Commonsense Constructivism Or The Making Of World Affairs

Fully accessible to students and scholars alike, this engaging book introduces the constructivist approach to understanding world affairs. In a highly readable and witty way, it shows how people and their social relations are the basis for everything around us -- International Relations included.

Fully accessible to students and scholars alike, this engaging book introduces the constructivist approach to understanding world affairs. In a highly readable and witty way, it shows how people and their social relations are the basis for everything around us -- International Relations included.

This comprehensive foundation for the study of realism will introduce students in disciplines as varied as philosophy, international relations, and strategic studies to the majestic breadth of the realist tradition that unifies them all. The Realist Tradition in International Relations: The Foundations of Western Order introduces the principal theorists who have shaped and defined the realist tradition. This once-dominant theory of international politics has reemerged to provide a shared foundation for understanding political theory, international relations theory, and strategic studies. The work is comprised of four volumes, each focusing upon a distinct period and the pivotal contributors writing in that era. Volume 1, State of Hope, looks at the classical era when chaos reigned supreme. Volume 2, State of Fear, goes through the early-modern period and the emergence of the modern state. Volume 3, State of Awe, explores the age of total war with its unprecedented dangers. Volume 4, State of Siege, examines the present era of insurgency and asymmetrical conflict. A truly monumental work, this sweeping study will surely foster a new appreciation of the rich tapestry of realist thought and its continuing relevance to the study of world politics.

Realism and constructivism, two key contemporary theoretical approaches to the study of international relations, are commonly taught as mutually exclusive ways of understanding the subject. Realist Constructivism explores the common ground between the two, and demonstrates that, rather than being in simple opposition, they have areas of both tension and overlap. There is indeed space to engage in a realist constructivism. But at the same time, there are important distinctions between them, and there remains a need for a constructivism that is not realist, and a realism that is not constructivist. Samuel Barkin argues more broadly for a different way of thinking about theories of international relations, that focuses on the corresponding elements within various approaches rather than on a small set of mutually exclusive paradigms. Realist Constructivism provides an interesting new way for scholars and students to think about international relations theory.

Theorising within the American 'discipline' of International Relations has been plagued by a rather severe intellectual crisis. Theorists have meant that they need to emulate the natural sciences of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in outlook and argumentative style. But this has destroyed much awareness for the 'nature' of modern international relations as a dynamically evolving historical process. This book seeks to overcome the vicissitudes of mainstream theorising by abandoning the discipline's scientism and by adopting a stance that is more in tune with the standards of modern social science.

Constructivism's basic premise - that individuals and groups are shaped by their world but can also change it - may seem intuitively true. Yet this process-oriented approach can be more difficult to apply than structural or rational choice frameworks. Based on their own experiences and exemplars from the IR literature, well-known authors Audie Klotz and Cecelia Lynch lay out concepts and tools for anyone seeking to apply the constructivist approach in research. Written in jargon-free prose and relevant across the social sciences, this book is essential for anyone trying to sort out appropriate methods for empirical research.

In this absorbing book Anthony Lott develops a national security analysis that can be used to critique the policies of states. His approach combines realist thought common to traditional security studies and a version of 'political' constructivism common to critical security studies. While the focus on human security remains integral, the 9/11 attacks on New York demonstrate the importance of national security traditionally defined. This book recognizes the importance of both components of security in a broader security dialogue. After building a theoretical understanding of security, the work examines four disparate security issues that currently engage policy makers in the United States: the current discourse concerning ballistic missile defense, the war on drugs in Colombia, democratic challenges to economic globalization and the state response, and the US-led war to oust Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq. The book is designed for upper-division international relations courses in national security studies, international politics and theory.