Robert Cox-Critical Theory, International Relations Thinker

1. • Thinkers …observing the macro event/phenomenon…explain the
cause/s of an event… explain the relationship… Identify the patterns …
who provide theory
• Theories will help to us identify the state of affairs in the society
• What is state of affairs?
– Whether there is an order or disorder?
– Which drives the relation?
– Relationship are hierarchical or equal?
– Who is speaking and who is not?

2. CRITICAL THEORY
1) Concerned with the sources of STRUCTURAL INEQUALITY inherent in the
international system, as well as the ways in which it might be overcome
2) They believe that THEORY AND PRACTICE are not separate
and autonomous realms of thought and action
3) To explore the COMPLEX CONNECTIONS between a formal ‘anarchy’
among states and an economic ‘hierarchy’ among social and economic
classes.
4) The task of critical inquiry is to raise people to a level of ‘TRUE’
CONSCIOUSNESS
5) Focuses on large-scale historical change of the system itself, and the
contradictions and conflicts that may provide the potential for
EMANCIPATORY SYSTEMIC CHANGE
6) Believe that both realism and liberalism serve to maintain the basic
distribution of power and wealth – but CT in favour of a more JUST WORLD
ORDER

3. ROBERT COX
• Offered a radical alternative to neorealist positivism
• ‘Theory is always for someone and for some purpose.’
• Cox contrasts critical theory with what he often refers to as ‘problem-solving’
theory
• Production, Power, and World Order: Social
Forces in the Making of History (1987)
– The book provides the basic conceptual framework that Cox uses
to examine the relationship between material forces of production,
ideas and institutions in particular historical periods in international
relations.

4. ideas and
institutions in
particular
historical periods
in international
relations.
Material
forces of
production

5. Production, Power, and World Order: Social Forces in the Making of
History (1987)…
Cox distinguishes between no fewer than 12 ‘patterns’ of production relations like
peasant–lord, primitive labour market, bipartist, enterprise corporatist, tripartist,
state corporatist etc
Cox focuses on two basic modes of development -CAPITALIST and
REDISTRIBUTIVE.
Modes of development must be located in a global context, taking into account the
relations among states
Each state is constrained by its position and its relative power in the world order,
which places limits on its will and its ability to change production relations.

6. Cox’s world view owes a great deal to the work of the Italian communist writer Antonio
Gramsci
Gramsci used the concept of hegemony
Gramsci always located his work in the Marxist schema, in which the
‘economic base’ sets the limiting BUT he argued, mere reflection of ‘economic’
conditions NOT sufficient and he insisted on the ‘educative’
role of the state, its significance in constructing those alliances that
could win support from different social strata, and its role in providing
cultural and moral ‘leadership’.
Cox is concerned with the rise and decline of hegemonic world orders over time.
Cox distinguishes between three ‘successive structures of world order’:
the liberal international economy (1789–1873);
the era of rival imperialisms (1873–1945);
and the neoliberal world order (post-1945).
Cox examines globalization in the late twentieth century. Drawing on the work of Karl
Polanyi, Cox focuses on what he terms ‘the internationalization of the state’. By this, Cox
refers to the process whereby national institutions, policies and practices become adjusted
to the evolving structures and dynamics of a world economy of capitalist production.

7. THE
INTERNATIONALIZATION
OF THE STATE
1. Interstate
consensus
formation-world
economy
3. Internal structures
of states
are adjusted
2. Participation in
the negotiation of
this consensus is
hierarchical
COX’s THREE DIMENSIONS OF THE NTERNATIONALIZATION OF THE STATE

8. COX ALSO IDENTIFIES THREE HISTORICAL STAGES IN THE
INTERNATIONALIZATION OF THE STATE
The globalization of the state
1945 with the establishment of the Bretton Woods system, which
represented a compromise between the accountability of
governments to the institutions of the world economy and their
accountability to domestic opinion for their economic performance
and for maintaining the welfare state.
1930s, when states were strong relative to the world economy and
protected their populations from it

9. The internationalization of the state marks a further erosion of its role as a
buffer against the world economy and an intensification of trans-state sources of
power, authority and decision-making.
Thus, for Gramsci, and for Cox, hegemony at the global level is not to be
equated with mere material or military dominance (as in realism), nor is it to be
regarded as a desirable public ‘good’ (as in neoliberal institutionalism)
Cox alerts us to an alternative perspective on the post-Cold
War era to those most often discussed by realists and liberals. Changes
in the balance of power between states and the alleged ascendancy of
democracy over authoritarianism are subservient to what Cox calls
‘GLOBAL PERESTROIKA’.
For Cox, the globalization is not of solely by exponential
advances in the technology of manufacturing and communications, but,
enormously facilitated by a neoconservative hegemonic
ideology of deregulation
Cox believes that our era of ‘hyper-liberal globalizing capitalism’ is the site of
some major contradictions and struggles like:

10. Between the growing demands for international protection of the environment
and the surrender of state authority to international corporate finance and
business
What is to be done? Cox calls for what he describes as a new form of
Multilateralism
Not be limited to regulating relations horizontally between state elites
To represent the forces at work in the world at the local level as well as at the global
level
Labour movement must mobilize at a global level and build alliances and coalitions
with a variety of new social movements
Cox recognizes that this will not be easy… Nonetheless, he claims that the
difficulties must be faced and overcome