Global Discourse

The second special issue on examining the contemporary relevance of Marxism has been released. The issue contains articles on Post-Marxism, Derrida and the Communist Manifesto, Cambodia and development, criminology and a symposium on imperialism and the neo-national bourgeoisie, including analysis of ‘Turkey’s turn to the East’ and ‘the changing formations of the power bloc in Iran’. There are substantive replies by Mark Devenney, Simon Choat, James Tyner, Kristian Lasslett and Farhang Morady, and book review symposia on ‘Left in the Past: Radicalism and the Politics of Nostalgia by Alastair Bonnett’, ‘Marx at the Margins: On Nationalism, Ethnicity, and Non-Western Societies by Kevin B. Anderson’ and ‘The International Political Economy of Work and Employability by Phoebe V. Moore-Carter’. Full contents are available at: http://global-discourse.com/contents/.

We are currently soliciting proposals for guest edited issues of Global Discourse. Proposals must conform to the journal’s best practice guidelines. Guest editors must have a track record of publication, with some experience of editing preferable.

Prospective guest editors are requested to complete as fully as possible the Guest Editor Issue Proposal Form. All approved guest editors are expected to abide by the Global Discourse Best Practice Guidelines must sign and return the Issue Editor Agreement Form prior to undertaking the role. All forms are available at: http://global-discourse.com/editors/.

Proposals are evaluated according to criteria of overall quality, timeliness, relevance and feasibility.

Please complete the Guest Editor Issue form and return electronically to the Editor, Matthew Johnson, at editor@global-discourse.com.

Suggested Topics

Debt, Austerity, Responsibility and Sacrifice

The contemporary global economy is rife with crises of indebtedness, with even wealthy Western countries affected. Under what conditions should we accept debt? What values should we associate with austerity? Who should take responsibility for indebtedness? What forms of sacrifice can we ask particular individuals and bodies to make?

Charity, Aid and Self-Interest

With an increasing number of concerns being raised about possible deleterious effects of aid on recipient groups, and possible self-interested motives behind donation, should we view aid and charity with suspicion? Can we ever expect altruism in donation and should it matter if we cannot?

Withdrawing from Conflict

The countries which led the interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan are now talking of withdrawal. With expectations low, what would constitute a good withdrawal? Morally, is the burden of withdrawal as significant as the burden of intervention? In a Westphalian context, is withdrawal a good in and of itself?

Terrorism and Narcissism

In the wake of Anders Behring Breivik’s recent acts of terrorism, questions are being raised about the role of narcissism and other personality disorders in extremist politics. Should we look beyond the particular stated identity, aims and motivation of extremists towards psychological and emotional factors in the development of radicals? Would such an approach reduce to banality the espoused goals of radical individuals?

Justice and the Atmosphere

The problem of global climate change involves an interplay of unique political-ethical problems. Fundamental issues include the vast discrepancy between the causes and effects of global warming and the disparate consequences of a history of internationally uneven levels of industrialisation and consumption of fossil fuels. Are there cogent, practicable means of addressing historical inequalities? Should developing countries be entitled to follow courses charted by industrialised nations?

The 21^st century has so far seen US-led military interventions, global financial crises, identity conflicts, terrorism on a grand scale, environmental disasters and fraught industrial/labour relations. These dramatic events have challenged the notion of an ‘end to history’ and the widespread belief that the collapse of the Soviet Union has made Marx and Marxism irrelevant. With growing instability in the social, political and economic functioning of societies, it is necessary to examine the relevance of Marx to contemporary global society.

Global Discourse (global-discourse.com), has released the first of two special issues conducting this examination through a number of articles developed from papers given at ‘Examining the Relevance of Marx and Marxism to Contemporary Global Society’ conference, which was held at Newcastle University on January 29^th and 30^th. There are contributions by key figures, such as Norman Geras, Stuart Sim, Lawrence Wilde, Joseph Femia, Terrell Carver, Alan Johnson, Paul Bowman and Mark Sandle, as well as book review symposia on Murray E. G. Smith’s Global Capitalism in Crisis, with reviews by Esteban Castro and Thom Workman, and on Simon Choat’s Marx Through Post-Structuralism, with reviews by Jason Edwards and Saul Newman. Also included in this issue, though not engaging directly with Marxism, is a review symposium on Humanitarian Intervention and the Responsibility to Protect by James Pattison, featuring rigorous reviews by David Miller and Graham Long. All papers are available on the contents page.

