This article argues that the failure of the intra-Afghan negotiations was due to the interplay between the false readiness of the conflicting parties and negative hybrid peace efforts. Both the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Islamic Movement of the Taliban demonstrated insufficient interest in a negotiated resolution to the conflict during the intra-Afghan peace talks. This deficiency in commitment stems from power dynamics and the United States-Taliban agreement signed on 29 February 2020 in Doha, which influenced the parties' approaches to peace. The study deploys "False Readiness Theory" as its main theoretical framework and negative hybrid peace as its central conceptual base to demonstrate their intersection in the context of the Afghan peace process. Data were collected primary and secondary sources using qualitative approach, primarily through interviews with members of the negotiating team and former officials of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. This article critically exposes the deep connection between false readiness theory and the negative hybrid peace approach in Afghanistan, directly challenging the dominant view that the hybrid peace model best suits conflict-affected societies. It further examines the model's theoretical and practical implications, while highlighting key limitations and offering recommendations.
This paper addresses the question, "Is posthumanism a new hope for global ecological politics?" by examining the structure-agent problem from a critical realist perspective. Despite its theoretical contributions in rejecting dualism and advancing a non-anthropocentric ontology of the nature-human relationship, I argue that posthumanism, grounded in an ontology that excludes the historical and social structures underlying ecological destruction, offers only a limited imagination for global ecological politics and weakens the transformative capacity of social and ecological emancipation. Within this critical realist starting point, I return to historical materialism (HM), which conceptualizes social and ecological processes on the basis of historically constituted relations of production and material conditions. Against reductionist interpretations of HM, I position critical realism (CR) as a meta-theoretical framework. A CR-informed HM posits ontologically distinct causal mechanisms in the structure-agency relation: agents act within the possibilities and constraints of these structures but, through praxis, contribute to their reproduction or transformation. Posthumanism, by contrast, orients global ecological politics not toward transformative praxis but toward a framework centred on adaptation and ethics.
This article examines why some intrastate conflicts that end with comprehensive peace agreements lead to lasting peace, while others relapse into conflict. It focuses on the design and implementation of civil war peace agreements by formally evaluating a theoretical framework grounded in the bargaining model of war and credible commitment mechanisms. Using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, the study explores the conditions that facilitate successful transitions from war to peace. Five explanatory conditions are identified: power-sharing, transitional justice, transitional reform, international assistance, and the implementation process. The analysis compares thirty-four peace agreement cases between 1989 and 2012, drawing on data from numerous sources. The findings underscore the significance of fear-reducing, cost-increasing, and confidence-building mechanisms, suggesting the need to reassess existing theoretical frameworks. The study also compares five typical and three individually irrelevant cases to test the properties that link specific sufficient configurations to the outcome.
This article examines mediation as a form of strategic agency by comparing Qatar's hedging in Gaza and Turkey's balancing in Ukraine. It argues that mediation is increasingly instrumentalized by small and middle powers to manage uncertainty, enhance autonomy, and project influence in a fragmented international order. Drawing on theories of hedging and balancing, the study demonstrates how mediation functions as a key instrument through which these strategies are enacted. Qatar employs mediation as a cautious, risk-averse strategy to diversify alliances, safeguard regime security, and amplify its global reputation. At the same time, Turkey integrates mediation into a more assertive balancing approach that leverages military capacity, institutional ties, and regional ambitions. Using qualitative comparative analysis of diplomatic initiatives-including Qatar's role in Gaza War talks and Turkey's mediation in the Russia-Ukraine War-the article contributes to debates on non-Western diplomacy. It shows how mediation functions simultaneously as conflict management, reputational capital, and a strategic instrument of foreign policy.
Environmental degradation and its multidimensional impacts have become a topic of increasing interest in the International Relations (IR) discipline. Several IR theories examine environmental issues through different approaches, ranging from state-centric to human-centric. Green Theory in IR, rooted in the diversity of green political thought across the green spectrum, focuses directly on analyzing environmental issues. This study delves into the possibility of an ecocentric and holistic reframing of Green Theory in IR grounded in Eckersley's Green State, planetary approach, and critical problem-solving methodology through analytical eclecticism. We aim to discuss whether a well-defined Green Theory in IR can provide a comprehensive perspective for implementing more effective alternatives to polycrisis, especially to ecological crises. Therefore, we categorize the conceptual and theoretical diversity within green approaches to clarify the content of green ontology and examine the green critiques of IR. These clarifications nourish the discussion of an alternative green theoretical framework for IR within Green Theory, offering a fresh and holistic lens for reinterpreting Green IR Theory. This will allow us to understand the interdependence in the international system ecologically, analyze the causes and consequences of ecological problems, and identify alternative solutions.
