2nd Edition

Global and Regional Problems Towards an Interdisciplinary Study

By Vilho Harle, Pami Aalto Copyright 2012
    264 Pages
    by Routledge

    264 Pages
    by Routledge

    Distinctive due to explicit and systematically developed links between international relations (IR) and related disciplines, this book addresses global and regional interactions and the complex policy problems that often characterise this agenda. Such enhanced communication is crucial for improving the capacity of IR to engage with concrete issues that today are of high policy relevance for international organisations, states, diplomats, mediators and humankind in general. Whilst the authors do not reject the present IR, they offer a wider research agenda with new directions intended not only for those IR scholars who are unsatisfied with the analytical power of the current discipline, but also for those working on 'international', 'foreign', 'global' or 'interregional' issues in other disciplines and fields of research. In this instance they pay particular attention to linking up with peace research, international political economy (IPE) and cultural political economy (CPE), sociology, political geography, development studies, linguistics, cultural studies, environmental studies and energy research, gender studies, and traditions of area studies.

    List of Figures, Notes on Contributors, Acknowledgements, List of Abbreviations, 1 Introduction, 2 Foreign Policy Meets the Non-Interstate International: The English School as a Framework of Foreign Policy Analysis, 3 Africa and Human Security after 2010: Learning with Interdisciplinary Perspectives, 4 European/Eurasian Energy Security: From Vulnerability to Viability and Sustainability, 5 Political Economy of US-led Financial Crisis: A World View Analysis, 6 What is Asia? International Studies as Political Linguistics, 7 Feminist Interdisciplinarity and Gendered Parodies of Nuclear Iran, 8 Circumpolar Arctic in ‘Global’ Climate Change: (De)Securitizing the Ice, 9 Creating State Competitiveness, Re-scaling Higher Education: The Case of Finland, 10 Conclusions: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Global and Regional Relations, Index

    Biography

    Pami Aalto is Jean Monnet Professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations and Director of the Jean Monnet Centre, University of Tampere, Finland. Vilho Harle is Chair of International Politics in the Department of Political Science and International Relations, University of Tampere, Finland. Professor Sami Moisio, University of Helsinki, Finland.

    'Sophisticated and wide ranging, this collection will broaden the reader's sense of the possibilities of international studies. Aalto, Harle and Moisio provide compelling evidence for the insights of interdisciplinary approaches in diverse global contexts, from feminist IR and African studies to environmental change and the global financial crisis.' David Long, Carleton University, Canada '... an innovative collection of well-argued essays. At its core is a strong message about how research on international studies ought to be undertaken, and the importance of engaging with related disciplines such that policy considerations are addressed intelligently and holistically. Although scholars from several academic communities are represented here, the three editors and many other contributors are based in Finland, reminding the reader of the significant contribution this community of researchers has made to the many faces of international studies.' Tim Dunne, University of Queensland, Australia 'All the contributors are committed to interdisciplinarity and identify opportunities to widen IR. They also take a concrete stance to direct their choice of cases that represent the analyses in the best possible way... Overall, [this] innovative volume, with its strong message that interna­tional relations research demands interdisciplinarity, will remind the field’s opinion-formers of the importance of the third period of IR studies. [This book] will interest IR scholars and stu­dents and all who work on interdisciplinary studies of international, global and regional issues.' Millenium 'Although there are countless edited books about global issues, this one is original not only because the co-editors are scholars from Finland, but mainly because the authors focus on the interdisciplinary dimensions of research and innovate in their conceptualisation of international studies... In sum, this innovative collection opens new doors but is not definitive; other open-minded sch