CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2017
| Author | Shanmuga Sundaram, Sasikumar |
|---|---|
| Title | Scorekeepers, Game Players and Political Action: Normativity and Practical Reasoning of Brazil and India in International Politics |
| Summary | What are the conditions under which and the processes through which political actors settle practical matters in international politics, make some actions contingently authoritative and marginalize alternative discourses? This thesis argues that political action is neither a logical consequence of objective international reality nor mere subjective preferences of actors – there is nothing inherently inevitable about political action against competing alternative discourses. Rather, actions become contingently authoritative in the game of giving and asking for reasons. In particular, how political actors engage in practical reasoning is critical. Drawing from recent advancements in analytical pragmatists’ philosophy, particularly the works of Robert Brandom, I provide a fresh conceptual perspective on practical reasoning in international politics by showing that discursive practice is deontic where members keep track of one’s own and others’ normative commitments and entitlements – participants are thus deontic scorekeepers. While engaging in the game of giving and asking for reasons, political actors not only make claims; they attribute, acknowledge, and undertake different commitments and entitlements, keep scores on each other and work within the proprieties of deontic scorekeeping network. Thus, political actors through practical reasoning make several inferences, justify their moves, and intentionally judge and act and marginalize alternative discourses. Crucially, different types of norms that arise in the networked interaction-in-context lead to different patterns of practical reasoning for action. I analyze this distinct form of practical reasoning of actors in international politics on the issue of humanitarian crisis abroad in two broad historical case studies. The first study examines India’s military intervention in East Pakistan in 1971. The Indira Gandhi administration’s military intervention was not inevitable, as there were well-entrenched discourses in Indian political topography since the early twentieth century in the form of non-intervention, diplomatic criticism, rebel support, and enlisting the support of Great Powers to manage humanitarian crises abroad. I will show that the interaction-in-context among multiple scorekeepers on the East Pakistan crisis triggered an instrumental norm type with implications on patterns of inferences and on what reasons interlocutors accepted as good reasons for action. Through the game of giving and asking for reasons, the Indira Gandhi administration judged that securitization of refugees is the proper completion of its practical reasoning and marginalized competing alternatives. The second case study examines Brazil’s intervention in Haiti in 2004. The Lula administration’s humanitarian intervention was not inevitable, as there were three well-entrenched discourses in Brazilian political topography since the early twentieth century in the form of non-intervention, diplomatic mediation, and Chapter VI UN Peacekeeping missions. I show the interaction-in-context among scorekeepers on Haiti triggered an institutional norm type. The Lula administration through the game of giving and asking for reasons exhibited solidarity to a fellow Black-Brother country in the Hemisphere and utilized the practical inference of non-indifference to marginalize alternative discourses. Here the scorekeepers endorsed Brazil’s claims on solidarity and non-indifference in Haiti not as transcendental values, but as good reasons for action offered by a bona fide player in the region. The thesis will have implications for rethinking our conventional modes of understanding the processes of political action and agency on practical matters in international politics. Instead of engaging in a retrospective reading of history or asserting that the boundaries of acceptable discursive practices can be established in advance of the interaction-in-context, one has to foreground the normative conditions under which and deontic scorekeeping processes through which some actions become contingently authoritative against competing discourses. |
| Supervisor | Kurowska, Xymena |
| Department | International Relations PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2017/shanmugasundaram_sasikumar.pdf |
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