SLEEPING-BEAUTY AND THE DIALECTICAL AWAKENING - ON THE POTENTIAL OF DIALECTIC FOR INTERNATIONAL-RELATIONS

This discussion piece sets out to introduce Hegelian-Marxist dialectic , revolving around the wider concept of pr axis, to the wider meta-the oretical debate in International Relations. A perusal of the peculiar historical trajectory of IR theory, culminating in the ambiguities of the current 'post-positivist' debate, establishes the case for the nec essity of explicating the meta-theoretical foundations upon which scie ntific statements are predicated, in ol der to allow for meaningful in ter-paradigm debate and critique to take place. An excursus into the p hilosophy of science exemplifies the potency, if not superiority of di alectical thinking over and against various forms of traditional scien ce, which were gradually forced to modify their positions by drawing o n dialectical insights. Against this background, the article then obse rves the almost complete lack of dialectical theory in the discipline of IR, before it constructively attempts to systematise the core tenet s of dialectical thinking. It is argued that G.W.F. Hegel's difficult formal categorical apparatus was given the adequate social content by Karl Marx allowing for a critical and comprehensive grasp of social an d international relations.