Approaching the global polity

The world is becoming increasingly tightly organised politically and the global polity is emerging as a major research theme. Well defined conceptualisations and theoretical approaches have still to be developed but important contributions and insights are found in theories on regime-formation and institutionalisation, the literature on globalisation, convergence and diversity, neo-Gramscian world order analysis, internationalisation of the state and transnational and trans-governmental relations. The paper discusses main themes in these literatures and identifies promising avenues for further research, among them trans- governmental relations and transnational class-formation. Finally the conceptualisation of the global polity is discussed and a definition suggested. The global polity is defined as the totality of global political structures and processes including non-state actors. It is further specified by three analytical aspects: a set of structured arenas, mechanisms for global policies, and embodiment of relations of power

Neo-Poulantzian Perspectives in IR and the Current Crisis

This paper is about Poulantzas, historical materialism, international relations, and the current crisis. My purpose is to discuss how some Poulantzian theoretical contributions can be applied to the study of subject matters that are the focus of academic fields such as International Relations (IR), International Political Economy (IPE), International Politics, World Politics and others. I deliberately abstain from singling out any of these disciplines or fields or labels and from trying to define them precisely, because one of my arguments is that historical materialism (HM) is a research program2 that contains its own theoretical definition of the object under study. This object, with inspiration from Poulantzas’ notion of the imperialist chain and his general theory of society, I will define as the global social formation or for short, world society

The Transnational State and the Infrastructure Push

In 2010 the G20 in cooperation with major international organizations launched a comprehensive effort - here labelled the infrastructure push – to promote infrastructure investments around the world. Using selected transnationalised elements from historical materialism, this is explained as a transnational state initiative to secure general material conditions for capitalist growth in a manner that is profoundly shaped by power relations. The infrastructure problem was allowed to grow during neoliberalism because of the hegemony of finance; the push is a result of and reflects a weakening of finance and strengthening of industrial interests in the transnational power bloc, as well as a strengthening of the emerging economies. This potential hegemonic project has gained the support of the global labour movement, while also been subject to serious criticism from civil society organizations, speaking for the most vulnerable subaltern social forces. The empirical analysis also shows that the transnational state in this policy area works as a flexible, networked cooperation of G20 states and leading international organizations in ongoing dialogue with non-state actors, especially transnational business. In this cooperation, the international organizations have a relatively autonomous role in line with a historical materialist understanding of state apparatuses

Erik Rasmussen, Niels Bohr og værdirelativismen – i anledning af Kasper Lippert-Rasmussens bog om Erik Rasmussen

En svaghed ved Kasper Lippert-Rasmussens i øvrigt udmærkede bog om Erik Rasmussen er, at den forbigår den sene Rasmussens bog om komplementaritet og statskundskab. Bogen var vigtig for Rasmussen, og den bør indgå i hans faglige eftermæle. Den rummer videnskabsteoretiske argumenter af stor relevans, ikke mindst med hensyn til værdirelativismen. Rasmussen viser, at komplementaritetsbegrebet i Bohrs vigtige men oversete filosofi kan bidrage væsentligt til at afklare teoretisk-metodiske problemer i statskundskab, herunder forholdet mellem struktur og handling og mellem mikro- og makroanalyse, samt ikke mindst forholdet mellem normative og kognitive udsagn. Efter mødet med Niels Bohrs filosofi står Rasmussens værdirelativisme både skarpere og stærkere end før, og Kasper Lippert-Rasmussens karakteristik af denne position som et ubegrundet dogme i dansk politologi er ikke overbevisende

