Perspectives on International Relations


Book Description

Perspectives on International Relations: Power, Institutions, and Ideas shows students new to the field how theories (perspectives) of international affairs—realism, liberalism, constructivism (identity), and critical theory—play a decisive role in explaining every-day debates about world affairs. Why, for example, do politicians and political scientists disagree about the causes of the ongoing conflict in Syria, even though they all have the same facts? Or, why do policymakers disagree about how to deal with North Korea when they are all equally well informed? The new Sixth Edition of this best-seller includes updates on Brexit, the rise of Donald Trump and other populist leaders, and continuing developments for ISIS, Syria, and Russia.







Non-Western International Relations Theory


Book Description

Introduces non-Western IR traditions to a Western IR audience, and challenges the dominance of Western theory. This book challenges criticisms that IR theory is Western-focused and therefore misrepresents much of world history by introducing the reader to non-Western traditions, literature and histories relevant to how IR is conceptualised.




History of International Relations


Book Description

Existing textbooks on international relations treat history in a cursory fashion and perpetuate a Euro-centric perspective. This textbook pioneers a new approach by historicizing the material traditionally taught in International Relations courses, and by explicitly focusing on non-European cases, debates and issues. The volume is divided into three parts. The first part focuses on the international systems that traditionally existed in Europe, East Asia, pre-Columbian Central and South America, Africa and Polynesia. The second part discusses the ways in which these international systems were brought into contact with each other through the agency of Mongols in Central Asia, Arabs in the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, Indic and Sinic societies in South East Asia, and the Europeans through their travels and colonial expansion. The concluding section concerns contemporary issues: the processes of decolonization, neo-colonialism and globalization – and their consequences on contemporary society. History of International Relations provides a unique textbook for undergraduate and graduate students of international relations, and anybody interested in international relations theory, history, and contemporary politics.




Introduction to International Relations


Book Description

This bestselling introductory textbook provides a truly comprehensive and approachable guide to international affairs. Bringing together decades of combined experience in researching and teaching global politics from three acclaimed scholars, this book introduces you to the key concepts in international relations while equipping you with the tools to successfully analyse the rapidly changing world in which we live. Carefully and pedagogically structured, the book is driven by nuanced enduring questions to support active engagement with the subject matter. It covers everything from war and its causes to the pursuit of peace, the role of non-state actors on the world stage and transnational concerns such as climate change. Thought-provoking boxed features throughout highlight disparities between theory and practice, provide overviews of key research and make use of the influential levels-of-analysis framework. This third edition is completely updated throughout, including extensive coverage of the latest advances in international relations scholarship and supported by a wealth of contemporary case examples. The text is supported by a rich companion website with study guides, instructor resources and interactive exercises to allow you to consider complicated political decisions for yourself. Introduction to International Relations is the ultimate companion for undergraduate students of politics and international relations in need of an exciting and rigorous introduction to the subject.




International Relations: Perspectives and Controversies


Book Description

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: PERSPECTIVES AND CONTROVERSIES, 3rd Edition helps students think systematically and critically about international affairs. Taking an innovative approach to IR, the text delivers brief, topical coverage with a debate framework. In addition, primary source readings throughout the book truly bring IR issues to life. Practical, relevant, and completely up to date, each chapter covers an important debate in the field, examining how political actors or thinkers explain and defend their different opinions. This format enables students to understand key IR issues as dynamic struggles over resources and power. Chapters are structured into four parts. The first part provides a historical overview of the issue, its origins, evolution, and current status. The middle two sections map out the opposing points of view within the debate. These debates are followed by an evaluation of the merits of each position and the scholarly and political assessment of the situation. By presenting a variety of viewpoints, the text highlights meaningful distinctions among differing political positions, giving students invaluable insight into headlines from today and yesterday as well as those of tomorrow. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.




Against International Relations Norms


Book Description

This volume uses the concept of ‘norms’ to initiate a long overdue conversation between the constructivist and postcolonial scholarships on how to appraise the ordering processes of international politics. Drawing together insights from a broad range of scholars, it evaluates what it means to theorise international politics from a postcolonial perspective, understood not as a unified body of thought or a new ‘-ism’ for IR, but as a ‘situated perspective’ offering ex-centred, post-Eurocentric sites for practices of situated critique. Through in-depth engagements with the norms constructivist scholarship, the contributors expose the theoretical, epistemological and practical erasures that have been implicitly effected by the uncritical adoption of ‘norms’ as the dominant lens for analysing the ideational dynamics of international politics. They show how these are often the very erasures that sustained the workings of colonisation in the first place, whose uneven power relations are thereby further sustained by the study of international politics. The volume makes the case for shifting from a static analysis of ‘norms’ to a dynamic and deeply historical understanding of the drawing of the initial line between the ‘normal’ and the ‘abnormal’ that served to exclude from focus the 'strange' and the unfamiliar that were necessarily brought into play in the encounters between the West and the rest of the world. A timely intervention, it will be of great interest to students and scholars of international relations, international relations theory and postcolonial scholarship.




Political Psychology in International Relations


Book Description

A comprehensive account of the field of political psychology with a focus on its implications for international relations




Chinese Perspectives on International Relations


Book Description

Based on primary sources and field research, this book is the first of its kind to probe into the Chinese mind set to see how they perceive international relations. It analyses the factors of power, Marxism, culture, and modernisation that shape the Chinese thinking on IR. It explores the Chinese understanding of the state and interstate relations, discusses the merits of an 'IR theory with Chinese characteristics', and assesses the problems and prospects of the development of international studies in China.




An Introduction to International Relations Theory


Book Description

This long-awaited new edition has been fully updated and revised by the original authors as well as two new members of the author team. Based on many years of active research and teaching it takes the discipline's most difficult aspects and makes them accessible and interesting. Each chapter builds up an understanding of the different ways of looking at the world. The clarity of presentation allows students to rapidly develop a theoretical framework and to apply this knowledge widely as a way of understanding both more advanced theoretical texts and events in world politics. Suitable for first and second year undergraduates studying international relations and international relations theory.