Hello. After talking about neoliberalism, today, we'll talk about the third classical concept of International Relations theory, namely, Marxism and Neo-Marxism. As an IR theory, Marxism was born in the 19th century. It is the third classical or base paradigm of this science of international relations together with Realism and Liberalism. Marxism also started by explaining patterns of social and political development, the development of states and societies, but eventually the Marxist theory came up with a particular view of inter-state, inter-societal and international relations as well. The vision, which is fundamentally different from both Liberal and Realist ideas. What is the major peculiarity? What makes Marxism different? It is the economic determinism. According to Marxism, politics, including international politics, is neither a struggle for power or prestige as it is in realism. More, it is an attempt to make the world better to improve the world as it is in Liberalism, rather according to Marxism, power politics and international politics is always a struggle for distribution of economic resources. And this economic determinism distinguishes Marxism from other classical theories of international relations, Realism and Liberalism. Why is Marxism a classical theory of international relations? Why do we put it at the same level as Realism and Liberalism? Because as they, Marxism provides a systemic explanation to the nature of international relations. It gives a fundamentally different but comprehensive vision of the basic theoretical elements which explain international relations politics, the connections between them, correlations among them, such as individual, state, non-state actors, international systems as well, it explains the motives of actors and key patterns which drive international relations. Why is Marxism still relevant? Despite, the collapse of the USSI and the world communist system, Marxism is a very relevant theory of international relations. First, it remains as an essential tool explaining world economy, and especially international economic crisis. Classical liberal economic theory is very often unable to explain distortions of the world economy and crisis. The cases when the so-called invisible hand of the market doesn't work, or doesn't work effectively. Witness the latest world economic crisis of 2007, 2009. It was poorly predicted. Many economists claimed it to be the Black Swan. And it was poorly explained through the classical economic theory. Marxism, on the contrary, is absolutely excellent in explaining and predicting crises. It perceives crisis as a natural and unavoidable feature of capitalist economy and this is not very far from truth. Secondly, the idea of inequality and exploitation of the poor by the rich which is central to Marxism is very relevant today, and is getting more and more acute at both inter-state, and international levels. Indeed, there is a growing gap between the rich and the poor inside developing and developed countries, and concentration of wealth at the hands of very few is just unprecedented. For instance, according to Oxfam, just one percent of global population controls about 99 percent of global wealth. Just think about these figures, one percent versus 99 percent of global wealth. Just 62 individuals according to the same Oxfam source, 62 men and women possess the same wealth as the poorer half of global population. 62 individuals again possess the wealth which is approximate of the wealth which is possessed by three billion people of the world. Rules of international economic relations remain to be unequal and unjust, which favor rich, developed countries and discriminating poor and less developed. Global economic governance remains to be in the hands of the G seven of the group of seven most industrial developed countries, especially, the United States and the European Union. Thus, Marxism provides us with very relevant concepts and terminology and approaches which actually we use in day-to-day life, and in international relations theory. Such as the first world and the third world, the golden billion, the global North, and the global South, and so on and so forth. And finally, Marxism is very relevant because it is essentially based on one of the most appealing and eternal ideas of mankind. The idea of justice. And the strive to justice which is usually understood this strive for equality, has been and will remain to be one of the central pillars of human nature. And among the major drivers of history and Marxism is the best way to approach international relations through this prism of justice. What is the structure of Marxism? Basically, Marxism consists of two major groups. The first group is the Classical Marxism. It is this theory which was developed by its founding fathers in the 19th cent early 20th century, and the second is Neo-Marx which is the more modern and sophisticated theory which was developed by Western scholars in the middle and second half of the 20th century. There are crucial similarities between them, but also very fundamental differences about which we will talk about later in greater detail.
