PYQ Vault · Paper 2 · Approaches to International Relations
“Marxist approach to the study of international relations has lost its relevance in the post-cold war era. Comment.
How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Flow snapshot — how the answer moves
Intro routes
R1 Marxism as class/capital (IPE) lens → anti-imperialism + core-periphery -. Intro routes predicted collapse never came → decline thesis has force R2 post-Cold War liberal triumph -. socialism abandoned in practice → is class analysis still usable?
Body flow
decline thesis: Fukuyama's end of history / socialist states → liberalism / Keohane and Body flow Nye complex interdependence, not class → but capitalism keeps generating predicted inequality → Seattle + WSF vs WEF + 2008 crisis → Piketty haves vs have-nots → Wallerstein world-systems still explains Southern underdevelopment
Counter-view
realist charge: Marxist state is reductionist, ignores autonomous state strength → true Counter-view only in part
Conclusion routes
R1 declined as governing system, not as critique – inequality persists → Conclusion routes emancipatory purpose (change, not just interpret) keeps it relevant R2 relevance shifts from blueprint to diagnostic tool — survives wherever global inequality endures
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
