CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2025
| Author | Kubova, Monika |
|---|---|
| Title | Neutrality in International (Dis)order: a Conceptual History |
| Summary | This thesis looks into the nature and role of neutrality in international order through the lens of conceptual history. By tracing the life of the concept from the late medieval period until present day, I identified four forms of neutrality: the strategic, legal, ethico-normative, and political form. These forms, as the thesis illustrates, were conceptualised as a product of the specific historical conditions of European societies to address different problems of cooperation and conflict, reflecting broader changes in the international order over the centuries. While the concept of neutrality is currently contested and in the process of transformation, looking at the current articulations of this concept in the context of War in Ukraine through the framework of these four forms gives a better grasp of the process of institutional contestation itself and how we can make sense of it. Introducing this framework also highlights that the repertoire of conceptualisations of institutions, such as neutrality, remains to a considerable extent constrained by their past articulations which can be re-traced through a macro-historical analysis. By redefining the debates of both scholars and practitioners through the framework of four forms of neutrality we can grasp how the process of contestation unfolds on the level of governmentality and different forms of sovereignty, which is characteristic of the contemporary (dis)order. |
| Supervisor | Alexander Astrov |
| Department | Political Science PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2025/kubova_monika.pdf |
Visit the CEU Library.
© 2007-2021, Central European University