International practices

TLDR

Studying International Relations from the perspective of international practices promises three key advances. The article argues that viewing world politics as competent performances—practices—provides a better understanding of IR theory and international politics, illustrated by deterrence, arms control, and cooperative security. The authors conceptualize world politics as structured by practices that give meaning to action, enable strategic interaction, and evolve through action, and illustrate this by revisiting Schelling’s bargaining work. This practice perspective broadens world‑politics ontology, serves as a focal point for IR debates, and offers a unit of analysis beyond traditional levels, opening new research questions on power, history, and strategy.

Abstract

In this article, we approach world politics through the lens of its manifold practices, which we define as competent performances. Studying International Relations (IR) from the perspective of international practices promises three key advances. First, by focusing on practices in IR, we can understand both IR theory and international politics better or differently. World politics can be conceived as structured by practices, which give meaning to international action, make possible strategic interaction, and are reproduced, changed, and reinforced by international action and interaction. This focus helps broaden the ontology of world politics, serves as a focal point around which debates in IR theory can be structured, and can be used as a unit of analysis that transcends traditional understandings of ‘levels of analysis’. We illustrate what an international practice is by revisiting Thomas Schelling's seminal works on bargaining. Second, with the help of illustrations of deterrence and arms control during the Cold War and of post-Cold War practices such as cooperative security, we show how practices constitute strategic interaction and bargaining more generally. Finally, a practice perspective opens an exciting and innovative research agenda, which suggests new research questions and puzzles, and revisits central concepts of our discipline, including power, history, and strategy.