International Theory

International Theory
Author: Steve Smith
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 388
Release: 1996-06-13
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780521479486

This book provides a major review of the state of international theory. It is focused around the issue of whether the positivist phase of international theory is now over, or whether the subject remains mainly positivistic. Leading scholars analyse the traditional theoretical approaches in the discipline, then examine the issues and groups which are marginalised by mainstream theory, before turning to four important new developments in international theory (historical sociology, post-structuralism, feminism, and critical theory). The book concludes with five chapters which look at the future of the subject and the practice of international relations. This survey brings together key figures who have made leading contributions to the development of mainstream and alternative theory, and will be a valuable text for both students and scholars of international relations.

Is there a “timeless wisdom” to realism?

Is there a “timeless wisdom” to realism?
Author: Markus Minning
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
Total Pages: 9
Release: 2008-03-19
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3638021572

Essay from the year 2007 in the subject Politics - Other International Politics Topics, University of Sheffield (Department of Politics), language: English, abstract: I argue that there is no ́timeless wisdom ́ to realism, because in my opinion wisdom has nothing to do with realism. If realism is a timeless theory, then it should be viewed differently from the concept of wisdom. Both will be discussed in the following essay. Before we can fully answer the question if there is a ́timeless wisdom ́ to realism, we should focus on the meaning of wisdom. The term wisdom has a varity of different meanings and implications in depending on your particular point of view. If you search the online lexicon encarta, you find for instance explanations of “Western philosophic theories on wisdom”, “wisdom in Chinese philosopic tradition”, mythological definitions of wisdom and there exist other understandings of wisdom. (encarta. 13.11.07) Probably the political scientists have another meaning of wisdom in their mind than the psychologists. For this essay the definition of wisdom will be the one used in the encarta dictionary. It declares wisdom as “the ability to make sensible decisions and judgments based on personal knowledge and experience.” (encarta dictionary. 13.11.07) When we use this definition, which is of course mainly used to describe the behavior of human beings rather than a political theory, it is very doubtful to describe someone who sees power politics and e.g. the use of war merely as a political instument, as a sensible being. From a realist viewpoint states are “self-help agents” which only see their own interests and carry it through in an anarchic world order. (Doyle et al., 1997, p. 165) In regard to Machiavelli and Hobbes, humans are born bad. Carr and Morgenthau assume that the mankind learned by sociological factors to be self-maximizers. (Brown, 2007) Realist politics is power politics. Morgenthau claims that “power may comprise anything that establishes and maintains the control of man over man. Thus power covers all social relationships which serve that end, from physical violence to the most subtle psychological ties by which one mind controls another.” (Morgenthau, 1948, p. 11) Does this sound sensible? The focus on realism is rather power politics, conflict and war in which the values of cooperation, peace and progress are focused in the theories of liberalism. (Jackson et al, 2003 ) Of course, if we want to be 100 per cent correct, we also have to define the meaning of sensible decisions making, which is used in the definiton of wisedom. This would be the right way to work scientificly.

The Hidden History of Realism

The Hidden History of Realism
Author: S. Molloy
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 195
Release: 2006-02-04
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1403982929

Challenging the received notions of International Relations theory about a central tradition - Realism - Molloy demonstrates how a belief in a mode of theorization has distorted Realism, forcing the theory of power politics in IR into a paradigmatic strait-jacket that is simply inadequate and inappropriate to the task of encompassing its diversity.

The Realist Tradition and Contemporary International Relations

The Realist Tradition and Contemporary International Relations
Author: W. David Clinton
Publisher: LSU Press
Total Pages: 343
Release: 2007-07-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0807149217

The tradition in international relations theory known as realism has often been associated with the Cold War. The contributors to this intriguing volume argue, however, that realism remains a profound and relevant perspective on contemporary international politics. They point out that classical realism is based on concepts that were elucidated long before the Cold War began and are not confined by its boundaries. Further, they believe that insights of the realist tradition can provide valuable guidance in our contemporary world. W. David Clinton and ten scholars of foreign policy reexamine the work of thinkers spanning twenty-five centuries who have contributed to the development of realism across the ages. In their essays, the authors consider two key questions: What makes these thinkers "realists"? And how is their work relevant to the modern, post--Cold War world? These essays take a fresh look at such canonical thinkers as Thucydides, Augustine, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Hume, Burke, Carr, Niebuhr, and Morgenthau. Countering the widespread belief that realism has nothing left to offer, this collection demonstrates that continuities remain in the political world -- and that the ideas rooted in realism are too important and too useful to ignore. While there are obvious differences among the political philosophers whose works are considered here, they share a common concern about human limitations and the possible dangerous consequences of ignoring those limitations. Each in his own way, these classic thinkers discuss the need for prudence to counter the ever-present threat of tragedy resulting from our innocent, hopeful, or self-righteous efforts for perfection. These provocative essays demonstrate that though a realist understanding of the nature of international relations is at least as old as Thucydides, it is also as contemporaneous as the most recent headline.

