Bagi mahasiswa Hubungan Internasional mempelajari Politik Global merupakan bagian penting memahami interaksi antar negara dan antar aktor global.
Berikut ini salah satu butir pandangan yang dilontarkan dalam buku ini seperti termuat di situs Introduction to Global Politics
The great debates: an introduction to different world views
The study of global politics has been characterized by numerous debates over what actors and issues to study and how best to study them.
a) Realism versus Liberalism
1. This debate revolves around the relevant actors and issues in global politics.
2. Realists believe that there is no natural harmony of interests among people and that power and security are the central elements of global politics. Actors are naturally competitive and conflict is and always will be the norm.
3. Neorealists emphasize the structure of the international system, anarchy, as the source of conflict and all global activity. They are even more pessimistic regarding change.
4. Liberals believe actors can cooperate to overcome conflict and poverty. They are optimistic such change can occur.
5. Neoliberals emphasize the linked fates of actors, otherwise known as interdependence.
b) Traditionalism versus Science
1. This debate focuses on how best to conduct research in global politics.
2. Traditionalists argue that human behavior is very complex and unpredictable. It cannot be studied with scientific methods. Global politics is similarly complex. Understanding it requires a detailed understanding of individual actors and the context in which they operate.
3. Scientists argue that there are patterned regularities to global politics that can be uncovered with scientific methods. Finding them requires foregoing detailed knowledge of specific actors and context, but one the patterns are found they can be used to predict and prescribe policies.
c) Postpositivism, constructivism, and the “Third Debate”
1. Postpositivists reject empiricism and claim there is no objective reality that can serve as a basis of theories of global politics.
2. Constructivism emerged as an effort to narrow the gap between empiricists and postpositivists, According to various postpositivists and constructivists, language and identity influence the meaning of concepts and the theories political scientists create.
d) The agent-structure problem
1. The agent-structure problem is the label for the controversy about whether individuals and groups play the major role in explaining global politics or whether features of global structure determine the behavior of actors.
2. For constructivists, agents act freely within the constraints of structure. Their perceptions of their environment and their interaction with one another influence their behavior, which in turn shapes, or constitutes, structure.
e) Feminist international relations
1. Feminists argue that gender is a principle way of signifying power relationships and that gender relations affect every aspect of human relations, including global politics.
2. In its analysis of global politics, feminist theory views the world from the perspective of the disadvantaged and takes greater account of economic inequality, ecological dangers, and human rights in defining security than conventional (male) international relations theory, which emphasizes military issues.
1. Marxists turn to economic forces to explain and predict global politics.
2. Economic actors are the key actors in the approach. States are the instruments of the dominant class and political conflict–within and between states–is a product of class conflict.
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