International Politics of Recognition

Download or read book International Politics of Recognition written by Thomas Lindemann and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-11-17 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The origins of international conflict are often explained by security dilemmas, power-rivalries or profits for political or economic elites. Common to these approaches is the idea that human behaviour is mostly governed by material interests which principally involve the quest for power or wealth. The authors question this truncated image of human rationality. Borrowing the concept of recognition from models developed in philosophy and sociology, this book provides a unique set of applications to the problems of international conflict, and argues that human actions are often not motivated by a pursuit of utility maximisation as much as they are by a quest to gain recognition. This unique approach will be a welcome alternative to the traditional models of international conflict.