An agreement with the Political Studies Association Marxism Specialist Group means that articles which address topics related to Marx and Marxism are eligible for consideration for subsequent inclusion in the Group’s annual print journal Studies in Marxism. Papers which are accepted following the peer-review process in Global Discourse do not then need to be reviewed again prior to inclusion in Studies in Marxism. The editorial board of Studies in Marxism will invite authors of relevant peer-reviewed articles in Global Discourse to consider subsequent publication in Studies in Marxism. Articles will be removed from publication on the Global Discourse website prior to publication in Studies in Marxism. Full details of the group and journal are available at: http://www.psa.ac.uk/spgrp/30/marx-pub.aspx

Authors who wish to submit articles eligible for inclusion in Studies in Marxism should follow the directions of the Studies in Marxism style sheet.

Full details of the conference in January, including participants, papers, panels, abstracts, costs, travel and accommodation  are available here.

Volume 1: Issue II

Special Issue on ‘Anarchism and IR’

This second issue of Global Discourse is a special issue on anarchism and International Relations. Anarchism has long been an under-represented and mis-represented approach to world politics. This is despite the fact that a number of excellent articles in the mid-70s brought anarchism to IR theory and Peace Studies. As an inherently critical and normative theory, anarchism’s radical insights into social and economic power and its damming condemnation of all authoritarian structures, particularly the state, are of great significance to those of us grappling with the ‘political’ dimensions of the international sphere. It is not surprising therefore that recently there has been a veritable explosion of academic and social interest in anarchism that constitutes nothing less than a revival of this tradition. It is in the spirit of this revival that we are pleased to present this special forum on ‘Anarchism and IR’ in Global Discourse.

This forum is based on a number of papers that were presented at the ‘Anarchism and World Politics’ colloquium held at the University of Bristol in June 2010. This colloquium was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council and was largely organised by Alex Prichard whose efforts contributed greatly to the success of the event.The papers published here offer a great cross-section of those presented, covering such diverse topics as social movements, terrorism and religion. What these papers reveal is a rich intellectual current that explores the possibilities and forms of social agency that eschew domination. Collectively, they provide clear examples of what diversity in anarchist thought can offer us all.

The first two papers explore the relationship between anarchism and social movements. April Carrière’s ‘Social Movements and the Bolivian State’ counters the logic of hegemony within both liberal and Marxist understandings of state-based social change in the context of Bolivia. She argues that these paradigms obscure non-hegemonic indigenous movements, tactics and practices in Bolivia that seek to escape the dichotomy of reform or revolution and she looks to these movements as the source of Bolivian collective capacity for resistance. Continuing with this focus on social movements, Roy Krøvel in ‘Anarchism, the Zapatistas and the Global Solidarity Movement’ examines the history of the Zapitistas and their relations with the global solidarity movement. For Krøvel this movement stands out from other earlier solidarity movements in the region because of the absence of trade unions and faith groups that played pivotal roles in other Central American struggles against authoritarian regimes, such as in El Salvador and Guatemala. This meant that the global solidarity movement came to rely on individual activists and small informal organizations forming a loose network that Krøvel finds reflects anarchist principles in the broadest sense of the word.

The next two articles focus on the problems of violence and religion, albeit in fundamentally different contexts. Turning to Christian anarchism, Alexandre Christoyannopoulos offers a unique criticism of the state in ‘Jesus Christ Against Westphalian Leviathans’. For Christoyannopoulos, Christian anarchists reject all forms of violence and coercion and maintain an absolute commitment to God. These ideals however, run directly counter to the Westphalian order that is premised on citizen loyalty to the state and the legitimacy of violence in its name. Employing key biblical passages, the paper argues that the authority and violence of the state must be unmasked and denounced as unjustifiable from a Christian perspective. Taking up this theme of political violence, Paul Stott offers a report on the historical links between anarchism and terrorism in the period following 9/11. His paper offers an account of anarchist violence in history and recent developments in the form of Islamo-Anarchism, offering a critique of the main currents in contemporary terrorism studies that he contends are dominated by statist and security industry tendencies.

The final two papers in the forum are more theoretical in nature. Alex Prichard, in his provocatively titled ‘David Held is an Anarchist. Discuss’, examines the radical democratic and cosmopolitan project of David Held and his defence of ‘global social democracy’. Prichard argues that, while Held is clearly not an avowed anarchist, his vision of cosmopolitan democracy begs comparison with anarchist principles. He argues that, without adequate reflection on anarchist critique, Held may, in the end, reconstitute the authoritarianism that his theory seeks ostensibly to overcome. Adam Goodwin then closes the forum in ‘Evolution and Anarchism in International Relations’. This examines Peter Kropotkin’s biological ontology and the challenge it represents to mainstream IR theory. Utilising Kropotkin’s Mutual Aid, Goodwin challenges the orthodoxy of the individual-fitness theory of evolution that has been taken to confirm the Realist approach to world politics. As Mutual Aid Theory maintains that the evolution of organisms is shaped by cooperation, Goodwin argues that an approach concerned with ontological questions over epistemological or methodological concerns can assist with the criticism of orthodox reductionist ontologies in IR.