The Eighty Years' Crisis

The Eighty Years' Crisis
Author: Ken Booth
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 272
Release: 1998
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780521667838

This book uses the agenda of E. H. Carr, and most obviously extends the title of his classic book The Twenty Years' Crisis, as the point of departure to discuss aspects of the world historical crisis from the end of the First World War until the end of the 1990s. This crisis - identified by 80 years of destructive wars, inequalities in life chances, and today's casualities of the global political economy - has shaped both the practices of international politics and the way they have been conceptualised and reconceptualised by specialists in International Relations. A distinguished group of contributors have written about the development of the academic discipline of International Relations in the inter-war years, the Cold War and post-Cold War eras; ethics, power and nationalism; the conditions of peace and the roles of law and peaceful change; and finally, considering future prospects, about globalization and the end of the old order.

Realist Thought and the Nation-State

Realist Thought and the Nation-State
Author: Konstantinos Kostagiannis
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 223
Release: 2017-09-21
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3319596292

This book recovers the history of realist theorization on nationalism and the nation-state. Presented in a sequence of snapshots and illustrated by examples drawn from the foreign policy of great powers, this history is represented by four key realist thinkers. It uses the centrality of power in realism as a starting point to claim, contrary to conventional wisdom about realism, that for realists the state is better understood not as a political unit outside history but rather as a manifestation of power unfixed in time. It also claims that the process of gradual impoverishment of the concept of power from classical to structural realism had profound implications for realism, as what the latter gained in parsimony it lost in analytical purchase. As a result, elaborate understandings of nationalism and its relation to the state are replaced by one-dimensional approaches. In order to offer meaningful engagement with foreign policy, neorealists often have to resort to the recovery of some of the complexity of classical realist accounts.

The Future of International Relations

The Future of International Relations
Author: Iver B. Neumann
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 423
Release: 2005-06-29
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1134762208

This book presents the state of the art of international relations theory through an analysis of the work of twelve key contemporary thinkers; John Vincent, Kenneth Waltz, Robert O. Keohane, Robert Gilpin, Bertrand Badie, John Ruggie, Hayward Alker, Nicholas G. Onuf, Alexander Wendt, Jean Bethke Elshtain, R.B.J. Walker and James Der Derian. The authors aim to break with the usual procedure in the field which juxtaposes aspects of the work of contemporary theorists with others, presenting them as part of a desembodied school of thought or paradigm. A more individual focus can demonstrate instead, the well-rounded character of some of the leading oeuvres and can thus offer a more representative view of the discipline. This book is designed to cover the work of theorists whom students of international relations will read and sometimes stuggle with. The essays can be read either as introductions to the work of these theorists or as companions to it. Each chapter attempts to place the thinker in the landscape of the discipine, to identify how they go about studying International Relations, and to discuss what others can learn from them.

Neoclassical realism in European politics

Neoclassical realism in European politics
Author: Asle Toje
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2024-07-30
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1526186071

Realism is making a comeback in Europe. This book brings together a new generation of realist scholars. It provides a rigorous survey for specialists seeking to understand the dynamics of international relations in a time of change. The volume thus seeks to explore the European dimension to neoclassical realism. The hope with this book is that it will spark a debate that, in time, might lead to the re-emergence of a distinctly European realist school which draws on the roots of the historical, non-American realist tradition, benefiting from insights in the liberal-constructivist paradigm. Through detailed case studies, the book illustrates that power and influence remain fruitful, even indispensable variables through which to understand the formation of foreign policy.

The Atlantic Realists

The Atlantic Realists
Author: Matthew Specter
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 409
Release: 2022-02-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 150362997X

In The Atlantic Realists, intellectual historian Matthew Specter offers a boldly revisionist interpretation of "realism," a prevalent stance in post-WWII US foreign policy and public discourse and the dominant international relations theory during the Cold War. Challenging the common view of realism as a set of universally binding truths about international affairs, Specter argues that its major features emerged from a century-long dialogue between American and German intellectuals beginning in the late nineteenth century. Specter uncovers an "Atlantic realist" tradition of reflection on the prerogatives of empire and the nature of power politics conditioned by fin de siècle imperial competition, two world wars, the Holocaust, and the Cold War. Focusing on key figures in the evolution of realist thought, including Carl Schmitt, Hans Morgenthau, and Wilhelm Grewe, this book traces the development of the realist worldview over a century, dismantling myths about the national interest, Realpolitik, and the "art" of statesmanship.

Evolutionary Interpretations of World Politics

Evolutionary Interpretations of World Politics
Author: William R. Thompson
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2016-05-06
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1134899947

The field of international relations is often stagnated in realism and liberalism. Groundbreaking and guaranteed to stir debate, this work will move the field of international relations beyond its current, and often inadequate, assumptions. The contributors describe how states, ideologies, and other areas of analysis evolve, conquer others, or disappear entirely. Change and the fluid nature of history--though so clearly a part of historical reality--are not so deeply embedded in other paradigms as they are in the variation and selection model of evolutionary international relations. Some contributors lay out the various controversies inherent to the new theory, while others apply the paradigm to specific problems in IR theory. Regardless of the approach, the presentation of this entirely new perspective and method succeeds in forming a new paradigm of international relations. Contributors include: William R. Thompson, George Modelski, Vincent S. E. Falger, David P. Rapkin, Jennifer Sterling-Folker, Hendrik Spruyt, Stewart Patrick, Paul Hensel, Karen Rasler, Craig N. Murphy, Jeffrey A. Hart, Sangbae and Brian Pollins.