Marxist School

Marxist theory of international politics refers to the understanding of economic policies of the state and their consequences in international sphere. Hence Marxist theories are theories of political economy.
Though Marx was not concerned with IR per se but his concepts on capitalism and proletariat internationalism transcended national differences . His vision of a potential link between the bulk of humanity as a global proletariat is where, and how, Marxism enters IR
Marxist scholars have tried to understand the working of capitalism in international context
It argues that the construction of modern borders is determined by, or linked in various ways to, the development of capitalism.

Also known as dependency school
They have analysed the impact of capitalism with respect to the existence of poverty in the countries of the South
Core concepts of this school

world system theory, ie multicultural territorial division of labor- where production and exchanges of various goods, raw material and capital is taking place.
He describes three elements of world system:

Spatial dimension: core, periphery and semi periphery
Temporal dimension: denotes the cycle of capitalism. Acc to him, capitalism is moving towards its end. He mentions about cyclicla rythms of boom and bust and secular trends, ie , the expansion and contraction of economy.
He describes liberalism and science as cultural dimension.

Against political modernisation theory that says go for greater integration with the world.
Dependency theorists say it only leads to development of underdevelopment.
It only benefits bourgeoisie of core and semi periphery.
hence go for autonomous national development.
Importance of theory is not just in understanding international politics but also its consequences. Acc to Wallerstein, war in Balkans and poverty in Africa can be traced to the needs of capitalist countries.
Along with emperical evidences theory also has normative features as he suggests we have only two options : socialism and barbarism.
The theory can be utilised to understand the current challenges faced by liberal world order based on neoliberal world order.
Criticism:

Reductionist - like mainstream Marxism which holds every development due to the economic factor, even Wallerstein’s theory is not free from economic reductionism
Robert Cox(Neo Marxist) has suggested to study both. Material and ideological structure of capitalism
The critical school calls the mainstream theories like realism, liberalism and instrumental Marxism as problem solving theory devoid of emancipation of the masses.
Post colonial scholars suggest even Marxist perspective is not free from Eurocentrism
From the perspective of Feminists, it continues to be masculinist perspective devoid of women perspective
From the perspective of post modernists even world systems theory is a discourse and aims to build a meta-narrative.

theory is always for someone and for some purpose- Robert cox
They focus on role of culture and ideological phenomena of hegemony.
Says instrumentalism is economic determinsim and ignore the role of culture and soft power. Usa is ruling through it's soft power.

Andrew linklater
Based on the ideas of Kant and Marx.
focused on the idea of freeing people from the modern state and economic system – a concept known to critical theorists as emancipation
From a critical perspective, then, people – not states – must be put at the centre of politics, global or otherwise.
Unlike Problem solving theories like realism and idealism that are status quoist, critical school like feminist theory is emancipatory
Additionally, political arrangements should be judged, or critiqued, according to their capacity to advance emancipation and the broadening of moral boundaries.

Conclusion:Hence Marxists criticise the current structure of IR that is based on the hegemony of the capitalist nations and focus on how it could be transformed to a system that, Marxists hope, will better redistribute the wealth of the world.

Class Notes 4 You