The eclectic nature of these papers and the various ways in which they respond to key questions and debates in IR attest to the importance of anarchist approaches to world politics. We hope, if nothing else, that this forum helps in furthering the readership of anarchism in IR theory and thereby contributes to the real social struggles against oppression and domination.

In addition to our collection of papers on anarchism, our 2^nd edition has a selection of essays and book reviews as well as an audio lecture and cartoon. We have essays by Russell Foster, who defends the concept of Empire as a political order, Andres Perezalonso, who examines the practices of torture employed during George Bush’s Administration through critical engagement with Michael Foucault’s concept of Biopolitics and George Agamben’s idea of sovereignty, Alexander Hoseason, who explores the role of borders as sites and progenitors of conflicts, and Scott Romaniuk, who challenges the dichotomy of theory and practice in IR. Our interactive book review section includes symposia on Martin Coward’s Urbicide, Cindy Weber’s International Relations Theory: A Critical Introduction (^3rd Edition), and Geoff Boucher’s The Charmed Circle of Ideology: A Critique of Laclau & Mouffe, Butler and Zizek. We would like to thank the following authors and reviewers for the participation in these symposia: Selina Stenberg, Antoine Bousquet, Sara Fregonese, Paul Reynolds, Stuart Sim, Robert Sinnerbrink, Kirsten Haack and Andrew Hammond. Our multi-media submissions come from Joseph DeVoir, who outlines his Journey into Confusion with regard to IR theory, and Simon Philpott, who has generously provided a recording of his presentation at Newcastle University of a paper examining the Iraq War and Film. Included in the recording is a question and answer session.

On behalf of the editors of Global Discourse, we would like to express our thanks to Martyn Griffin and Lacey Davy for proof-reading and formatting the submissions.

Shannon Brincat

Call for Papers:

Examining the Relevance of Marx and Marxism to Contemporary Global Society

Newcastle University, 29^th and 30^th of January 2011

Rationale, Outline and Aims

The 21^st century has so far seen US-led military interventions, global financial crises, identity conflicts, terrorism on a grand scale, environmental disasters and fraught industrial/labour relations. These dramatic events have challenged the notion of an ‘end to history’ and the widespread belief that the collapse of the Soviet Union has made Marx and Marxism irrelevant. With growing instability in the social, political and economic functioning of human societies, we wish to examine the relevance of Marx to contemporary global society.

In order to do this, Global Discourse (http://global-discourse.com) is organising a two-day conference at Newcastle University on Saturday 29^th and Sunday 30^th of January 2011.

The aims of the event are:

-          to examine the relevance and application of Marxian, Marxist, Neo-Marxist and Post-Marxist thought to contemporary issues.

-          to reassess scriptural and doctrinal commitments within various ‘Marxisms’.

-          to facilitate interdisciplinary, inter-paradigmatic discourse on a range of contemporary issues.

Keynote Papers

The keynote talks will be given by Prof Norman Geras, author of Marx and Human Nature, whose paper will relate to the general theme, ‘What does it mean to be Marxist?’, and Prof Stuart Sim, author of Post-Marxism: An Intellectual History, whose paper will discuss Post-Marxism, ‘Post- or Past-?: Does Post-Marxism Have Any Future?’.

Deadlines and Publishing Process

Please submit abstracts of proposed papers by September 30^th 2010. We encourage the submission of panel proposals, which should be accompanied by abstracts of the proposed papers. We will evaluate the abstracts and circulate a list of accepted papers and panels by October 4^th 2010.

Authors whose abstracts have been accepted must submit their papers in full by December 1^st 2010. Papers will be circulated to participants prior to the conference.

Selected papers will be independently peer-reviewed for inclusion in the special issue of Global Discourse due out in February 2011. We welcome replies to these papers, developed through discussion at the conference or otherwise, which we shall publish alongside the full articles subject to moderation.

We aim to publish a collected edition in print based on these papers.

Please submit all abstracts, papers and panel proposals to the editors at editor@global-discourse.com.

Topics

Possible topics for papers include:

-          What does it mean to be Marxist?

