Arguing for a theory of international politics committed to human emancipation, this text suggests that international relations theory must move in a nonpositivist direction. It explores recent developments in the discipline, including critical, Gramscian, postmodernist, feminist and normative approaches.

In honour of Prof. Kalevi Holsti’s 80th birthday, this collection presents 15 of the renowned Political Scientist’s major essays and research projects. It also offers a collection of his writings and essays on theories of international relations, foreign policy analysis, security and the world order. These previously published works address issues that remain “hot topics” on the international agenda, such as the changing nature of warfare and the causes of failed states; major essays also evaluate the current search for international order. Prof. Holsti is the author of a major textbook that has been translated into Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, and Bahasa Indonesian. Thousands of undergraduates around the world are acquainted with his work.

International Relations (IR) theorists speak with conviction, and often passion, to the global condition of human society. The result is an important, dynamic and often deeply divided field. This long-awaited new edition of International Relations Theory Today offers undergraduate and postgraduate students an essential guide to the complex terrain of IR theory and the key questions on its agenda. With chapters by 25 prominent and provocative IR theorists, the book reveals the intellectual excitement - and turmoil - of theorizing world politics. It reflects the conflicts and tensions around the profound challenges facing the contemporary world, such as climate change, globalization, nuclear proliferation, and economic and political injustice and conflict, while also expressing hope that we can better understand, and respond to, these challenges. Above all, this book demonstrates the significance of thinking theoretically about international relations and developing the tools not merely to describe but also to explain, analyse, prescribe and possibly re-imagine the global political landscape. As the world comes face-to-face with historic challenges over the coming decades, International Relations Theory Today will help its readers to participate more effectively in debates about the most important global political dilemmas of our time.

This collection of essays has been written by major international relations theorists and it sets out a critical appreciation of the development of the international society idea and its influence on international relations theory.

This book, originally published in 1982, analyzes the process of radical foreign policy change – how states restructure their foreign relations, and why they do so. Using a common analystical framework, the authors examine Bhutan, Burma, Canada, Child, China and Tanzania. They distinguish between piecemeal foreign policy change and adaptation, and the fundamental re-ordering of foreign policy. Their analysis underlines the extent to which non-military and sometimes imagined threats, such as dependency and external economic and cultural penetration, can constitute an important cause of radical realignment activity.