Book Reviews : Belief Systems and International Relations edited by Richard Little and Steve Smith. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1988. 270pp. £30.00
| Published date | 01 May 1989 |
| Date | 01 May 1989 |
| Author | Mark Hoffman |
| DOI | 10.1177/004711788900900512 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
458
rights
are
the
elites
of
certain
third
world
states
together
with
Western
non-
governmental
organisations
(the
former
were
perhaps
more
interested
in
the
1970s;
the
latter
in
the
1980s)
and
rightly
states
that
the
issues
raised
by
peoples’
rights
are
not
yet
fully
articulated.
He
neither
rejects
nor
endorses
Brownlie’s
suggestion
that
’the
issues
of
self-determination,
the
treatment
of
minorities,
and
the
status
of
indigenous
popula-
tions
are
the
same,
and
the
segregation
of
topics
is
an
impediment
to
fruitful
work’.
In
this
context
it
is
odd
to
see
no
reference
to
the
question
of
the
right
of secession
discussed
by
Buchheit
in
his
1978
book.
He
goes
on
to
suggest
that
many
of
the
arguments
once
used
to
ensure
the
acceptance
of
the
category
of human
rights
into
international
law
can
now
be
used
to
help
to
ensure the
acceptance
of
the
category
of
peoples’
rights
into
international
law.
If,
as
he
argues,
peoples’
rights
embodies
a
category
not
a
definition
then
it
follows
that
what
constitutes
a
people
may
be
different
for
the
purposes
of
different
rights.
Both
these
books
provide
a
serious
and
welcome
contribution
to
the
discussion
of
current
human
rights
problems.
Foreign
and
Commonwealth
Office,
London
SALLY MORPHET
The
views
expressed
are
those
of
the
author
and
do
not
necessarily
reflect
those of
the
Foreign
and
Commonwealth
Office.
Belief
Systems
and
International
Relations
edited
by
Richard
Little
and
Steve
Smith.
Oxford:
Basil
Blackwell,
1988.
270pp.
£30.00.
Over
the
course
of
the
last
decade,
the
study
of
international
relations
has
come
to
be
dominated
by
neo-realism
and
its
structuralist
explanations
of
international
relations.
While
highlighting
important
and
essential
aspects
of
behaviour
in
the
international
system,
the
neo-realist
approach
has
done
so
at
the
cost
of
squeezing
out
other
levels
of
analysis,
most
notably
that
of
the
individual,
and
other
modes
of
analysis,
most
notably
the
social-psychological.
This
book,
with
its
theoretical
and
empirical
examination
of
the
nature
and
role
of
belief
systems
serves
as
a
useful
and
timely
antidote
to
the
predominance
of
neo-realism.
The
volume,
is
organised
into
three
sections.
The
first
contains
three
chapters
which
serve
as
an
overview
and
theoretical
introduction
to
the
concept
of belief
systems.
In
the
first
chapter,
Smith
provides
a
useful
survey
of
the
development
of
the
study
of
belief
systems
in
international
relations.
He
concludes
his
introduction
by
outlining
ten
ques-
tions
regarding
belief
systems.
The
most
important
of
these
are
the
tension
between
the
concept’s
application
and
explanation
at
the
individual
versus
the
societal
levels;
whether
the
concept
explains
or
simply
describes
behaviour;
and
if
it
explains
behav-
iour,
what
does
it
actually
account
for
and
how
important
is
it
in
explaining
foreign
policy
behaviour?
In
the
second
chapter,
Little
places
the
study
of
belief
systems
more
broadly
in
the
context
of
the
development
of
social
sciences,
concluding
that
the
study
of
belief
systems
needs
to
embrace
both
psychological
and
sociological
dimensions.
One
can
not
help
thinking
that
the
ordering
of
these
two
chapters
would
have
been
more
coherent
if
they
had
been
reversed.
The
third
introductory
chapter
is
much-
the
most
interesting
and
challenging.
Start-
ing
with
the
premise
that
there
has
been
a
superficial
blurring
between
the
concepts
of
belief
systems
and
ideology,
John
Maclean
makes
use
of
a
critical
theory
perspective
to
delineate
’strong’
and
’weak’
versions
of
the
relationship
between
the
two
concepts.
Maclean
gives
a
critique,
of
the
positivist
assumptions
of
both
these
positions
and
argues
that
they
offer
more
in
the
way
of
description
than
explanation
and
cannot
account
for
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