This document summarizes key Marxist theories of international relations, including world system theory, Gramsci's work on hegemony, critical theory, new Marxism, and their perspectives on globalization. World system theory sees the global economy as a complex system with core and peripheral states. Gramsci explored how ruling classes maintain dominance through ideology. Critical theory examines emancipation, while new Marxism directly applies Marx's concepts to critique dependency theory and globalization from a Marxist lens. Overall, Marxist IR theories view globalization as another stage of capitalism that risks reducing workers' rights.

1. Baylis, Smith & Owens:
The Globalization of World Politics 5e
Chapter 8
Marxist theories
of international relations

2. Introduction
• Retains relevance despite collapse of
Communist rule in former Soviet Union
• Focuses on global capitalism
• Not an explicit theory of IR
• Varying interpretations of his writings
--> competing schools of Marxism

3. World system theory
• Antecedents:
– Lenin’s work on imperialism
– Latin American dependency school
• Contemporary mainstay: Immanuel
Wallerstein

4. Gramsci & ‘Italian school’
• Shifts focus towards superstructural
phenomena
• Explores processes by which
hegemony produces social-political
system
--> disperses ideas/ideologies of
ruling stratum
• Cox, etc. ‘internationalize’ Gramsci by
transferring key concepts to global
context

5. Critical theory
• Varying conceptions of emancipation
• First-generation Frankfurt School:
emancipation = reconciliation with
nature
• Habermas: emancipatory potential lies
in the realm of communication
– Radical democracy can unlock it
• Linklater: favours expansion of political
community’s moral boundaries (ex: EU)

6. New Marxism
• Characterized by direct (re)appropriation
Marx’s concepts/categories
• Warren: deploys Marx to criticize central
ideas of dependency & world-system
theory
• Rosenberg: uses Marx to criticize
globalization and realist theories of IR
• Seeks to develop an alternative approach:
historical change as reflection of
transformations in relations of production

7. Marxist theories of IR
• Sceptical of current emphasis on
globalization
• See globalization as another step in
development of capitalism
• Suspicious of globalization as
ideological tool to justify reductions in
workers’ rights and welfare provision

8. Case Study
The politics of neo-liberalism