Description
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.
Chapter
Contemporary epistemological debates
Positivism in international theory
2 The timeless wisdom of realism?
A very brief intellectual history of realism
The distinguishing features of realism
The place of realism in the discipline ofInternational Relations
The timeless wisdom of realism?
3 The growing relevance of pluralism?
The intellectual heritage of pluralism
The re-emergence of pluralism in internationalrelations
The growing relevance of pluralism?
4 The inter-state structure of the modern world-system
5 The accomplishments of international political economy
6 The continued significance of positivism?
The nature of a moderate positivism
Quantification in International Relations
7 The rise and fall of the inter-paradigm debate
What was the inter-paradigm debate?
How did it differ from the other three great debates?
What's wrong with the inter-paradigm debate?
8 Margins, silences and bottom rungs: how to overcome the underestimation of power in the study of international relations
9 Is there a classical international theory?
Martin Wight on international theory
The classical approach and modern social science
Realism and the 'English School'
The classical tradition and post-positivist theories
10 Authoritarian and liberal militarism: a contribution from comparative and historical sociology
Constitutional and absolutist states
Varieties of successor states and militarism
Modern Western militarism: 1. Nation-statism
Modern Western militarism: 2. Civil society militarism
11 The achievements of post-structuralism
12 The contributions of feminist theory to international relations
Genealogical beholdings of gender in InternationalRelations
From awareness to theorising
There is no Eureka at the end . . .
13 The achievements of critical theory
Critique of the immutability thesis
The reconstruction of historical materialism: fromproduction to discourse ethics
Discourse ethics: implications for politics
15 Probing puzzles persistently: a desirable but improbable future for IR theory
Some routes to puzzlement
16 The future of international relations: fears and hopes
Three-quarters of a century of IR: a balance-sheet
The future: theoretical prospects
17 75 years on: rewriting the subject's past – reinventing its future
18 'All these theories yet the bodies keep piling up': theories, theorists, theorising
Theory as everyday practice
All these theories yet the bodies keep piling up5
International Theory
：Positivism and Beyond
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