The wish to increase security levels across society -- in response to crime, irregular migration and terrorist threats -- has been presented as a sliding scale whereby if a state wishes to be secure then the public must endure a reduction in personal freedoms. As such, the official discourse as crafted by elites never fully accounts for or subsumes the whole of a society. It is closely related to Post-Modernism, although the two concepts are not synonymous.. Butler argues that thousands of people are lost to conflict in countries such as Palestine and Afghanistan, often at the hands of Western powers, and yet these people are not mourned or memorialised or even heard of within Western reports of war. If we look to the aftermath of the events of 11 September 2001 (commonly known as 9/11) we can see these categories of differentiation and their influence begin to manifest themselves. Over time, the discursive construction of terrorists by the media was not strong enough to override the concurrent media accounts of large numbers of casualties resulting from the intervention. These entities exist independently of one’s knowledge of them. All content on the website is published under the following Creative Commons License, Copyright © — E-International Relations. Themes of patriotism and civility were deployed within the media to further distance the cohesive ‘us’ from the generic barbarian terrorist. How we receive information and the way that news events are presented to a society shapes how we conceptualise and react to political events. Many thanks! Structuralism (international relations): | |Structuralism in international relations theory| refers to "A theory of |international r... World Heritage Encyclopedia, the aggregation of the largest online encyclopedias available, and the most definitive collection ever assembled. For example, despite the warmongering in the wake of 9/11, there were large-scale anti-war protests by members of the public across many nations. The international relations schools of thought known as Realism and Idealism identify specific and similar characteristics of actors in the conceptual development of their theories. An example of this can be found in the security versus liberty debate. As the United States was drawn further into destructive and protracted conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, the public opinion that had supported intervention began to wane. Structuralism is an intellectual tendency that seeks to understand and explain social reality in terms of social structures. The official discourse across an event, although powerful, never fully accounts for the reading of the entire situation. As the United States was drawn further into destructive and protracted conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, the public opinion that had supported intervention began to wane. Poststructuralists always call into question how certain accepted 'facts' and 'beliefs' actually work to reinforce the dominance and power of particular actors within international relations. Tags: International Relations, IR Theory, Political Science, Political Science & International Relations, Diplomacy. The pervasion of this discourse also served to conflate the motivations and acts of these terrorists with the construction of a wider Muslim and Arab society. The strength of dominant discourses lies in their ability to shut out other options or opinions to the extent that thinking outside the realms set by the discourse is seen as irrational. DANA Multitasker 1,298 views. Privacy, Click Here: International Relations Theory (E-IR Foundations). Elnur Ismayilov Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster. Poststructuralists always call into question how certain accepted 'facts' and 'beliefs' actually work to reinforce the dominance and power of … The reactions of the public that gathered together to pray, support each other, volunteer and eventually join the military juxtaposed radically with the destructive actions of the terrorists. Structuralists emphasize… The reactions of the public that gathered together to pray, support each other, volunteer and eventually join the military juxtaposed radically with the destructive actions of the terrorists. The importance of the recognition of this discourse is not to attempt to present these political actors – the terrorists – in a better light, but to recognise how the consistent and universal portrayal of them as evil and irrational made certain reactions and foreign policy actions more amenable and immediately cut off other methods of responding to  these  terrorist  attacks. Poststructuralism encourages a way of looking at the world that challenges what comes to be accepted as 'truth' and 'knowledge'. Full references for citations can be found in the PDF version, linked at the top of this page. Additionally, these terrorists were set apart as different from more traditional forms of terrorism that the world had previously witnessed through the highlighting of the lethality and deadliness of mass murdering transnational terrorism – a move which heightened the emotions of fear and anxiety further. As such, if we want to observe how people have come to conceive and frame both terrorism and terrorists, the poststructuralist can analyse media accounts in order to analyse the discursive construction of these political actors and associated terrorist events. This is an excerpt from International Relations Theory an E-IR Foundations beginner’s textbook. Elites take on a range of forms and occupy many different roles in contemporary society. Yet, similar attacks in Beirut and Nigeria in November 2015 and Baghdad in July 2016 (to name but a few) went largely unnoticed and were silenced within regimes of truth that mourned for, or favoured, the ‘innocent’ Western victim. Any In newspaper reports – specifically, in the week after the attacks – the terrorists were presented as evil and irrational, their stated political motivations were effaced and instead terrorists were repeatedly spoken of as crazed and apolitical. This is an excerpt from International Relations Theory – an E-IR Foundations beginner’s textbook. Most importantly, poststructuralism allows you to become care- fully attuned to -- and interrogate -- the many ways that power is exercised. International Relations as a discipline is full of these oppositions and they are used by elites to both create favourable meaning out of certain events and to allow for this meaning to be easily absorbed and accepted by the wider public. Therefore, the move to achieve increased levels of security without the infringement upon personal or civil liberties is excluded from the argument, as the two are constantly being positioned in direct opposition to each other. Poststructuralism doubts the possibility of attaining universal laws or truths as there is no world that exists independently of our own interpretations. Personal freedoms – such as the freedom of expression and freedom of assembly – have been placed as the limit against which security exists. Poststructuralism encourages a way of looking at the world that challenges what comes to be accepted as ‘truth’ and ‘knowledge’. BUSINESS | FOREIGN POLICY | Elites take on a range of forms and occupy many different roles in contemporary society. These ideas and concepts have been used to produce new knowledge about world politics. Structuralist ideas are rooted in Marxist analysis and focus on how the dominant economic structures of society affect (i.e., exploit) class interests and relations. Introducing Poststructuralism in International Relations Theory Written by Aishling Mc Morrow whereby if a state wishes to be secure then the public must endure a reduction in personal freedoms. Discourses facilitate the process by which certain information comes to be accepted as unquestionable truth. POLITICS, HOME | The wish to increase security levels across society – in response to crime, irregular migration and terrorist threats – has been presented as a sliding scale whereby if a state wishes to be secure then the public must endure a reduction in personal freedoms. LIFESTYLE | STOCKS | Through language, certain actors, concepts and events are placed in hierarchical pairs, named binary oppositions, whereby one element of the set is favoured over the other in order to create or perpetuate meaning. By examining elite actors, we can see how commonly accepted facts about the political system are not ‘natural’ but, instead, constructed in order to favour a dominant discourse. ENVIRONMENT | Poststructuralism doubts the possibility of attaining universal laws or truths as there is no world that exists independently of our own interpretations. As such, if we want to observe   how people have come to conceive and frame both terrorism and terrorists, the poststructuralist can analyse media accounts in order to analyse the discursive construction of these political actors and associated terrorist events. 4.0 An Explanation of Realism, Liberalism, Constructivism and Post-Structuralism. Poststructural/postmodern international relations (IR) is a mode of critical thinking and analysis that joined disciplinary conversations during the 1980s and, despite the dismissive reception it has initially faced, it is a vibrant and expanding area of research within the field today. 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