scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question
Book

Theory of International Politics

01 Jan 1979-
About: The article was published on 1979-01-01 and is currently open access. It has received 7932 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Global politics & International relations.
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In the post-cold war era, international relations theorists have shown an interest in international norms and rules not equaled since the interwar period, arguing that norms encouraging free trade, protecting the environment, enhancing human rights, and controlling the spread and use of heinous weapons may have a substantial impact on the conduct and structure of international relations.
Abstract: International relations theorists have in recent years shown an interest in international norms and rules not equaled since the interwar period. This contemporary literature is, of course, quite different—i.e., better—than that of the 1920s and 1930s: it has greater intellectual depth, empirical backing, and explanatory power. The promise of this research, bolstered by the opportunities of the post–cold war era, is that norms encouraging free trade, protecting the environment, enhancing human rights, and controlling the spread and use of heinous weapons may have a substantial impact on the conduct and structure of international relations. But pessimists also exist. Some have taken up the stick E. H. Carr skillfully shook at idealists in an earlier period, arguing that the anarchic power-shaped international arena is not so malleable and that international norms and institutions have relatively little influence. On the one hand, we are pointed to the centrality of international norms; on the other, we are cautioned that norms are inconsequential. How do we make sense of these divergent claims? Which is right?

505 citations

Book ChapterDOI
01 Dec 2004
TL;DR: The notion of knowledge in power has been studied in the context of global governance as discussed by the authors. But it has not yet been explored in the field of policing and global governance, as discussed in this paper.
Abstract: 1. Power and global governance Michael N. Barnett and Raymond Duvall 2. Power, institutions, and the production of inequality Andrew Hurrell 3. Policing and global governance Mark Laffey and Jutta Weldes 4. Power, fairness and the global economy Ethan Kapstein 5. Power politics and the institutionalization of international relations Lloyd Gruber 6. Power, nested governance, and the WTO: a comparative institutional approach Greg Shaffer 7. The power of liberal international organizations Michael N. Barnett and Martha Finnemore 8. The power of interpretive communities Ian Johnstone 9. Class powers and the politics of global governance Mark Rupert 10. Global civil society and global governmentality: or, the search for the political and the state amidst capillaries of power Ronnie Lipschutz 11. Governing the innocent? The 'civilian' in international law Helen Kinsella 12. Colonial and postcolonial global governance Himadeep Muppidi 13. Knowledge in power: the epistemic construction of global governance Emanuel Adler and Steven Bernstein.

503 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose a conceptualization of regimes based on the realist image of international politics, in which autonomous self-interested states interact in an anarchic environment.
Abstract: The study of regimes can contribute to our understanding of international politics only if regimes represent more than international organizations and less than all international relations. The conceptualization of regimes developed here accepts the realist image of international politics, in which autonomous self-interested states interact in an anarchic environment. Yet there are situations in which rational actors have an incentive to eschew unconstrained independent decision making, situations in which individualistic self-interested calculation leads them to prefer joint decision making (regimes) because independent self-interested behavior can result in undesirable or suboptimal outcomes. These situations are labeled dilemmas of common interests and dilemmas of common aversions. To deal with these, states must collaborate with one another or coordinate their behavior, respectively. Thus there are different bases for regimes, which give rise to regimes with different characteristics. Coordination is self-enforcing and can be reached through the use of conventions. Collaboration is more formalized and requires mechanisms both to monitor potential cheating and to insure compliance with the regime. The article elucidates the assumptions of such an interest-based approach to regimes, assimilates alternative explanations into this framework, and develops the implications for regime maintenance and change.

