DISCOURSE OF CRITICAL THEORY IN THE CONTEXT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
DISCOURSE OF CRITICAL THEORY IN THE CONTEXT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Summary/Abstract: The endeavour of critical theory is to endorse self-reflexive examinations of the experiences we have andthe ways in which we make sense of ourselves, our cultures, and the world. Critical theory refuses to identify freedom with any fixed forms of thought or institutional arrangements. It focuses scrutiny on the effects of power on the differential ability of actors to control their own circumstances. The theory goes beyond that theoretical contribution to provide momentum for realistic political action in challenging, resisting, and disrupting existing relations of power. Thinking about the theories of International Relations (IR), critical theorists also raised questions concerning how rationalists (both neo-realists and neo-liberals) IR serve the interests of dominant elites. Therefore we must re-imagine critical theory in international relations because it is ultimately concerned with what is possible to know, given that the ontological status of neither the subject, nor the object of theory, can be taken for granted. Critical theorists elucidate how international relations among states make possible (and tend to conceal) the unfairness of a global capitalist system. They are interested in the relation between freedom and power. One part of this paper will critically address how Karl Marx’s critique of ideology is linked with immanent critique and how it assists us in re-imaging critical thinking in conjunction with international relations in the contemporary era. Further, the paper will critically analyze how Jurgen Habermas and critical theory stand explicitly in the line of development, reaction and counter-reaction to the philosophy of Hegel and Karl Marx.

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