current theories of development and modernization.
Research Interests: Entrepreneurship, European History, Economic History, Economic Sociology, Social Change, and 14 moreDevelopment Economics, Modernization, History of Universities, Economic Development, China, Conflict Resolution, Reflection, East Asian History, Institutions, East West relations, History of Political Institutions, History of entreprenuership, History of Political and Parliamentary Institutions, and History of Newspapers
This is a short article I wrote for Political Science Educator Newsletter (an APSA publication) explaining a format I've been experimenting with when it comes to exams. It's about "items" and "stories" (well, read the paper-only 7 pages).... more
This is a short article I wrote for Political Science Educator Newsletter (an APSA publication) explaining a format I've been experimenting with when it comes to exams. It's about "items" and "stories" (well, read the paper-only 7 pages). The format seems to be AI proof. Indeed, I can even encourage my students to use AI when completing the exams. I hope my experiments can inspire others.
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This is a short journalistic piece, only 4 pages, which discusses the project for a Kanal Instanbul which will bypass the Bosphorus. Although there are many good, rational, reasons to construct this alternative waterway, there is a strong... more
This is a short journalistic piece, only 4 pages, which discusses the project for a Kanal Instanbul which will bypass the Bosphorus. Although there are many good, rational, reasons to construct this alternative waterway, there is a strong existential reason against it: in order to properly understand who we are, we need to acknowledge the alien, unknown, within us. Freud made this point, and Edward Said too. All those foreign ships from faraway countries put the radically unknown right into the center of our lives.
Research Interests:
This is my take on the Corona virus and globalization. I don't usually write commentary on contemporary issues, but these nice people in Teheran wanted something. Joseph Nye is in the volume too!
Research Interests:
Abstract In this article, I analyse the unexpected quarrels and strange new alliances that formed in response to the United States' decision to go to war against Iraq in the spring of 2003. Telling different stories about Iraq, about... more
Abstract In this article, I analyse the unexpected quarrels and strange new alliances that formed in response to the United States' decision to go to war against Iraq in the spring of 2003. Telling different stories about Iraq, about themselves and about the nature of world politics, decision-makers reached different, conflicting conclusions. As is the case with all stories, these accounts are best analysed with the help of literary theory.
Research Interests:
All political systems need some way of assuring social order. Order guarantees peace and physical security but also hermeneutic stability. Only if some measure of social order is assured will it be possible to interpret the world... more
All political systems need some way of assuring social order. Order guarantees peace and physical security but also hermeneutic stability. Only if some measure of social order is assured will it be possible to interpret the world coherently, to plan and to act rationally. For order to be established, a way must be found of dealing with diversity, with the coexistence of potentially conflicting ideas, projects and goals. In the process of working out such conflicts, power will come to be distributed in a certain fashion.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This article, co-written with Jens Bartelson all the way back in 1985, discusses the US withdrawal from two UN organizations -- the ILO and Unesco. It's the first academic work I ever published. Unfortunately it's in Swedish.
This is a short rejoinder to critical comments on my and Thomas Lindemann's edited volume The International Politics of Recognition, from a forum devoted to the book in Global Discourse, 4:4, 2014.
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In this article I investigate the various ways in which institutions help people think critically about the world around them. The conclusion is that people in East Asia historically have been far more reflective about their lives than in... more
In this article I investigate the various ways in which institutions help people think critically about the world around them. The conclusion is that people in East Asia historically have been far more reflective about their lives than in Europe, but that reflective institutions in Europe functioned a lot better.
Research Interests:
Human life cannot be reduced to market transactions and human beings cannot only be treated as economic actors. When the power of the market increases, human beings will always try to protect themselves. Given the differences that exist... more
Human life cannot be reduced to market transactions and human beings cannot only be treated as economic actors. When the power of the market increases, human beings will always try to protect themselves. Given the differences that exist in social and cultural traditions, these protective responses are likely to differ from one society to the other. This is why, even in a global market, diversity is always likely to persist.
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This is my 800 word review of Anna Maria Forsberg's, The Story of War: Church and Propaganda in France and Sweden, 1610-1710. It will appear in American Historical Review.
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The role of "functions" in social analysis. The impossibility of conceptualizing before you have theorized. And similar intriguing matters.
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This is a review article which discusses two books, Contested Territory: Border Disputes at the Edge of the former Soviet Empire, edited by Tuomas Forsberg, and Peacekeeping and the Role of Russia in Eurasia, edited by Lena Jonson and... more
This is a review article which discusses two books, Contested Territory: Border Disputes at the Edge of the former Soviet Empire, edited by Tuomas Forsberg, and Peacekeeping and the Role of Russia in Eurasia, edited by Lena Jonson and Clive Archer.
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Cite as Ringmar, Erik. ”Drömmen om revansch för historisk förnedring”. Respons, 3:2, 2015. http://tidskriftenrespons.se/sok-texter/. Det råder ingen tvekan om att Börje Ljunggren är kvalificerad att skriva om Kina och hans bok är... more
Cite as Ringmar, Erik. ”Drömmen om revansch för historisk förnedring”. Respons, 3:2, 2015. http://tidskriftenrespons.se/sok-texter/.
