Re: [OPE-L] rosa luxemburg and international relations

From: Dogan Goecmen (Dogangoecmen@AOL.COM)
Date: Sat Oct 21 2006 - 14:22:55 EDT 

 
Dear Paul,
 
I thank you very much for your email. The paper has been published in the  
Turkish journal "Praksis" , Vol 11, pp. 49-82. There is no English version  of 
it yet. I am interetsted in the conference as well as in RESEARCH's plans  
about publishing a paper on Luxemburg's approach to national question. May I ask  
you give some more information please - via the list or off-list which ever 
you  like. I thank you very much again.
 
Regards,
Dogan.
 
In einer eMail vom 21.10.2006 14:35:08 Westeuropäische Sommerzeit schreibt  
zarembka@BUFFALO.EDU:

Dogan,

You may be interested to know that there will be a Rosa  Luxemburg
conference in Tokyo next April 1-2.  Also, Vol. 24 of the  RESEARCH expects
to have an article addressing Luxemburg on the national  question.

In any case, could you privately send me that whole  paper?

Paul  Z.

**************************************************************************
THE  HIDDEN HISTORY OF 9-11-2001   --"a benchmark in 9/11 research",  review
Volume 23 (2006), RESEARCH IN POLITICAL ECONOMY, P. Zarembka, ed,  Elsevier
***********************  http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/PZarembka

On Sat, 21 Oct 2006,  Dogan Goecmen wrote:

>  
> Rosa  Luxemburg’s  Critical Realism and the Foundations of International 
>  Politics
> 
> Abstract
> 
> Doğan   Göçmen
> 
> This  paper explores the foundational aspects  of Luxemburg’s theory of  
> international
> Politics. She  develops a theoretical approach to international  politics, 
>  which
> may be described as a critical realist one. Luxemburg  works  out her 
approach 
> to
> international politics in a  discussion with and in a  criticism of three 
> competing
>  schools: social contract theories, moralist  approach and realism. Her  
main 
> argument
> against these schools is that their   principles do not and cannot serve as 
a
> foundation of international  politics.  With regard to social contract 
> theories as 
>  operationalized in  international politics: according to Luxemburg the  
> fundamental assumptions of  social contract theories cannot be  the basis 
of 
> international  politics
> because their  principles such as mutual equality and recognition do  not 
have 
>  any
> validity in the age of capitalism. Luxemburg rejects laying  down  these 
> principles to
> international politics not  because she rejects accepting  these principles 
> from a
>  normative point of view. On the contrary, she is  convinced that they  
should 
> be the
> sole foundation of international  relations.  They cannot, however, be the 
> foundation
> of  international politics in our age  capitalism as it is taken for 
granted  
> in social
> contract theories. Luxemburg  formulates  almost the same critique with 
regard
> to the moralist approach.  In  order that morals can be said to serve as a 
>  foundation
> of international  politics its fundamental premises  must be actuality. 
That 
> is to
> suggest that  before  morals can be said to serve the foundation of 
> international  relations  there must be valid a moral system throughout the 
world with  
> some sort  of
> binding character. However, in the  capitalist-imperialist age because of  
> dominant
> social  class relations there exist many diverse moral values; thus,  
morals  
> cannot
> serve as the foundation of international relations.  Luxemburg  concludes 
that 
> the
> principle that serves as a  foundation of international  politics in the 
age 
> of  capitalism
> is power relations. After having thus  criticised  social contract theories 
and
> moralist approach from a realist   point of view Luxemburg turns to the 
> criticism of
> realist  approach. She  differentiates between official positivist and 
>  reformist positivist
> realism.  Unlike the latter, the former  justifies the existing principle 
of  
> power
> relations  without any regard to their consequences. Unlike the official  
>  positivist realism, and without questioning its very logic, the  reformist 
 
> positivist realism formulates  reformist  critique of power relations from 
a  moralist 
> point of view.  However, according to Luxemburg, any critique of power  
>  relations ends up in some
> sort of positivism if it does not question  their  foundations. After 
having 
> developed
> her primary  approach to international  relations, Luxemburg turns to the 
>  criticism
> of imperialism. In this context I  refer also to  Luxemburg’s critique 
of a 
> certain type
> of a theory of   international politics, which may be seen from our point 
of 
> view  as
> a  critique of new institutionalism. Luxemburg’s criticism  of 
imperialism, as 
> I  argue
> in this paper, shows how  morality, that is, the principles of mutual  
> equality  and
> recognition is  possible.
> 
>

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