Caroline Kennedy-Pipe

International History and International Relations Theory: A Dialogue Beyond the Cold War

Until recently, there has been little ‘real’ dialogue in Cold War studies between International Relations theorists and international historians. In many ways this is not surprising. For the most part, International Relations theorists took the Cold War as an immutable feature of the international system. Historians did indeed seek to explain the outbreak of the Cold War and the historic features that had given rise to American hegemony and Soviet opposition, but they did so primarily by concentrating largely on archival and related research with only limited attention given to the bigger issues of the Cold War world. However, as the article demonstrates, a dialogue between historians and theorists over some key aspects of the Cold War, such as the role of ideology, is now timely. The evolution of both a broader conception of International History, as well as the partial opening of communist archives and a range of new developments in International Relations, means that it is now possible to ‘rethink’ the Cold War using both history and International Relations theory.

Whose Security? State-Building and the ‘Emancipation’ of Women in Central Asia

Part of the Critical Security Studies agenda is to understand what security means at different times and in different places. This article tells a story of how women in Soviet Central Asia were affected by political/security strategies adopted by Moscow. It focuses on the way in which the Kremlin attempted to use the emancipation of women as a strategy to mitigate the historic influence of Islam in the region and to build a secular and unified USSR. The story raises issues for Critical Security Studies in terms of the referents of security, especially the tensions which arise between the construction of state security and the place of women.

Torture, Rights, Rules and Wars: Ireland to Iraq

This piece1 responds to some of the challenges posed by Rosemary Foot in her article, ‘Torture: The Struggle over a Peremptory Norm in a Counter-Terrorist Era’, also published in International Relations. It looks again at the debates about the seeming rise in the acceptability of torture in the post-9/11 environment, reflects on what the use of ‘torture’ in Ireland during the 1970s might tell us, and suggests ways of thinking about rules, norms and the mistreatment of terrorist suspects.

Russia and the United States After 9/11

ABSTRACT We begin by briefly surveying and discussing approaches to the study of Russian foreign policy after the Cold War. These largely descriptive approaches fail to provide much purchase on the new circumstances obtaining after 9/11. Instead we consider the ‘war on terror’ from a broadly constructivist perspective as a new international paradigm. We describe its main features, and then consider its implications for Russian-American relations in three policy areas: Chechnya, neighbouring states, and internal security. We find in these areas both opportunities and dilemmas for Russian foreign policy.

Roundtable: `The Future of the Discipline':

In this roundtable, four scholars talk about different aspects of the future of the discipline. The occasion for the debate on 21 July 2006, before a large audience of invited academics and students, was the opening of a purpose-built new home for the Department of International Politics at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth — the worlds first such department. Below are printed edited versions of the presentations of Professor Chris Brown (Head of the Department of International Relations at LSE, and former Chair of the British International Studies Association, BISA), Professor Caroline Kennedy-Pipe (then Chair of BISA, and Professor of International Relations at the University of Sheffield), Professor Andrew Linklater (the tenth Woodrow Wilson Professor at the Department of International Politics, University of Wales, Aberystwyth), and Professor Ken Booth (former Head of Department at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, former Chair of BISA and E. H. Carr Professor).

The story from the polls: Some reflections

Finally, are there any lessons to be drawn? I would propose two. First, the British and Irish governments should ponder the reasons why they have largely ceased to be viewed as trustworthy interlocutors, and do everything in their power to regain the confidence they have lost. Second, the moderate parties need to take heart. The UUP and the SDLP are the only parties that show any capacity to bridge the political gap between Protestants and Catholics, and they should trumpet this fact to their own and each others electorates. If the voters nevertheless shift their support to the extremes, to the DUP and Sinn Fein, no one should be surprised if the Belfast Agreement joins the Sunningdale Agreement in the archive of hopeful but ultimately futile initiatives.