This book discusses the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on international relations theories. As a phenomenon, AI is everywhere in the real world and growing. Through its transformative nature, it is simultaneously simplifying and complicating processes. Importantly, it also overlooks and “misunderstands”. Globally, leaders, diplomats and policymakers have had to familiarise themselves and grapple with concepts such as algorithms, automation, machine learning, and neural networks. These and other features of modern AI are redefining our world, and with it, the long-held assumptions scholars of IR have relied on for their theoretical accounts of our universe.
The book takes a historic, contemporary and long-term approach to explain and anticipate AI’s impact on IR – and vice versa – through a systematic treatment of 9 theoretical paradigms and schools of thought including realism, liberalism, feminism, postcolonial theory and green theory. This book draws on original datasets, innovative empirical case studies and in-depth engagement with the core claims of the traditional and critical theoretical lenses to reignite debates on the nature and patterns of power, ethics, conflict, and systems among states and non-state actors.
Author(s): Bhaso Ndzendze, Tshilidzi Marwala
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 171
City: Singapore
Preface
Contents
Abbreviations
List of Figures
List of Tables
1 Introduction
1.1 Literature: IR Scholarship, Theory, and AI
1.2 Summary of the Book
Bibliography
2 Theory in International Relations
2.1 Introduction
2.2 The Nature and Purpose of Theory in International Relations
2.3 Theoretical Debates of the Twentieth Century
2.4 IR Theory in the Post-Cold War and Post-9/11 Eras
2.5 Methodology in International Relations
2.6 Theoretical Dialogue in IR
2.7 Meta-Theory in IR
2.8 Conclusion
Bibliography
3 Artificial Intelligence and International Relations
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Overview of AI
3.3 The History of AI
3.3.1 History of AI in China
3.4 AI Research in Social Science
3.5 AI and International Relations Processes
3.6 AI as a Unit of Analysis in IR?
3.7 Conclusion
Bibliography
4 Realism and Artificial Intelligence
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Conceptualising Realism: Origins, Claims, and Internal Debates
4.2.1 Structural Realist Debates
4.3 Realism in the Age of AI
4.3.1 AI Balance of Power: Towards a Neoclassical Turn
4.3.2 Information Warfare as Mutually Assured Destruction
4.4 Conclusion
Bibliography
5 Liberalism and Artificial Intelligence
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Liberalism: Origins, Claims, and Internal Debates
5.3 AI and Liberalism
5.4 Democratic Peace Thesis and AI
5.5 Theoretical Updating: Economic Interdependence
5.6 Regime Type and AI Niches
5.7 Conclusion
Bibliography
6 Hegemonic Stability Theory and Artificial Intelligence
6.1 Introduction
6.2 HST: Definitions, Debates, and Histories
6.3 Correlating Hegemony, Decline, and War
6.4 HST and AI
6.5 AI in War: Applicability and Limitations
6.6 Towards AI-Based HST Theoretical Updating?
6.7 Conclusion
Bibliography
7 Dependency and Technology in the 4IR
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Literature
7.3 Conceptual Framework
7.3.1 Towards Testing Dependency in the 4IR
7.4 Methods
7.5 Data
7.6 Analysis
7.6.1 Core/Peripherical Core Countries
7.6.2 Periphery Countries
7.7 Discussion
7.8 Conclusion
Bibliography
8 The English School and Artificial Intelligence
8.1 Introduction
8.2 The English School: Assumptions, Arguments, and Contributions
8.3 International Society and AI
8.4 Conclusion
References
9 Critical IR Theories and Artificial Intelligence: Constructivistm, Postcolonialism, Feminism, and Green Theory
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Constructivism
9.3 Postcolonial Theory
9.4 Feminism
9.5 Green Theory
9.6 Conclusion
Bibliography
10 Conclusion
10.1 Introduction
10.2 AI, Information Asymmetry, and IR Processes
10.3 Theoretical Insights
10.4 Methodological and Pedagogical Opportunities
Bibliography
Index
