International Relations Theory Today - Ken Booth

International Relations Theory Today
starts from the premise that international theory is going through major changes. Gone is the old sense of a self–contained discipline, united around the problems of war and peace, and dominated by a realist view of the world. Since the mid–1970s, international theory has been marked by major debates which question the very existence of a separate and contained world of international relations; this implies that the discipline of international theory has to reconsider its assumptions and its theories.

This book deals both with the impact of a changing world on our thinking and also reflects the wider intellectual turmoil that is currently facing the social sciences and the humanities. Each of the chapters has been written by a prominent international relations theorist. There is no orthodoxy amongst the contributors, and the reader will find a range of theories and positions in this book. What all contributors have in common, however, is a concern with the current state of international theory and an interest in exploring some of the major questions on its agenda.

This book will be essential reading for second–year students and above in the fields of international relations, global politics and political sociology.