State Personhood in Ontological Security Theories of International Relations and Chinese Nationalism: A Sceptical View
Abstract
International Relations theory continues to grapple with the question of how to account for the behaviour of corporate actors, such as ethnic groups, social classes or, more often than not, states. The viability of certain theoretical approaches that are potentially relevant to explaining contemporary international relations, including theories of socialization, learning and persuasion, partly hinges on resolving this problem. Although it is widely acknowledged that extrapolating theoretical concepts from the individual level to states operating in an international system can be problematic, International Relations theorists continue to use and defend this approach. They often justify this theoretical position using a Friedman-style instrumental rationale: treating the state as a person is theoretically productive because it generates empirically supported hypotheses.
Recommended Citation
Krolikowski, A. (2008). State Personhood in Ontological Security Theories of International Relations and Chinese Nationalism: A Sceptical View. Chinese Journal of International Politics, 2(1), pp. 109-133. Oxford Academic.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1093/cjip/pon003
Department(s)
History and Political Science
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
1750-8916; 1750-8924
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2007 The Author, All rights reserved.
Publication Date
01 Jul 2008
