International Relations Theory

*Readings new to the fifth edition.

Chapter 1. Thinking About IR Theory

The IR Field in An Age of Globalization

            Epistemology, Methodology, and Ontology

            What is Theory?

            Images

            Interpretive Understandings

            Normative Theory

            A Look Ahead

            Selected Readings

                        James Rosenau, “Thinking Theory Thoroughly”

                        *Thomas C. Walker, “The Perils of Paradigm Mentalities: Revisiting Kuhn, Lakatos, and Popper”

PART I. IMAGES OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Chapter 2. Realism: The State and Balance of Power

Major Actors and Assumptions

            Intellectual Precursors and Influences

            Power

            System

            Change

            Power Transition

            Long Cycles     

            Globalization and Interdependence

            Realists and Their Critics

            Selected Readings

                        Thucydides, “The Melian Dialogue”

                        Niccolò Machiavelli, “On Princes and the Security of Their States”

                        Thomas Hobbes, “Of the Natural Condition of Mankind”

                        Jean-Jacques Rousseau, “The State of War: Confederation as Means to Peace in Europe”

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

                        Joseph S. Nye, Jr., “Hard and Soft Power in American Foreign Policy”

            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

            Decision Making

            Change and Globalization

            Liberals and Their Critics

            Selected Readings

                        Stephen G. Brooks, “Producing Security”

                        *Robert O. Keohane, “Beyond the Tragedy of the Commons”

            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”

                        *Barbara Bush, “Culture and Imperialism”

                        Immanuel Wallerstein, “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, “The Law of Nations on War, Peace, and Freedom of the Seas”

                        Tim Dunne, “Inventing International Society”

                        Hedley Bull, “Does Order Exist in World Politics?”

            Suggestions for Further Reading

PART II. INTERPRETIVE UNDERSTANDINGS

Chapter 6. Constructivist Understandings

Major Actors and Assumptions

            Intellectual Precursors and Influences

            Intersubjectivity

            Structure, Rules, and Norms

            Agents

            Identity

            Logic of Appropriateness

            Interests

            The Diversity of Social Constructivist Thought

            Wendt’s “Naturalist Constructivism”

            Constructivist Affinities in the Broader IR Field

            Constructivists and Their Critics

            Selected Readings

                        Alexander Wendt, “Constructing International Politics”

                        Martha Finnemore, “Constructing Norms of Humanitarian Intervention”

            Suggestions for Further Reading

Chapter 7. Positivism, Critical Theory, and Postmodern Understandings

Positivism

            Intellectual Precursors: Phenomenology and Hermeneutics

            Critical Theory: Major Assumptions

            Postmodernism: Major Assumptions

            Critical Theorists, Postmodernists, and Their Critics

            Summation

            Selected

                        Ken Booth, “Critical Explorations and the Highway of Critical Security Theory”

                        David Campbell, “Writing Security”

            Suggestions for Further Reading

Chapter 8. Feminist Understandings in IR Theory

Intellectual Precursors and Influences

            Major Assumptions

            Strands of Feminism in IR

            Gender, War, and Security Studies

            Gender and International Organizations

            Gendered Understandings and IR Theory

            Feminists and Their Critics

            Selected Readings

                        Iris Marion Young, “The Logic of Masculinist Protection: Reflections on the Current Security State”

                        J. Ann Tickner, “Why Women Can’t Rule the World: International Politics According to Francis Fukuyama”

            Suggestions for Further Reading

PART III. NORMATIVE CONSIDERATIONS

Chapter 9. Normative IR Theory: Ethics and Morality

Norms, Ethics, and Morality

            Normative Theory: Alternative Perspectives

            Justice and War

            Justice and Human Rights

            Armed Intervention and State Sovereignty

            Alternative Images and Foreign Policy Choice

            Rationality and Foreign Policy Choice

            Values, Choices, and Theor

            Selected Readings

                        Immanuel Kant, “Morality, Politics, and Perpetual Peace”

                        E.H. Carr, “The Nature of Politics”

                        *John Rawls, “The Law of Peoples”

                        *Barack Obama, “On War and Peace” (The Nobel Peace Prize Speech)

            Suggestions for Further Reading