ULUSLARARASI İLİŞKİLER TEORİLERİ II - Deneme Sınavı - 8

The Aberystwyth School questions the narrow, militarized, positivist and theoretically realist security conception. In the framework of this critical attitude, the Aberystwyth School emerged in order to revisit the security concept. The Aberystwyth School addresses the security as a derivative concept, claims for the necessity of widening of security agenda, privileges individual as the referent object of security, regards security issue in the context of emancipation concept, considers threats in a socially constructed manner, and examines the relationships between self and other. 

One of the most important distinguishing features of the Aberystwyth School is the adoption of thoughts of critical theory to security concept and practice. These theories aim to develop a political theory that targets to provide a social transformation through revealing and, if it is possible, eliminating all obstacles for the emancipation of human beings while the traditional theories with a positivist approach are related with the reproduction of the status quo.

The correct answer is C.

Robert Cox introduced his critiques to dominant theories of international relations with a Gramscian perspective, arguing that “theory is always for someone and for some purposes” (Cox, 1981: 128). If values and ideas are the reflections of specific social relationships, all knowledge should reflect a specific context, time and space. In other words, knowledge cannot be timeless and objective in contrast to realist argument. That is why, there is not a simple dividing line between values and facts. In this context, allegedly all objective and value-free theories, thoughts and analyses should be viewed with a critical manner. According to Cox, regarding the world as given helps to legitimization of dominant hegemonic relationships in world politics. Hence, Cox advocates critical theoretical perspective instead of problem-solving one. Because, critical theory attempts to question the dominant order by analysing and revealing social forces that could lead to emancipatory change.

The correct answer is E.

Aberystwyth School addresses security theory as a political activity and brings the politics back to security studies by seeking to display the connection between security theory and political order. For the Aberystwyth School, priority is not about how security will be ensured, but the sources of security issues. Hence, it is not sufficient to undertake security as a negative security situation. Positive security that comprises social, economic and cultural structures should have a priority. Thus, as long as the concept of security is about the improvement of human welfare, it will have a positive meaning for the Aberystwyth School. 

The concept of “survival plus” that means the security beyond survival of state aims to create appropriate environment for perfection human-beings themselves. In this framework, security refers to positive life conditions beyond the survival needs of the state. According to the Aberystwyth School, security is worthwhile for human collectivities and should be understood as a positive value. Therefore, security is conceptualized as a condition of emancipation of individuals from insecurities.

According to the Aberystwyth School which makes effort to reveal the limitations of traditional security conception, security is a derivative concept based on a priori political understanding. While traditional security conception defines the Security Studies in terms of the study of the threat, use, and control of military force, critical approaches to security focus on the normative choices and their political implications. The Aberystwyth School addresses security theory as a political activity and brings the politics back to security studies by seeking to display the connection between security theory and political order.

The correct answer is A.

The Aberystwyth School defines peace and security not only in terms of the absence of wars and physical conflicts, but also absence of all forms of violence, namely physical, structural and cultural ones. In this sense, positive security that refers to the inclusion of non-military threats to the scope of security and the elimination of structural and cultural violence should have a priority.

The correct answer is D.

According to the Aberystwyth School, although state preserves its central position in security studies, its previous privileged position as a referent object of security is contested. This is because, broadening of security agenda is necessarily required to analyse various referent objects of security apart from the state actor.

The state-centric security approaches do not provide theoretical and conceptual tools in order to analyse insecurities of human collectivities and individuals. Hence, Aberystwyth School seeks to give a central position to human emancipation instead of security of the state. Such an effort requires to regard individuals as the privileged referent object of security. Such a conceptualization that gives priority to human emancipation is a radical break from dominant security conception based on national security notion.

In the framework of human security concept, humanitarian needs are much more important than the security needs of the state.

The correct answer is E.

In United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) 1994 Human Development Report, the concepts of personal security, community security, economic security, food security, environmental security, political security and health security are described as categories of human security. 

In economic security, threats are defined in the following ways; working conditions, employment opportunities, wage and income conditions, poverty, homelessness and job security, etc. In food security, threats are defined as poor access to food and drinkable water, etc. In health security, threats are defined as infectious diseases and cancer, absence of drinkable water, air pollution and poor access to health-care services, etc. In environmental security, threats are defined as degradation of ecosystem, water scarcity, deforestation, air pollution and natural disasters, etc. In personal security, threats are defined in the context of physical violence such as torture, war, ethnic tension, crime and street violence, rape, child abuse, suicide and drug use. In community security, threats are defined as discrimination, assimilation, ethnic tension, genocide, ethnic cleasing and weakening and/or disappearing of traditional languages and cultures, etc. In political security, threats are defined as political repressions of the state and governments, systematic human rights violations, militarization of the society, etc.

