The Sovereign State as Political Community: A Revisiting of the Post-Structuralist Critique of the Neorealist State

Abstract

The continued commitment to and assertion of the primacy of the sovereign state within international relations theory has resulted in a discourse which theorizes and examines only those issues and conflicts of international politics which can be made to fit neatly within the prism of the neorealist discourse. As such, there exists a void in the examination of such issues as the nature and possibilities of alternative forms of political community, or into the political and economic effects these alternative forms of political community (such as social, economic, religious and environmental) pose to the traditional state and the envisioning of a global society. The aim of this thesis is two-fold: first, to renew interest and inquiry into the discursive limitations of the neorealist discourse of difference and negation; and secondly, to call attention to how the practical and discursive constraints of the neorealist conception of the state as political community effects the ability of international relations theory to address current conflicts and issues on the international stage. The intent of this analysis is to spark a renewed interest in exploring not only the emergence of new forms of political community but the possibility of being able to speak about these new forms within a discourse of international relations. Only through a commitment to the critical examination of its discourse can international relations theory uncover new ways to re-envision such concepts as political community and international politics.