Towards a dialectic for world politics

Dialectics remains an under-utilised methodology in contemporary IR theory and represents a significant limitation to the study of world politics which this paper intends to redress. This article has two primary goals. Firstly, it aims to build upon the small but robust debate concerning the validity of dialectics in IR that has been championed previously by Alker and Biersteker, and Heine and Teschke respectively. Secondly, the paper emphasises two themes as being central in formulating a dialectic approach to world politics; (i) its open-endedness, and (ii): its basis in intersubjectivity. In regards to the first point, the dialectic is emphasised as being open-ended, contingent and altogether reliant on human action, which rejects any understanding of ‘inevitable’ dialectical progress or teleological endpoint. The second point claims that a dialectical account of world politics must be inherently based in real social relations that places intersubjectivity as a key factor in social change. On the one hand, this promises greater human freedom through the dialectical recognition theory of Hegel and Honneth, but on the other, indicates the potential for the irrational toleration of contradiction and antagonism as an accepted feature of social life.Ultimately, the paper argues that the skilled dialectician should emphasise human agency and intersubjectivity within a dialectical approach to world politics