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This book argues against the traditional understanding of international relations through the study of ideology and introduces four new major paradigms in the study of international relations theory: Marxian, mass society, community building, and rational choice

The increasing popularity of game modeling in international relations theory has fostered a tendency toward theoretical elegance to the detriment of empirical concerns. In this article attention is focused on the empirical implications of a series of choices that users of game theory must make when they model social interactions. In particular, possible trade-offs between theoretical complexity and empirical robustness are evaluated. This is done both abstractly and with specific references to recent modeling efforts in the fields of security and international political economy.

"This textbook shows how to think about international relations and offers insights into its most important theories and issues. Written from beyond the Anglo-US academic environment, with attention to regional nuances, it teaches students to perceive international politics in an organized and theoretical way, thus helping them grasp the complexity of the subject and see simple ways of making sense of it. Providing a thorough introduction to the main theories and approaches to international relations, the book covers the main dilemmas, concepts and methodological issues alongside a number of neglected theoretical paradigms such as institutionalism, Marxism, critical approaches, feminism and power in world politics. It will be of great use as a main textbook as well as a supplementary guide for related courses, including Foreign Policy Analysis, Conflict Studies, Security Studies, History of International Relations, International Organizations and Global Governance"--

This article posits empirical and political reasons for recent 'micro-moves' in several contemporary debates, and seeks to further develop them in future International Relations studies. As evidenced by growing trends in studies of practices, emotions and the everyday, there is continuing broad dissatisfaction with grand or structural theory's value without 'going down' to 'lower levels' of analysis where structures are enacted and contested. We suggest that empirics of the last 15 years — including the war on terror and the Arab Spring — have pushed scholars into increasingly micropolitical positions and analytical frameworks. Drawing upon insights from Gilles Deleuze, William Connolly and Henri Lefebvre, among others, we argue that attention to three issues — affect, space and time — hold promise to further develop micropolitical perspectives on and in International Relations, particularly on issues of power, identity and change. The article offers empirical illustrations of the analytical purchase of these concepts via discussion of the Occupy Wall Street movement and the Arab Spring uprisings.

International Relations Theory offers a unique approach to help students think conceptually and critically about how our contemporary world of diverse state and non-state actors works, but also the implications of domestic and global changes. The seventh edition covers current IR theory images (realism, liberalism, economic-structuralism, and the English School), interpretive understandings (constructivist, feminist, postmodern, critical theory, and green theory), normative considerations, and intellectual foundations from the ancient world to the modern era.

A plea for theory as the core of the discipline of international relations, stressing that the present confusion concerning the proper method & purposes of the discipline can be dispelled only by systematic empirical theory divorced from 'policy scientism' & reconnected with pol'al philosophy. The main contemporary theories are reviewed & critically discussed: the `realist' theory of power politics, philosophies of history, behavioral `systems' theory (based on a confusion between the methods of the physical sci's & the purposes of the soc sci's & consequently unable to explain world politics), & attempts at organizing the discipline around a central unifying concept such as equilibrium or decision-making. Instead of such theories, 2 kinds of systematic res are suggested: (1) historical sociol (description & comparison of historical systems of international relations, analyzed in terms of 4 series of data: the structure of the world, the forces which cut across the units, the relations between the domestic & the foreign policy of those units, the relations between them); & (2) the building of `relevant utopias' (a resumption of the traditional task of pol'al philosophy which would take into account the realities of world politics so as to avoid impatient perfectionism). AA-IPSA.

Classical political theorists such as Thucydides, Kant, Rousseau, Smith, Hegel, Grotius, Mill, Locke and Clausewitz are often employed to explain and justify contemporary international politics and are seen to constitute the different schools of thought in the discipline. However, traditional interpretations frequently ignore the intellectual and historical context in which these thinkers were writing as well as the lineages through which they came to be appropriated in International Relations. This 2006 collection of essays provides alternative interpretations sensitive to these political and intellectual contexts and to the trajectory of their appropriation. The political, sociological, anthropological, legal, economic, philosophical and normative dimensions are shown to be constitutive, not just of classical theories, but of international thought and practice in the contemporary world. Moreover, they challenge traditional accounts of timeless debates and schools of thought and provide new conceptions of core issues such as sovereignty, morality, law, property, imperialism and agency

The concept of international relations (IR) theory in the People's Republic of China differs drastically from that of the West. The construction of the IR discipline & theory, which began in response to the call of the CCP Central Committee leadership in the Cold War era, is a relatively new development in China, although there is universal agreement among scholars that ancient China has tangibly influenced present-day international attitudes toward China's leaders & its foreign policy. It is also evident that IR theory construction in China is, today, undergoing drastic reform. Many theorists are arguing for a distinct IR theory that conforms to "Chinese characteristics." Yet, because of China's historical lack of IR theory, it is still necessary for Chinese scholars to model their own theories after those of the West. As China's foreign policy matures & strengthens, China's IR scholars are less likely to look to the West for direction. 2 Tables. K. A. Larsen

Covering 1816–2016, this book deals extensively with the international system as well as the territorial outcomes of several key wars that were waged during that time period, providing an instructive lesson in diplomatic history and international relations among global powers. Based on an in-depth review of the leading theories in the field of international relations, International Relations Theory of War explains an innovative theory on the international system, developed by the author, that he applies comprehensively to a large number of case studies. The book argues that there is a unipolar system that represents a kind of innovation relative to other systemic theories. It further posits that unipolar systems will be less stable than bipolar systems and more stable than multipolar systems, providing new insights relative to other theories that argue that unipolar systems are the most stable ones. The first chapter is devoted to explaining the manner of action of the two dependent variables—systemic international outcome and intra-systemic international outcome. The second chapter presents the international relations theory of war and its key assumptions. The third chapter precisely defines the distribution of power in the system. The fourth chapter examines the theory's two key phenomena. The fifth and last chapter presents the book's conclusions by examining the theoretical assumptions of the international relations theory of war.