The correct answer is C.

Emancipation means resisting to oppression, and struggle for a society based on fundamental freedoms, equality, justice, human development and progress. War, poverty, insufficient education and political pressure etc. can be seen as the obstacles for human emancipation. Threats to individuals and societies can include direct (physical) violence such as war, conflict and terrorist activities, indirect (structural) violence such as socio-economic problems, unemployment, poverty, lack or absence of health-care service and/or cultural violence such as discriminatory or assimilative policies to identity-based social groups.

Political parties alone do not constitute a threat to human emancipation.

The correct answer is E.

When the current international security issues are analysed, it is clear that the Western world gives itself a central position and makes non-Western world “others”. Given that the threatened values are the Western values, threats against them emanate from non-Western societies. Therefore, dominant relations, thoughts and actions of contemporary world politics create a hegemony, and solving security problems of this hegemony reflects a unilateral choice without regarding the security needs of all societies of the world.

As xenophobia in the Western societies has increased, interventions conducted in the direction of strategy of “global war on terrorism” have caused massive violations of human rights. In that case, it can be argued that the efforts of the Western world to overcome security problems have contributed to emergence of a global insecurity atmosphere.

In contrast to othering process based on identity that has gained a global characteristic after 11 September, Aberystwyth School draws attention to existence of identity-based oppresive structures that lead to construction of dominative relationships. Therefore, it advocates emancipatory communities based around an inclusionary and egalitarian notions of identity. In this context, it is stated that human emancipation - both that of individual humans and humanity in general - provides the guide both for relations within communities and between them.

The correct answer is B.

The concept of human security is mainly defined accorging to two different conceptions; freedom from fear and freedom from want. Freedom from want conception evaluates human security in a wider perspective by regarding poverty, disease, economy, health and environmental problems. On the other hand, freedom from fear conception of human security with a narrow perspective focuses on physical violence and threats.

The correct answer is B.

The first “wave” of the feminist movement was observed in the 19th century (1800s and early 1900s); and it was concentrated on the fight for the same legal and political rights as men, such as women’s suffrage, equal opportunity rights, parenting rights, as well as rights related to marriage and their right to vote.

Freidan’s term “feminine mystique” symbolizes the societal belief that women could find contentment and gratification in domestic sphere through attitudes such as housework, marriage and raising children, and that they have no desire in having education, career or political rights. Therefore the correct answer is B.

As a point of departure, liberal feminism explores the personal interactions of men and women in order to find ways in which societies are transformed into a more “gender-equitable” places. Liberal feminism rejects the claim that the inclusion of women in the power structure of international society would change the nature of IR. The correct answer is D.

Radical feminism primarily aims to formulate new ways of understanding the relationship between men and women; and believes that it is the male-dominated hierarchy (or patriarchy) that is responsible for the oppressed status of women today. Therefore, it believes in “going to the root” or the source. The correct answer is D.

Postmodern feminism rejects the assertions of liberal feminist approach and attempts to deconstruct realist interpretations of IR in order to uncover the concealed yet existent influences of gender. The correct answer is E.

Feminist IR approaches are also categorized, based on epistemology. analytical feminism which formulates “gender” as a “theoretical category” whilst exploring the hidden “gender bias” of main IR concepts and whilst discussing the structural aspects of relations. The correct answer is A.

J. Ann Tickner became famous for her attempts to challenge the mainstream IR theories and through her contributions to the sub-discipline of feminist IR by projecting innovative theoretical debates and introducing new areas of analysis. The correct answer is A.

Christine Sylvester explores the “three debates” in the context of feminist theorizing with particular emphasis on empirical and post-modernist stances of knowledge construction. Accordingly, Sylvester puts forward three kinds of epistemologies as: i) empiricism and liberalism; ii) standpoint and radical-cultural politics; and iii) social feminist practice and postmodern scepticism. The correct answer is C.

Some of the main concepts that the feminists try to re-formulate according to their own arguments are “power, security, state, war and peace”. D does not belong to this category.

Constructivist feminism advises for the inclusion of social structures into the analyses of international politics and indicates that there is a direct correlation between gender perceptions on politics, power and security and international politics. The correct answer is B.

The early examples of feminism can be found in the Middle Ages, such as the first written literature on the “episodic history of women” and the rhetoric of feminism La Cité Des Dames  by Christine de Pizan in 1405, in which the author offers an apology for women’s education.