Universal Human Rights in theory & practice by jack Donnelly tries to grapple with different aspects of human rights, and he does so quite successfully.
Donnelly takes a universalist, but minimalist position on human rights, arguing that human rights are universal, but that different ways of implementation leaves room for cultural impact. He denies, however, that [...]
Posts Tagged ‘theory’
9 Sep
Universal Human Rights
3 Jul
Sovereignty and the UFO
I haven’t read a single piece by Alexander Wendt that was boring or not original… and he has done it again. In a 2008 paper (how could I miss it until now?) Wendt and Duvall show how sovereignty is the reason why authorities are not funding UFO research. Quickly summarised, the argument goes:
There is both [...]
25 Jun
Minilateralism = realism? = word games?
Both Stephen Walt and David Rothkopf are picking up on a rather inelegant Foreign Policy article launching the term ‘minilateralism.’
Minilateralism is launched as a concept opposed to multilateralism. Multilateralism, to the author, seems to mean consensus-style diplomacy between the world’s 200+ states. I would rather call it ‘UN lowest common denominator-diplomacy,’ and keep multilateralism as [...]
3 Apr
Taming American Power
I read Stephen Walt’s Taming American Power on the plane forth and back from Norway this spring. The book describes different reactions to how American uses its power (which is also eminently described), arguing that preserving and/or reinforcing US hegemony is the aim.
According to Walt, countries follow a range of strategies to either endorse or [...]
9 Feb
Destroyed by theory
I love this quote from an artist who’s criticising that history and theory has taken up too much space in the art world. So much that new artists are cought up in old patterns in order to refer to old theories, making them less creative.
The biggest problem is that there exists a whole generation of [...]
7 Feb
The Social Construction of Man, the State, and War
I bought this book by Franke Wilmer for the following reasons:
1. The title refers directly to Kenneth Waltz’ Man, the state and War, which means the author is not hiding her ambitions with this book. That’s the same thing Alex Wendt did with his Social Theory of International Politics which countered Waltz’ book Theory of [...]
