Need help with this essay question for international relations and history

So i need to write an essay on the following question, but i'm not really sure what it's asking of me. There's not actually a question do i just compare realist theories with liberal theories??? If so, how can there be a conclusion?

"Critically compare Realist and Liberal understandings of the Cold War with Critical understandings."

Reply 1

adelante

See this thread

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=720395

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Reply 2

the wolf at the door

adelante

See this thread

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=720395

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Thanks for that, but i understand about realism etc. It's just i'm unsure what the question is asking. How can there be a conclusion as it's not really a specific question?

Reply 3

Kitty Pimms

Well - what are the key differences in the way they understand the cold war, and why do they differ? It's interesting that they're bracketed liberalism and realism off together - that suggest to me that they want you to minimise the argument between those two perspectives, and instead present them as a 'traditional' version with which to draw contrasts with revisionist academic understandings - English school, social constructivism, postmodernism etc.

Reply 4

adelante

I'd agree with the last post. But I have a slightly different take.

Both Realism and Liberalism as theories are concerned with "the world as it is" and with "commonsense". These are (or were) the dominant theories.

Critical understandings (or theories) on the other hand do not accept the basic premises that both Realism and Liberalism do. Hence they are critical theories and seek to find answers that are not so "obvious". They seek to challenge the existing order in a number of ways. One example is the view by Noam Chomsky which he argues in the first chapter (Cold War: Fact and Fancy) of his book Deterring Democracy.

To add confusion there are critical theories and "critical theory". Critical theory is something quite specific -- it emerged from the Frankfurt School in the 1920s and 1930s and mainly a group of left wing German Jews who were subsequently exiled and found refuge in the United States. These thinkers influenced IR theory. In IR theory names like Andrew Linklater and Robert Cox are influential thinkers in the critical theory tradition.

As the above post also mentions there is also "social constructivism" which is also influenced by "critical theory". Then there are various postmodern theories (although Christopher Norris would call some of these "Uncritical Theory" -- Uncritical Theory: Postmodernism, Intellectuals and the Gulf War (1992) )

You need to pick a few of these theories and use them to criticise both realist and liberal understandings of the Cold War.

So to return to your original question. It is a specific question. It's a question about theory and how it's applied to the Cold War. You need to critically evaluate realist, liberal and critical theories of the Cold War. (there's a lot of "critical" in there, I know, but I hope you follow my drift).

You can draw a conclusion in the normal way.

HTH

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Reply 5

the wolf at the door

OH. So the 'critical understandings' is asking me to talk about critical theories?? I just thought that meant my understanding. Oh dear... So basically i need to compare realist, liberalism and critical theories?

Reply 6

adelante

Yes, and you need to critically compare all three theories as well -- liberal, realist and critical. So you need to show that you both understand all the theories and how they can be applied to the Cold War and critically evaluate all the theories. It is testing your understanding and evaluating abilities.

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