We propose a sixth edition of our textbook that, since it was first published in 1987, has influenced two generations of IR scholars and practitioners. After four decades of teaching, we have learned to communicate difficult or complex ideas, concepts, and theories succinctly, and without watering down their content. Addressing the complexities of IR theory in particular, our book is written in plain language readily understood by both graduate and undergraduate audiences, as well as English-speaking and English-as-second-language (ESL) international students. Over the years, IR doctoral students-many of whom are now professors or serve in policy-related positions, have approached us at conferences to confide that they found our book helpful in preparing for their doctoral exams. We do not present "laundry lists" of IR theories one finds in other books. By contrast, we employ a framework or taxonomy of alternative images-or world views-that underlie present-day IR theory (i.e., realism, liberalism, economic structuralism, and the English School). Driven by one or another of these images, theorists also wear different interpretive lenses that profoundly influence their theorizing (positivism, feminism and those related to phenomenological understandings-post-modernism, critical theory, and constructivism). Both images and interpretive lenses have their place in our IR theory framework. This taxonomy weaves or integrates diverse and cross-cutting theoretical threads or strands into a meaningful "whole cloth" approach not found in other volumes
Author(s): Mark V. Kauppi, Paul R. Viotti
Edition: 6
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Year: 2019
Language: English
Pages: 448
Contents
Preface
1 Thinking About IR Theory
Epistemology, Methodology, and Ontology
What is Theory?
Explanation and Prediction
Abstraction and Application
Levels of Analysis
Images
Interpretive Understandings
The Intellectual Roots of IR Theory
PART I IMAGES OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS THEORY
2 Realism: The State and Balance of Power
Major Actors and Assumptions
Intellectual Precursors and Influences
Geopolitical Writers
Mid-Twentieth-Century Writers
Power
Definitions
Measurement
System
Game Theory and Anarchy
Distribution of Capabilities and the Balance of Power
Change
Power Transition
Globalization and Interdependence
Realists and International Cooperation
Realists and Their Critics
Realism: The Term Itself
The System and Determinism
Realists and the State
Realists and the Balance of Power
Realism and Change
Realism: The Entire Enterprise
References
3 Liberalism: Interdependence and Global Governance
Major Actors and Assumptions
Intellectual Precursors and Influences
Interest Group Liberalism
International Organization
Integration
Transnationalism
Interdependence
International Regimes
Neoliberal Institutionalism
Global Governance
Green Politics and the Environment
Economic Interdependence and Peace
The Democratic Peace
Decision-Making
Change and Globalization
Liberals and Their Critics
Anarchy
Theory Building
The Democratic Peace
Voluntarism
References
4 Economic Structuralism: Global Capitalism and Postcolonialism
Major Actors and Assumptions
Intellectual Precursors and Influences
Dependency Theorists
ECLA and UNCTAD Arguments
Radical Critiques
Domestic Forces
The Capitalist World-System
System
Political, Economic, and Social Factors
Gramsci and Hegemony
Change and Globalization
Postcolonialism
Economic Structuralists and Their Critics
The Question of Causality
Reliance on Economics
System Dominance
Theoretical Rigidity
Accounting for Anomalies
Defining Alternatives and Science as Ideology
Responses
References
5 The English School: International Society and Grotian Rationalism
Major Actors and Assumptions
Intellectual Precursors and Influences
The Divergence of British and American Scholarship
Genesis of the English School
Levels of Analysis and Theory
Change
From System to International Society
From International Society to World Society
The English School, Liberals, and Social Constructivists
The English School and Its Critics
Methodological Muddle
Historical Knowledge
Political Economy, the Environment, and Gender
Conceptual and Philosophical Eclecticism
References
PART II INTERPRETIVE UNDERSTANDINGS AND NORMATIVE CONSIDERATIONS
6 Constructivist Understandings
Major Actors and Assumptions
Intellectual Precursors and Influences
Intersubjectivity
Structure, Rules, and Norms
Rules
Norms
Agents
Identity
Logic of Appropriateness
Interests
The Diversity of Social Constructivist Thought
Schools of Thought
Levels of Analysis
Wendt's ''Naturalist'' Constructivism
Constructivist Affinities in the Broader IR Field
Constructivists and Their Critics
Liberal and Realist Critiques
Debates within Constructivism and Postmodern Challenges
References
7 Positivism, Critical Theory, and Postmodern Understandings
Positivism
Mill's Canons of Causality
Cause-Effect Relations
Intellectual Precursors: Phenomenology and Hermeneutics
Critical Theory: Major Assumptions
Postmodernism: Major Assumptions
Critical Theorists, Postmodernists, and Their Critics
Summation
References
8 Feminist Understandings in IR Theory
Intellectual Precursors and Influences
Major Assumptions
Strands of Feminism in International Relations
Gender, War, and Security Studies
Gender and International Organizations
Gendered Understandings and IR Theory
Feminists and Their Critics
What Critics?
Research Program and Cumulative Knowledge
References
9 Normative IR Theory: Ethics and Morality
Norms, Ethics, and Morality
Normative Theory: Alternative Perspectives
The Levels of Analysis
Moral Relativism
Secular Bases for Moral or Ethical Choice
Justice and War
Applying Just War Theory in the Twenty-First Century
Morality and Weaponry
Justice and Human Rights
The Enlightenment
Current Application
Humanitarian Treatment and the Sovereign State
Armed Intervention and State Sovereignty
Intervention and Civil Wars
Criteria for Humanitarian Intervention
Alternative Images and Foreign Policy Choice
Rationality and Foreign Policy Choice
Values, Choices, and Theory
References
PART III THE INTELLECTUAL ROOTS OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS THEORY
10 The Ancients: Greek, Chinese, and Indian Thought
Homer, Herodotus, Sun Tzu, and Kautilya
The Historical Context of Writings by Homer and Herodotus
Homer's Epic Poems
Herodotus—The "Father of History"
Sun Tzu
Kautilya
Overview of Early Greek, Chinese, and Indian Thinkers
Thucydides and the Peloponnesian War
Historical Context
History of the Peloponnesian War: The Work Itself
Analytical Insights from Thucydides
Cautionary Tales: Lessons Drawn by Thucydides from the Peloponnesian War
Thucydides and IR Theory
Reflections on Thucydides
After Thucydides: Plato, Aristotle, and Polybius
Historical Context
Plato
Aristotle
Polybius
Reflections on the Thought of Plato, Aristotle, and Polybius
References
11 Greco-Roman Thought and the Middle Ages
The Roman Empire and the Development of Greco-Roman Thought
Historical Context
The Greek Stoics
The Roman Stoics
Cicero
Seneca and Marcus Aurelius
Titus Livy
Plutarch
Reflections on Thought in the Roman Empire
The Middle Ages
Historical Context
Medieval Writers
Augustine and Aquinas
Dante
Reflections on Thought in the Middle Ages
References
12 The Rise of the State and Modern Political Thought
The Renaissance, Reformation, and the Rise of the State
Historical Context
Machiavelli
Republics and Security
Thomas More
Botero and "Reason of State"
Hobbes
Sovereignty
Bodin
External Sovereignty
Grotius
Reflections on the Thought of Writers Related to the Rise of States
Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Thinking on International Relations
Historical Context
The Enlightenment
Montesquieu
Rousseau
Kant
The Federalist Papers
Hegel
Clausewitz
Weber
International Political Economy
Adam Smith
Marx
Cobden and Liberalism
Hobson
Lenin
Reflections on Modern Thought Related to States and Capitalism
References
Glossary
Index