-          Marxism and conceptualising the political subject: from orthodox Marxism to Post-Marxism

-          Education: hegemony, emancipation and mental labour

-          Science, meta-ethics and normativity

-          Gender, sexuality and identity politics

-          The state in global capitalism: ‘withering’, transcendence and expansion

-          Marxism and culture

-          Technology

-          Non-Western societies and imperialism

-          Latin American social and political movements

-          Free markets, free labour and industrial relations

Please contact us well in advance of September 1^st should you require clarification as to the appropriateness of your chosen topic or wish to convene a panel.

Costs

There will be no conference fee.

A lunch buffet and refreshments will be provided free of charge.

An optional evening conference meal on Saturday 29^th of January will be held at a nearby restaurant. We will seek to organise a special rate for the meal and will circulate details in due course. Participants shall bear the cost of their meal.

Places

There will be space for 40 paper-givers and 20 non-paper-giving participants. Should you wish to attend without giving a paper, please express interest to the editors at the address below. We shall confirm all participant places by 4th October 2010.

Please address all queries and submit all papers and expressions of interest to Matthew Johnson and Mark Edward at editor@global-discourse.com.

With best wishes,

Matthew Johnson.

Dear All,

On behalf of the editorial team, I would like to invite the submission of articles, essays, research notes, proposals for book review symposia and audio visual pieces for inclusion in Volume 1 Issue 2 of Global Discourse (http://global-discourse.com/).

In particular, we wish to encourage submission of dynamic material that simply would not, for reasons of method, style or scope, find a natural home elsewhere.

Global Discourse is a developmental journal of research in politics and international relations. We aim to provide a forum for the expression and development of distinctive research projects – particularly those which transcend disciplinary boundaries – accepting high quality submissions from any theoretical and methodological perspective and encouraging debate between paradigms and schemas.

The first issue contained work by established academics, such as Andrew Linklater, Martin Weber, Levi R. Bryant, Kyle Grayson, Martin Coward, Seán Molloy, as well as dynamic contributions from postgrads and young academics on issues such as the thought of E. H. Carr, the Gadamerian fusion of horizons in Gulliver’s Travels and independence, imperialism and witchcraft in Africa.

Free to access, and open to submissions from postgraduates and academics alike, Global Discourse publishes peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed material in a variety of forms: full articles accompanied by formal reviews; less formal essays; interviews; book review symposia, and mp3 audio and visual presentations.

Importantly, the journal is designed to act as a springboard for authors, providing a forum for the development of their work. Authors retain copyright and can submit their revised and developed work elsewhere six months after publication in Global Discourse.

Please submit work intended for inclusion in issue 2 by May 10^th 2010 to m.t.johnson@ncl.ac.uk.

Information on submitting work to Global Discourse can be found at http://global-discourse.com/submissions/.

For further information, please contact myself at m.t.johnson@ncl.ac.uk.

With best wishes,

Matthew Johnson

Editor-in-Chief

Dear All,

On behalf of the international editorial team, I would like to introduce the first issue of Global Discourse. This Andrew Linklater Special Issue features a full interview with Linklater as well as a symposium on his ‘Critical Theory and World Politics’, including a substantive reply from the author. Also included are articles on E.H. Carr and Gadamerian analysis of Gulliver’s Travels, published alongside substantive, referees’ reviews, essays on Western conceptualisation of, and engagement with, Sub-Saharan Africa, an audio lecture on the rights of refugees and further book review symposia on ‘Chasing Dragons’ by Kyle Grayson and ‘Difference and Giveness’by Levi R. Bryant, both with substantive replies from the authors. The articles, essays and reviews are available on the Contents page.

Global Discourse is a developmental journal of research in politics and international relations. We aim to provide a forum for the expression and development of distinctive research projects – particularly those which transcend disciplinary boundaries. We accept high quality submissions from any theoretical and methodological perspective and encourage debate between paradigms and schemas.

Free to access, and open to submissions from postgraduates and academics alike, Global Discourse publishes peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed material in a variety of forms: full articles accompanied by formal reviews; less formal essays; interviews; book review symposia, and mp3 audio and visual presentations.

Importantly, the journal is designed to act as a springboard for authors, providing a forum for the development of their work. Authors retain copyright and can submit their revised and developed work elsewhere six months after publication in Global Discourse.

Information on submitting work to Global Discourse can be found on the Information for Authors page.

For further information, please contact myself at m.t.johnson@ncl.ac.uk or refer to the Contacts and Organisation page for details of the relevant regional editorial teams.

With best wishes,

Matthew Johnson.

Editor-in-Chief.