500 citations

Book
01 Jan 2004
TL;DR: Barry Buzan as mentioned in this paper proposes a new theoretical framework that can be used to address globalisation as a complex political interplay among state and non-state actors, and highlights the idea of primary institutions as the central contribution of English school theory.
Abstract: In this 2004 book, Barry Buzan offers an extensive critique and reappraisal of the English school approach to International Relations. Starting on the neglected concept of world society and bringing together the international society tradition and the Wendtian mode of constructivism, Buzan offers a new theoretical framework that can be used to address globalisation as a complex political interplay among state and non-state actors. This approach forces English school theory to confront neglected questions about both its basic concepts and assumptions, and about the constitution of society in terms of what values are shared, how and why they are shared, and by whom. Buzan highlights the idea of primary institutions as the central contribution of English school theory and shows how this both differentiates English school theory from realism and neoliberal institutionalism, and how it can be used to generate distinctive comparative and historical accounts of international society.

495 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The actor-specific focus in international relations (IR) is defined by as discussed by the authors as "the argument that all that occurs between nations and across nations is grounded in human decision makers acting singly or in groups".
Abstract: Examining the history, conceptual breadth, and recent trends in the study of foreign policy analysis, it is clear that this subfield provides what may be the best conceptual connection to the empirical ground upon which all international relations (IR) theory is based. Foreign policy analysis is characterized by an actor-specific focus, based upon the argument that all that occurs between nations and across nations is grounded in human decision makers acting singly or in groups. FPA offers significant contributions to IR—theoretical, substantive, and methodological—and is situated at the intersection of all social science and policy fields as they relate to international affairs. A renewed emphasis on actor-specific theory will allow IR to more fully reclaim its ability to manifest human agency, with its attendant change, creativity, accountability, and meaning.

491 citations


Cites background from "Theory of International Politics"

  • ...The work of Waltz (1979) was extremely influential in its description of the effects of an anarchical world system on the behavior of its member states (see also Hoffman, 1961; Rosecrance, 1963; Singer, Bremer and Stuckey, 1972)....

    [...]

References
More filters
Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 1976
TL;DR: For centuries knowledge meant proven knowledge, proven either by the power of the intellect or by the evidence of the senses as discussed by the authors. But the notion of proven knowledge was questioned by the sceptics more than two thousand years ago; but they were browbeaten into confusion by the glory of Newtonian physics.
Abstract: For centuries knowledge meant proven knowledge — proven either by the power of the intellect or by the evidence of the senses. Wisdom and intellectual integrity demanded that one must desist from unproven utterances and minimize, even in thought, the gap between speculation and established knowledge. The proving power of the intellect or the senses was questioned by the sceptics more than two thousand years ago; but they were browbeaten into confusion by the glory of Newtonian physics. Einstein’s results again turned the tables and now very few philosophers or scientists still think that scientific knowledge is, or can be, proven knowledge. But few realize that with this the whole classical structure of intellectual values falls in ruins and has to be replaced: one cannot simply water down the ideal of proven truth - as some logical empiricists do — to the ideal of’probable truth’1 or — as some sociologists of knowledge do — to ‘truth by [changing] consensus’.2

4,969 citations

ReportDOI
17 Feb 1966
TL;DR: This book contains the collected and unified material necessary for the presentation of such branches of modern cybernetics as the theory of electronic digital computers, Theory of discrete automata, theory of discrete self-organizing systems, automation of thought processes, theoryof image recognition, etc.
Abstract: : This book contains the collected and unified material necessary for the presentation of such branches of modern cybernetics as the theory of electronic digital computers, theory of discrete automata, theory of discrete self-organizing systems, automation of thought processes, theory of image recognition, etc. Discussions are given of the fundamentals of the theory of boolean functions, algorithm theory, principles of the design of electronic digital computers and universal algorithmical languages, fundamentals of perceptron theory, some theoretical questions of the theory of self-organizing systems. Many fundamental results in mathematical logic and algorithm theory are presented in summary form, without detailed proofs, and in some cases without any proof. The book is intended for a broad audience of mathematicians and scientists of many specialties who wish to acquaint themselves with the problems of modern cybernetics.

2,922 citations

Journal ArticleDOI

2,873 citations