Det råder ingen tvekan om att Börje Ljunggren är kvalificerad att skriva om Kina och hans bok är utförlig, men ändå lättläst. Han använder sig både av statistik och egna erfarenheter för att fånga Kina i dag och i framtiden och ger en rättvis och klok bild av landet. Som läsare skulle man dock vilja komma vanliga människor litet närmare. Vi lever i en tid av kinesisk renässans och förnyelse. Stora saker håller på att hända i Kina och många är de västerländska observatörer som vill berätta historien. Böckerna om den kinesiska drakens mirakulösa återuppståndelse bildar i dag en egen, och oftast starkt repetitiv, genre. Börje Ljunggrens Den kinesiska drömmen – Utmaningar för Kina och världen är ett av de senaste tillskotten. På 700 sidor erbjuder han sina läsare en genomgång av en rad redan välkända ämnen: mänskliga rättigheter, civilsamhällets roll, klimatförändring, den globala maktförskjutningen och inte minst tillväxten hos en på samma gång resurskrävande och människokvävande ekonomi. Men man ska inte vara alltför cynisk. Boken är lättläst men också utförlig, övergripande men också personligt hållen och Ljunggren använder sig både av statistik och sina egna erfarenheter för att berätta om dagens Kina och framtidens. Det behövs sådana här böcker. Och det är ingen tvekan om att Börje Ljunggren är kvalificerad att skriva om Kina. Hela hans karriär har varit ägnad åt Asien. Han har inte bara varit avdelningschef på Sida och chef för UD:s Asienenhet utan också svensk ambassadör i Peking i flera år. Den kinesiska drömmen är inte heller hans första bok på temat utan snarare en uppdatering av hans Kina – Vår tids drama, från 2008. I en tid när Kinaböcker blivit legio måste varje tillskott profilera sig och i fallet Den kinesiska drömmen är det författaren själv som gör skillnaden. Man blir hela tiden påmind om att det är en bok skriven utifrån Ljunggrens samlade kunskap. Efter presentationer av fakta och statistik avslutas varje kapitel av personliga omdömen: " Med mina ögon sett … " " Jag bedömer att … " Dessutom är originalspråket svenska och boken är skriven för en svensk publik. Det är våra uppfattningar om Kina som Ljunggren tar sig an – liksom våra missuppfattningar. I vart och ett av de tretton kapitlen läggs en ny dimension till den framväxande bilden
Det råder ingen tvekan om att Börje Ljunggren är kvalificerad att skriva om Kina och hans bok är utförlig, men ändå lättläst. Han använder sig både av statistik och egna erfarenheter för att fånga Kina i dag och i framtiden och ger en rättvis och klok bild av landet. Som läsare skulle man dock vilja komma vanliga människor litet närmare. Vi lever i en tid av kinesisk renässans och förnyelse. Stora saker håller på att hända i Kina och många är de västerländska observatörer som vill berätta historien. Böckerna om den kinesiska drakens mirakulösa återuppståndelse bildar i dag en egen, och oftast starkt repetitiv, genre. Börje Ljunggrens Den kinesiska drömmen – Utmaningar för Kina och världen är ett av de senaste tillskotten. På 700 sidor erbjuder han sina läsare en genomgång av en rad redan välkända ämnen: mänskliga rättigheter, civilsamhällets roll, klimatförändring, den globala maktförskjutningen och inte minst tillväxten hos en på samma gång resurskrävande och människokvävande ekonomi. Men man ska inte vara alltför cynisk. Boken är lättläst men också utförlig, övergripande men också personligt hållen och Ljunggren använder sig både av statistik och sina egna erfarenheter för att berätta om dagens Kina och framtidens. Det behövs sådana här böcker. Och det är ingen tvekan om att Börje Ljunggren är kvalificerad att skriva om Kina. Hela hans karriär har varit ägnad åt Asien. Han har inte bara varit avdelningschef på Sida och chef för UD:s Asienenhet utan också svensk ambassadör i Peking i flera år. Den kinesiska drömmen är inte heller hans första bok på temat utan snarare en uppdatering av hans Kina – Vår tids drama, från 2008. I en tid när Kinaböcker blivit legio måste varje tillskott profilera sig och i fallet Den kinesiska drömmen är det författaren själv som gör skillnaden. Man blir hela tiden påmind om att det är en bok skriven utifrån Ljunggrens samlade kunskap. Efter presentationer av fakta och statistik avslutas varje kapitel av personliga omdömen: " Med mina ögon sett … " " Jag bedömer att … " Dessutom är originalspråket svenska och boken är skriven för en svensk publik. Det är våra uppfattningar om Kina som Ljunggren tar sig an – liksom våra missuppfattningar. I vart och ett av de tretton kapitlen läggs en ny dimension till den framväxande bilden
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Ringmar, Erik. “Book Review: Vanishing Coup: The Pattern of World History Since 1310.” Cooperation and Conflict, November 13, 2015.
