International relations theory

Combining extensive commentary by the authors and excerpts from original scholarship, this major new edition of International Relations Theory evaluates all the theoretical perspectives that political scientists use to analyze world politics. This unique survey/reader not only looks at classic international relations theory but takes into account changes in the world and important developments in the field. Highly regarded for its lucid and comprehensive coverage, International Relations Theory explains the role of theory in studying world politics and invites readers to critically engage the field's many controversies.

Chapter 1. Thinking About IR Theory: Images and Interpretive Understandings

What Is Theory?

Images

Interpretive Understandings

Summation

Selected Readings

James N. Rosenau, 'Thinking Theory Thoroughly'

Kenneth N. Waltz, 'Explaining War: The Levels of Analysis'

*Max Weber, 'On Interpretive Understanding'

Suggestions for Further Reading

PART I. IMAGES

Chapter 2. Realism: The State and Balance of Power

Major Actors and Assumptions

Intellectual Precursors and Influences

Power

System

Globalization and Interdependence

Realists and International Cooperation

Change

Realists and Their Critics

Selected Readings

Machiavelli, 'On Princes and the Security of Their States'

Thomas Hobbes, 'Of the Natural Condition of Mankind'

Jean Jacques Rousseau, 'The State of War'

*Joseph S. Nye, 'Hard and Soft Power in American Foreign Policy'

*John Mearsheimer, 'Tragedy of Great Power Politics'

Suggestions for Further Reading

Chapter 3. Liberalism: Interdependence and Global Governance

Major Actors and Assumptions

Intellectual Precursors and Influences

Integration

Transnationalism

Interdependence

International Regimes

Neoliberal Institutionalism

Global Governance

Economic Interdependence and Peace

The Democratic Peace

Decisionmaking

Change and Globalization

Liberals and Their Critics

Selected Readings

Michael W. Doyle, "Liberalism and World Politics"

*Robert O. Keohane, 'From Interdependence and Institutions to Globalization and Governance'

*Stephen G. Brooks, 'Producing Security'

Suggestions for Further Reading

Chapter 4. Economic Structuralism: Global Capitalism and Postcolonialism

Major Actors and Assumptions

Intellectual Precursors and Influences

Dependency Theorists

The Capitalist World-System

Change and Globalization

Postcolonialism

Economic Structuralists and Their Critics

Selected Readings

J.A. Hobson, 'The Economic Taproot of Imperialism'

*Immanuel Wallerstein, 'Gramsci, Hegemony, and International Relations'

*Robert W. Cox, 'The Modern World-System as a Capitalist World-Economy'

Suggestions for Further Reading

Chapter 5. The English School: International Society and Grotian Rationalism

Major Actors and Assumptions

Intellectual Precursors and Influences

The Divergence of British and American Scholarship

The Genesis of the English School

Levels of Analysis and Theory

Change

The English School, Liberals, and Social Constructivists

The English School And Its Critics

Selected Readings

Hugo Grotius, 'War, Peace, and the Law of Nations'

*Hugo Grotius, 'Freedom of the Seas'

*Tim Dunne, 'Inventing...