30 novCharlotte Epstein (Sidney University), « When the Pre-modern is Post-modern: Hobbes, Lacan and the Making of the International System », Thursday September 23rd 2010

Charlotte Epstein (Sidney University)

From Hans Morgenthau to Kenneth Waltz, via Carl Schmitt, the writings of Thomas Hobbes have played a key role in shaping Realist understandings of the international system. Less appraised are the uncanny similarities that exist between his political ontology and that of Jacques Lacan. In this paper I return to this fount of Realism to I show how these two worlds – that of the early modern thinker of the post-modern psychoanalyst – reveal ontologies of dependence and relationality. Specifically, I show that the figure of the sovereign, the linchpin of Hobbes’ political order, represents none other than Lacan’s Other. The implications are significant, as, in the light of these resemblances, the conclusions realists have drawn with regards to the possibilities of states’ acting in that system appear a misreading of Hobbes. Underpinning Hobbes’s thought is in fact a sense of the fundamental dependence between the self and the Other that rule out the type of survivalist behavior that they describe and prescribe.

Discussant: Ariel Colonomos (CNRS-CERI)
CERI, Salle du Conseil – 4ème étage – 5pm-7pm

30 novMartti Koskenniemi (University of Helsinki), « Critical Approaches to International Law », Wednesday March 24th 2010

Martti Koskenniemi (University of Helsinki)
“International Law and Politics – What is Critical Method in Law?“

Discussants: Horatia Muir Watt (Sciences Po – Ecole de droit), Jerome Sgard (CERI)

The talk is co-sponsored by Sciences Po’s school of law (Ecole de droit)

Martti Kosekenniemi on « What’s the future of academia? »

15 novFrédéric Mérand (Université de Montréal), « Le Monde selon Pierre Bourdieu », Monday June 15th 2009

Frédéric Mérand (Université de Montréal)

Le monde selon Pierre Bourdieu : éléments pour une théorie sociale des relations internationales

Discutant et responsable scientifique : Bastien Irondelle (CERI)

CERI, salle de conférences, 10.00 am – 12.00 pm