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This essay outlines the ways in which the author presents normative theory to his students in his courses and textbook in international relations. Adapted from the source document.

This essay analyzes the attacks on New York City's World Trade Center & the Pentagon in Washington in terms of what they reflect about the changing nature of global politics & the theoretical demands of these changes. Among the key issues that the article addresses are the implications of 11 September (2001) for the overall role of change & the importance of history in global politics, the status of the territorial state in the field, the role of nonstates in the global arena, the nature of contemporary violence & its implications for individuals, the declining role of distance, the disappearing boundary between foreign & domestic affairs, &, most importantly, the central role of identity theory in making sense of the emerging world. Overall, the essay professes a 'postinternational' perspective in the tradition of James Rosenau, suggesting that the events of 11 September reflect a world in transition from a state-based international system to a far more complex political universe with similarities to the prestate world. Such a world entails a considerable remapping of conceptual & theoretical maps concerning the field. Adapted from the source document.

Anthony F. Lang's Agency and Ethics is an effort to reinterpret international intervention from a normative perspective, normative in this instance referring to activities that construct identities and provide policy guidance. Although he describes himself as a "realist" (p. 3), Lang sets out to explain the outcome of military intervention in terms of the interaction between the normative dimension and the "political," which he defines as the competitive elements in a situation. He argues that states intervene in one another's affairs owing to what they believe are the norms that define their role(s) in international politics, and he shows how norms produce conflict as well as cooperation. In the cases that follow, Lang focuses on three norms—liberalism, colonialism, and humanitarianism: The first focuses on democracy, individual rights, and national self-determination; the second on responsibility for politically and economically less developed societies; and the third on assisting those in need. He ascribes the failure of intervention to normative disagreement among both friends and adversaries within and between participating countries, and he uses what Alexander George calls a "focused comparison" of cases to illustrate his claim.