Maja Zehfuss - Böcker

Contemporary Western war is represented as enacting the West's ability and responsibility to help make the world a better place for others, in particular to protect them from oppression and serious human rights abuses. That is, war has become permissible again, indeed even required, as ethical war. At the same time, however, Western war kills and destroys. This creates a paradox: Western war risks killing those it proposes to protect. This book examines how we have responded to this dilemma and challenges the vision of ethical war itself, exploring how the commitment to ethics shapes the practice of war and indeed how practices come, in turn, to shape what is considered ethical in war. The book closely examines particular practices of warfare, such as targeting, the use of cultural knowledge, and ethics training for soldiers. What emerges is that instead of constraining violence, the commitment to ethics enables and enhances it. The book argues that the production of ethical war relies on an impossible but obscured separation between ethics and politics, that is, the problematic politics of ethics, and reflects on the need to make decisions at the limit of ethics.

German memories of the Second World War are controversial, and they are used to justify different positions on the use of military force. In this book, Maja Zehfuss studies the articulation of memories in novels in order to discuss and challenge arguments deployed in political and public debate. She explores memories that have generated considerable controversy, such as the flight and expulsion of Germans from the East, the bombing of German cities and the 'liberation' of Germany in 1945. She shows how memory retrospectively produces a past while claiming merely to invoke it, drawing attention to the complexities and contradictions within how truth, ethics, emotion, subjectivity and time are conceptualised. Zehfuss argues that the tensions and uncertainties revealed raise political questions that must be confronted, beyond the safety net of knowledge. This is a compelling book which pursues an original approach in exploring the politics of invocations of memory.

Maja Zehfuss' book offers a fundamental critique of constructivism, focusing on the work of Wendt, Onuf and Kratochwil. Using Germany's shift towards participation in international military operations as an illustration, she demonstrates why each version of constructivism fails in its own project and comes apart on the basis of its own assumptions. Inspired by Derridean thought, this book highlights the political consequences of constructivist representations of reality. Each critique concludes that constructivist notions of key concepts are impossible, and that this is not merely a question of theoretical inconsistency, but of politics. The book is premised on the notion that the 'empirical' and the 'theoretical' are less separate than is acknowledged in international relations, and must be read as intertwined. Zehfuss examines the scholars' role in international relations, worrying that, by looking to constructivism as the future, they will be severely curtailing their ability to act responsibly in this area.

German memories of the Second World War are controversial, and they are used to justify different positions on the use of military force. In this book, Maja Zehfuss studies the articulation of memories in novels in order to discuss and challenge arguments deployed in political and public debate. She explores memories that have generated considerable controversy, such as the flight and expulsion of Germans from the East, the bombing of German cities and the 'liberation' of Germany in 1945. She shows how memory retrospectively produces a past while claiming merely to invoke it, drawing attention to the complexities and contradictions within how truth, ethics, emotion, subjectivity and time are conceptualised. Zehfuss argues that the tensions and uncertainties revealed raise political questions that must be confronted, beyond the safety net of knowledge. This is a compelling book which pursues an original approach in exploring the politics of invocations of memory.

Maja Zehfuss' book offers a fundamental critique of constructivism, focusing on the work of Wendt, Onuf and Kratochwil. Using Germany's shift towards participation in international military operations as an illustration, she demonstrates why each version of constructivism fails in its own project and comes apart on the basis of its own assumptions. Inspired by Derridean thought, this book highlights the political consequences of constructivist representations of reality. Each critique concludes that constructivist notions of key concepts are impossible, and that this is not merely a question of theoretical inconsistency, but of politics. The book is premised on the notion that the 'empirical' and the 'theoretical' are less separate than is acknowledged in international relations, and must be read as intertwined. Zehfuss examines the scholars' role in international relations, worrying that, by looking to constructivism as the future, they will be severely curtailing their ability to act responsibly in this area.

Global Politics: A New Introduction engages directly with questions that those coming to the study of world politics bring with them. From that innovative starting point, it explores key issues through a critical and inquiring perspective, presenting theoretical ideas and concepts in conjunction with a global range of historical and contemporary case studies.Revised and updated throughout, the fourth edition offers examples engaging with the latest developments in global politics: the climate crisis and anthropocentrism, Indigenous experiences and thinking, racism and the rise of xenophobia, artificial intelligence, citizen journalism, global health and pandemic response and drone warfare.Global Politics:• examines most significant issues in global politics – poverty, development, colonialism, human rights, gender, inequality, race, war, peacebuilding, security, violence, nationalism, authority and what we can do to change the world;• offers chapters written to a common structure ideal for teaching and learning and features a key question, an illustrative example, general responses and broader issues;• integrates theory and practice throughout the text, drawing on international relations, political theory, postcolonial studies, sociology, geography, peace studies and development.This exciting, up-to-date and ground-breaking textbook is essential reading for all those concerned about global politics.

Global Politics: A New Introduction engages directly with questions that those coming to the study of world politics bring with them. From that innovative starting point, it explores key issues through a critical and inquiring perspective, presenting theoretical ideas and concepts in conjunction with a global range of historical and contemporary case studies.Revised and updated throughout, the fourth edition offers examples engaging with the latest developments in global politics: the climate crisis and anthropocentrism, Indigenous experiences and thinking, racism and the rise of xenophobia, artificial intelligence, citizen journalism, global health and pandemic response and drone warfare.Global Politics:• examines most significant issues in global politics – poverty, development, colonialism, human rights, gender, inequality, race, war, peacebuilding, security, violence, nationalism, authority and what we can do to change the world;• offers chapters written to a common structure ideal for teaching and learning and features a key question, an illustrative example, general responses and broader issues;• integrates theory and practice throughout the text, drawing on international relations, political theory, postcolonial studies, sociology, geography, peace studies and development.This exciting, up-to-date and ground-breaking textbook is essential reading for all those concerned about global politics.

The third edition of Global Politics: A New Introduction continues to provide a completely original way of teaching and learning about world politics. The book engages directly with the issues in global politics that students are most interested in, helping them to understand the key questions and theories and also to develop a critical and inquiring perspective.Completely revised and updated throughout, the third edition offers up-to-date examples engaging with the latest developments in global politics, including the Syrian war and the refugee crisis, fossil fuel divestment, racism and Black Lives Matter, citizen journalism, populism, and drone warfare.Global Politics:examines the most significant issues in global politics – from war, peacebuilding, terrorism, security, violence, nationalism and authority to poverty, development, postcolonialism, human rights, gender, inequality, ethnicity and what we can do to change the world;offers chapters written to a common structure, which is ideal for teaching and learning, and features a key question, an illustrative example, general responses and broader issues;integrates theory and practice throughout the text, by presenting theoretical ideas and concepts in conjunction with a global range of historical and contemporary case studies.Drawing on theoretical perspectives from a broad range of disciplines, including international relations, political theory, postcolonial studies, sociology, geography, peace studies and development, this innovative textbook is essential reading for all students of global politics and international relations.