Center-Periphery Relations: What Kind of Rule, and Does It Matter?

Year 2017, Volume: 6 Issue: 1, 5 - 16, 01.01.2017

Nicholas Onuf

https://doi.org/10.20991/allazimuth.284595

Abstract

In
proposing ‘a structural theory of imperialism’ nearly half a century ago, Johan
Galtung made center-periphery relations central to peace research theory and
more generally to the way scholars from the periphery see international
relations. Galtung took an imperialist system to be a special case of a ‘dominance
system’; any such system enforces an unequal distribution of privilege and
material well-being through mechanisms of direct, structural and cultural
violence. I propose to re-write Galtung’s structural theory by taking rules and
rule to perform the function that he assigned to violence. I conclude that
today’s global imperialist system is ruled through a functionally segmented
hegemony, supported by hierarchical coercion against a heteronomous backdrop.

Keywords

Galtung, center, periphery, dominance, rules

Merkez -Çevre İlişkileri: Nasıl bir Düstur, Neden Önemli?

Abstract

Johan Galtung yaklaşık yarım yüzyıl önce ‘emperyalizmin yapısal teorisini’ geliştirirken
merkez-çevre ilişkilerini, barış araştırmaları teorisinin ve daha genel çerçevede ise ‘çevre’
ülkelerdeki akademisyenlerin uluslararası ilişkilere bakış açısının merkezine yerleştirmiştir.
Galtung’a göre emperyalist sistem, özel bir çeşit ‘hakimiyet sistemi’ dir. Bu tür sistemler,
imtiyazlar ve maddi refahın eşitsiz dağıtımını doğrudan, yapısal ve kültürel şiddet
mekanizmaları yoluyla dayatır. Bu yazıda, onun şiddete aftettiği fonksiyonun kurallar ve
düstur tarafından ifa edildiğini öne sürerek Galtung’un yapısal teorisinin yeniden yazılmasını
önermekteyim. Sonuç olarak ise günümüzdeki küresel emperyalist sisteminin düsturunun
işlevsel olarak bölünmüş bir hegemonya olduğunu, bunun ise özerksiz bir arkaplana karşı
hiyerarşik zorlama ile desteklendiğini öne sürmekteyim.

Keywords

merkez, çevre, hegemonya, hakimiyet, kurallar, düstur

References

• Albert, Mathias, Barry Buzan, and Michael Zürn, ed. Bringing Sociology to International Relations: World Politics as Differentiation Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
• Galtung, Johan. “Cultural Violence.” Journal of Peace Research 27, no. 3 (1990): 291-305.
• Galtung, Johan. “Feudal Systems, Structural Violence, and the Structural Theory of Revolutions.” Vol. 1, International Peace Research Association Third Proceedings. Assen: Van Gorcum, 1970.
• Galtung, Johan. Peace by Peaceful Means: Peace and Conflict, Development and Civilization. London: SAGE Publications,1996.
• Galtung, Johan. “A Structural Theory of Aggression.” Journal of Peace Research 1, no. 2 (1964): 95-119.
• Galtung, Johan. “A Structural Theory of Imperialism.” Journal of Peace Research 8, no. 2 (1971): 81-117.
• Galtung, Johan. “Violence, Peace and Peace Research.” Journal of Peace Research 6, no. 3 (1969): 167-91.
• Hart, H. L. A. The Concept of Law. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1960.
• Joseph, Jonathan. “The Hegemony of Governmentality: Towards a Research Agenda.” All Azimuth (forthcoming).
• Joseph, Jonathan. “Is Waltz a Realist?” International Relations 24, no. 4 (2010): 478-93.
• Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Practical Reason. Translated by Mary Gregor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
• Kelsen, Hans. General Theory of Law and the State. New York: Russell & Russell, 1961.
• Kratochwil, Friedrich. The Status of Law in World Society: Meditations on the Role and Rule of Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
• Lukács, Georg. History and Class Consciousness: Studies in Marxist Dialectics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1972. Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. The German Ideology. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1970.
• McDougal, Myres S., and Harold Lasswell. “The Identification and Appraisal of Diverse Systems of Public Order.” American Journal of International Law 53, no. 1 (1959): 1-29.
• Onuf, Nicholas. International Legal Theory: Essays and Engagements, 1966-2006. Abingdon: Routledge- Cavendish, 2008.
• Onuf, Nicholas. “Old Mistakes: Bourdieu, Derrida, and the ‘Force of Law’.” International Political Sociology 3, no. 4 (2010): 315-18.
• Onuf, Nicholas. “Recognition and the Constitution of Epochal Change.” International Relations 27, no. 2 (2013): 121-40.
• Onuf, Nicholas Greenwood. Making Sense, Making Worlds: Constructivism in Social Theory and International Relations. Abingdon: Routledge, 2013.
• Onuf, Nicholas. World of Our Making: Rules and Rule in Social Theory and International Relations. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1989.
• Parsons, Talcott. The Social System. New York: Free Press, 1951.
• Reich, Simon, and Richard Ned Lebow. “Influence and Hegemony: Shifting Patterns of Material and Social Power in World Politics.” All Azimuth 6, no. 1 (2017): 17-47.
• Ruggie, John Gerard. Constructing the World Polity: Essays on International Institutionalization. London: Routledge, 1998.
• Ruggie, John Gerard . “Continuity and Transformation in the World Polity: Toward a Neorealist Synthesis.” In Neorealism and Its Critics, edited by Robert O. Keohane, 131-57. New York: Columbia University Press, 1986.
• Stinchcombe, Arthur L. Constructing Social Theories. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1968. TRANSCEND. “Johan Galtung Founder of TRANSCEND International.” Accessed July 10, 2016. https://www.transcend.org/galtung/#bio.