Critical Theory RICHARD DEVETAK One of the defining characteristics of critical theory is its insistence on self-reflection, including an account of how knowledge emerges out of and is situated in particular contexts. It should come as little surprise then that critical theory should cast a backwards glance not only at its intellectual origins and evolution, but also its achievements and failures in application to the study of international relations. In the years since 1981, according to these self-reflective accounts (Rengger and Thirkell- White 2007, Brincat, Lima and Nunes 2012), the discipline of International Relations has been transformed, not least because of the theory’s critical interventions across a broad range of topics in the study of international relations. While guided by the long-term project of an emancipatory politics, critical theories of international relations take problems and issues in the present as their point of departure. Among the most pressing issue areas addressed by critical theorists of international relations in recent years are: international security (Fierke 2007), ballistic missile defence (Peoples 2010), the war on terror (Burke 2004, 2005), humanitarian intervention (Bjola 2005; Devetak 2007; Head 2008) and the global trade regime (Kapoor 2004), just to name a few. On a broader scale, Andrew Linklater (2011c), one of the foremost proponents of critical theory in International Relations, has published the first of a projected three-volume study of harm in international relations, and has been joined by other critical theorists in pursuit of a cosmopolitan politics (Beardsworth 2011; Benhabib 2006; Fine 2007). Still others have restated and advanced the case for a critical theory of international rela- tions in general (Anievas 2005; Haacke 2005; Roach 2010; Weber, 2002, 2005, 2007). Perhaps one of the most interesting developments over the past decade or so has been the increasing interest taken in international relations by the world’s leading critical theorist, Jürgen Habermas. In his recent writings he has intervened in the debate on NATO’s humanitarian war over Kosovo (1999), articulated a forthright critique of the Iraq War (2003a), reflected on the terrorist attacks of September 11 (2003b), 162 7 Chapter 7 16/11/12 13:32 Page 162