Critical Review Essay
Today, international relations affect consistently the socioeconomic and political development of countries. At the same time, the study of international relations as the subject should contribute to the better understanding of international relations can help to prevent numerous conflicts, threats and risks, such as international terrorism, including such terror attacks as 9/11. In this regard, it is possible to refer to the article “Singing Our World into Existence: International Relations Theory and September 11” by Steven Smith, which stresses the importance of the development and improvement of international relations to change them consistently and to make international relations an effective tool to prevent international conflicts and change the view of the public on violence and problems in the modern world.
At this point, it is worth mentioning the fact that the author of the article stresses that international relations focus on the separation of facts from values, which make them separated from traditional social norms and standards. In fact, international relations turn out to be something strange and hostile to moral norms of the society because international relations are grounded on facts not values. At this point, it is worth mentioning the fact that such a view on international relations is just because facts are always prior to international relations, whereas moral values and norms are not acceptable as measurements of international relations. Obviously, different countries have different cultural values and moral norms and it is impossible to meet moral norms and values of all societies in international relations. For instance, some actions are moral in one culture, whereas immoral in another. Therefore, S. Smith has a reason, while arguing that international relations are based on facts not values.
In this regard, S. Smith refers to the experience of the US 9/11 and conveys the idea that the violence in the context of international relations is widely-spread but the violence in terms of international relations. What is meant here is the fact that violence is interpreted in different ways in international relations theory compared to traditional perception of violence by average people.
To put it more precisely, according to S. Smith, international relations focus on socioeconomic and political causes of violence. What is meant here is the fact that international relations theory explains violence by socioeconomic and political problems. S. Smith refers to the tragedy of 9/11 in the context of international relations theory. The author argues that international relations interpret the terror attacks of 9/11 as the consequence of the oppression of the Arab world and countries of the third world by the US. The domination of the US in the economic relations and politics of the world has led to the outburst of international terrorism as the only response to the superpower.
At the same time, the author argues that there are a wide number of forms of violence in modern international relations. However, the international relations theory fails to enroll all forms of violence. The author stands on the ground that the discipline of international relations covers a small range of forms of violence and needs the further study and expansion to enroll the variety of forms of violence.
In such a way, S. Smith implies that the discipline of international relations should expand the scope of the study, especially in terms of violence.