Transitions to and from(?) Neoliberalism

The current international crisis has important similarities with the crisis of the 1970s that eventually gave rise to a new hegemonic project and associated growth model, later to be labelled neoliberalism. With a view to assessing the possibilities for a transition to a new model in the current situation the paper examines the first transition along three selected dimensions: the underlying structural changes that prevented a return to the old model; the relatively autonomous role of international organisations in diagnosing the problems and suggesting remedies, and the role of power relations and political leadership in effecting the transitions. All three factors are argued to be critical. The same questions are then asked of the current situation. Deep global eco-nomic integration along with environmental problems, lacking inclusion of people, rising inequalities and the empowerment of the emerging economies all present economic and political problems that cannot be ad-dressed effectively by neoliberal policy prescriptions. This is diagnosed by international organisations and in the G20, but there still are tensions between the new agenda and the legacy of neoliberalism and a new convincing hegemonic project has not yet emerged. The crisis is both one of hegemony within the transnational power bloc and between the power bloc and popular forces, right and left. This makes the question of political leader-ship critical, but Brexit and the election of Donald Trump has only served to aggravate the crisis. There is a possibility for a progressive turn, but also for a rather malevolent development

Taking a Long and Global View

Marx’s body of theory can be divided into four interconnected elements. One is the economic theory of capitalism, as presented in Das Kapital, a theory whose relevance keeps being re-affirmed, especially in times of crisis. This relevance is due, inter alia, to the theory’s account of recurrent crises and large scale unemployment, the constant drive to concentration and centralization of capital, the compulsory drive towards labour- and cost-cutting technological innovation, and the tendency towards growing inequality. The second element has become known as historical materialism, Marx’s outline of a program for research and theory-building on human society’s development and change. This program has been developed and adapted in various ways and has suffered a rather mixed fortune of marginalization and occasional fashionableness in academia, along with intense internal theoretical debates, but it remains productive within the social sciences and history. The third element is the idea that capitalism is a progressive mode of production that eventually will build the basis for a new and better society, which will be socialist and eventually communist in the sense of a society where ‘the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all’. And the fourth element is the idea that the transition to this new and better society will take place through a revolution led by the industrial working class. These elements combine outstanding and path-breaking social science scholarship with a strong political commitment and a vision for a dramatically better, more free and just and more humane society. Undoubtedly this combination is an important reason why Marx’s ideas have kept and keep renewing their power of attraction

Visualizing the non-equilibrium dynamics of photoinduced intramolecular electron transfer with femtosecond X-ray pulses

Ultrafast photoinduced electron transfer preceding energy equilibration still poses many experimental and conceptual challenges to the optimization of photoconversion since an atomic-scale description has so far been beyond reach. Here we combine femtosecond transient optical absorption spectroscopy with ultrafast X-ray emission spectroscopy and diffuse X-ray scattering at the SACLA facility to track the non-equilibrated electronic and structural dynamics within a bimetallic donor–acceptor complex that contains an optically dark centre. Exploiting the 100-fold increase in temporal resolution as compared with storage ring facilities, these measurements constitute the first X-ray-based visualization of a non-equilibrated intramolecular electron transfer process over large interatomic distances. Experimental and theoretical results establish that mediation through electronically excited molecular states is a key mechanistic feature. The present study demonstrates the extensive potential of femtosecond X-ray techniques as diagnostics of non-adiabatic electron transfer processes in synthetic and biological systems, and some directions for future studies, are outlined

GPAW: open Python package for electronic-structure calculations

We review the GPAW open-source Python package for electronic structure calculations. GPAW is based on the projector-augmented wave method and can solve the self-consistent density functional theory (DFT) equations using three different wave-function representations, namely real-space grids, plane waves, and numerical atomic orbitals. The three representations are complementary and mutually independent and can be connected by transformations via the real-space grid. This multi-basis feature renders GPAW highly versatile and unique among similar codes. By virtue of its modular structure, the GPAW code constitutes an ideal platform for implementation of new features and methodologies. Moreover, it is well integrated with the Atomic Simulation Environment (ASE) providing a flexible and dynamic user interface. In addition to ground-state DFT calculations, GPAW supports many-body GW band structures, optical excitations from the Bethe-Salpeter Equation (BSE), variational calculations of excited states in molecules and solids via direct optimization, and real-time propagation of the Kohn-Sham equations within time-dependent DFT. A range of more advanced methods to describe magnetic excitations and non-collinear magnetism in solids are also now available. In addition, GPAW can calculate non-linear optical tensors of solids, charged crystal point defects, and much more. Recently, support of GPU acceleration has been achieved with minor modifications of the GPAW code thanks to the CuPy library. We end the review with an outlook describing some future plans for GPAW