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This is my review of the new Swedish edition of Zola's famous letter to the French president of January 13, 1898.
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Ringmar, Erik. “Review of Violent Protest, Contentious Politics and the Neoliberal State,” edited by Seraphim Seferiades & Hank Johnston Contemporary Sociology 44, no. 4 (July 2015): 552–54.
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This is a short piece for Political Science Educator (a newsletter from the American Political Science Association) where I describe the way I run exams these days. Use of AI is not only permitted, but encouraged!
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This a short clip from the movie "Torment" (Hets) but Alf Sjöberg and Ingemar Bergman. 1944. I added subtitles discussing the use of Ai
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Translation by Martina Varkočková and Aleš Karmazin.
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Most people in today's society subscribe to a version of the ideals of the Enlightenment, including rationalism, universal values and human rights. We generally believe that mankind can control history and nature and that we can make... more
Most people in today's society subscribe to a version of the ideals of the Enlightenment, including rationalism, universal values and human rights. We generally believe that mankind can control history and nature and that we can make progress. As a result of the revolutions in France and in the United States at the end of the eighteenth-century ideas such as these were turned into political programs that gained next to universal adherence. But the ideals had critics too, both at the time and to this day. In this course it is these critics we will study: Romantics, conservatives, reactionaries, but also assorted radicals and revolutionaries. This is a course in the history of political ideas with a focus on texts produced by political thinkers but the ideas will always be discussed in their historical and social contexts.
Research Interests: Political Philosophy, Human Rights, The industrialization of agriculture: vertical coordination in the US food system., Race and Racism, Liberalism, and 9 moreFrench Revolution, Conservatism, Enlightenment, Modernity, History of Political Thought, Rationalism, Urbanization, Freedom, and Career Progression In Science and Engineering
En föreläsning för studenter om hur man ska skriva en uppsats. A lecture on how to write a term paper (for my students here in Sweden, I just might translate it into English if I find the time).
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This is an updated and improved version of my cult classic, “How to Write an Academic Paper.” The aim is not to provide yet another article on scientific methods, but instead to tell students about what I take to be the very core of the... more
This is an updated and improved version of my cult classic, “How to Write an Academic Paper.” The aim is not to provide yet another article on scientific methods, but instead to tell students about what I take to be the very core of the research process – the importance of asking good questions. Research, let’s not forget, is great fun and this is what I’m trying to get across. The paper will be published as:
Erik Ringmar, “How to Write an Academic Paper,” Working-papers of the Dept of Political Science, Ibn Haldun University, Istanbul, Turkey, 2019.
Please refer to as above, but there is no copyright. Feel free to use and spread as you like. Btw, the paper is also available online here: http://ringmar.net/mycourses/index.php/2018/11/16/how-to-write-an-academic-paper/
All the best, happy research,
Erik
Erik Ringmar, “How to Write an Academic Paper,” Working-papers of the Dept of Political Science, Ibn Haldun University, Istanbul, Turkey, 2019.
Please refer to as above, but there is no copyright. Feel free to use and spread as you like. Btw, the paper is also available online here: http://ringmar.net/mycourses/index.php/2018/11/16/how-to-write-an-academic-paper/
All the best, happy research,
Erik
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These are some of the universities where they've put things I've written on their reading lists.
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This is a 10-page write-up of a talk I’m giving later today at a conference on “Islamic Thought and its Implications for Social Inquiry: A Multiplex Approach,” held at Ibn Haldun University’s very spectacular Suleymaniye Campus here in... more
This is a 10-page write-up of a talk I’m giving later today at a conference on “Islamic Thought and its Implications for Social Inquiry: A Multiplex Approach,” held at Ibn Haldun University’s very spectacular Suleymaniye Campus here in Istanbul. In the talk I explore the commonalities between Muslim conceptions of the human subject and recent developments in the cognitive sciences. I hope to write a book about this one day. Comments very much welcome.
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These are some thoughts on globalization and the Corona pandemic. To appear in a volume published by Imam Sadiq University Press in Iran, edited by Amir Mohammad Esmaeili.
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This is a short description of my experiences of fasting during Ramadan. "I could feel the boundaries of my community being redrawn."
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This is a first draft my contribution to a Routledge Handbook on Religion and Ideology edited by Jeff Haynes. My chapter is on “Anarchism and Religion.” This is an intriguing topic I thought. God is the supreme power surely, but how can... more
This is a first draft my contribution to a Routledge Handbook on Religion and Ideology edited by Jeff Haynes. My chapter is on “Anarchism and Religion.” This is an intriguing topic I thought. God is the supreme power surely, but how can people who are so skeptical of power also be Christian? And how can there by anarchist Muslims? Well, read the chapter and you’ll find out.
Comments appreciated of course (especially if you are an anarchist, Christian, Muslim or other religious believer).
thanks for reading,
Erik
Comments appreciated of course (especially if you are an anarchist, Christian, Muslim or other religious believer).
thanks for reading,
Erik