Below are my publications, arranged in three categories: peer reviewed journal articles, dissertation, and public-facing articles.
Peer Reviewed Articles
Clarkson, Joseph. 2025. "The Rousseauian Roots of Neorealism" [Link]
Review of International Studies, First View, 1-19.
Review of International Studies, First View, 1-19.
ABSTRACT: Does neorealism contain a conception of human nature? Although neorealists usually claim to sidestep the question of human nature altogether, scholars frequently trace the theory back to the work of Thomas Hobbes, a philosopher who in fact defended a robust account of human motivations. As a result, some scholars have concluded that neorealism contains a Hobbesian view of human nature. Against the conventional wisdom, this article argues that neorealism contains a Rousseauian philosophical anthropology. Whereas Hobbes provides a deeply pessimistic account of human motivations, Rousseau combines optimism about human motivations with pessimism about social structures. Rousseau’s critique of Hobbes profoundly influenced neorealism’s founding father, Kenneth Waltz, a political theorist who later gravitated towards international relations. After exploring Waltz’s reading of Rousseau and demonstrating Rousseau’s influence on Waltz’s theory, the article investigates what is gained by reading neorealism as Rousseauian. Returning to the Rousseauian roots of neorealism reveals the true character of the tragic heuristic employed in neorealist theory, sheds new light on the role of pity in neorealist foreign policy, and clarifies the logic of the theory itself.
Clarkson, Joseph. 2023. "Hegel, History, Hostility: The Persistence of War in Hegel's Political Philosophy" [Link]
Political Research Quarterly, 76(4), 1661-1673.
Political Research Quarterly, 76(4), 1661-1673.
ABSTRACT: The return of war in Europe has renewed the urgency of understanding war’s role in the interstate system. Although many theorists take a progressive view in which war is withering away, others argue war remains a recurrent feature of political life. This article contributes to theoretical debates about war's ongoing significance by systematically reconstructing Hegel’s theory of war and its relevance for understanding war's persistence. Historically, Hegel thinks war has taken increasingly rational forms over time, though, contrary to optimistic interpretations, this points to enmity’s distillation rather than its elimination. Causally, Hegel suggests war occurs because the lack of a power above states capable of adjudicating conflicting rights and the consequent struggle to enforce one’s formally valid claims against those who could substantively deny them. Ethically, Hegel holds war is a necessary evil which, abstractly, ought to end. However, since war teaches citizens that their good is tied to the good of the community as a whole, thereby restraining civil society’s encroachments on the political, Hegel denies the end of war would be an absolute ethical good. By systematically reconstructing Hegel's views on war, this article sheds new light on war's role in the system of European states
Dissertation
Clarkson, Joseph. 2024. "Hermann Heller and the Problem of Political Unity"
ABSTRACT: During the instability that characterized the Weimar Republic, the problem of political unity became a question of utmost concern. Unlike its English language equivalent, the German term politische Einheit signifies both the concrete unity and the bearer of that unity, the state. The three most important theorist of political unity in the Weimar Republic were Carl Schmitt, Hans Kelsen, and Hermann Heller. Whereas Schmitt’s and Kelsen’s theses have been the subject of extensive scholarly debate in the anglophone world, Heller’s approach to the problem of political unity has received relatively less scholarly treatment. Given this relative neglect of Hermann Heller in the history of political thought, this dissertation seeks to recover the core concept of Heller’s work on the problem of political unity, namely, the state.
As a result, the central question of the dissertation is: What is Hermann Heller’s concept of the state? Against recent interpreters who see Heller’s conception of the state as Hobbesian or Weberian, this dissertation argues for a left Hegelian reading of Heller’s theory. For Heller, the state is a unitarily effective but essentially pluralistic organization that can be distinguished from other kinds of organization by its sovereignty and territoriality. It exists only insofar as it successfully unites the dialectical moments of power, law, and ethics. Because of its dialectical constitution, Heller concludes that statehood is not a binary but a continuum. This enables him to bridge the gap between descriptive and normative political theory to defend parliamentary democracy and reformist socialism as the best practicable solution to the problem of political unity in the early twentieth century. Whereas some scholars identify a fundamental break in Heller’s thought, the interpretation defended here identifies fundamental continuities between Heller’s early work on Hegel and his later work in legal theory and political science.
More information is available here.
Public Facing Publications
2022. "War and Ukrainian Identity through the Eyes of a Ukrainian Graduate Student" [Link]
Europe in the World, The Nanovic Institute for European Studies.
Europe in the World, The Nanovic Institute for European Studies.
This is an interview I conducted with a friend of mine, Oleksandr Pometun, from Ukraine about the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War. Oleksandr and I first met in 2018 while studying German at the Technische Universität in Dresden and have maintained a close friendship ever since. The interview was posted on the website of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies.