International Relations : A Self-Study Guide to Theory

Manuela Spindler

• Publisher: Verlag Barbara Budrich
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9783847400059
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: International Relations
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The book is written for active learners - those keen on cutting their own path through the complex and at times hardly comprehensible world of THEORY in International Relations. To aid this process as much as possible, this book employs the didactical and methodical concept of integrating teaching and self-study. The criteria for structured learning about IR theory will be derived from an extensive discussion of the questions and problems of philosophy of science (Part 1). Theory of IR refers to the scientific study of IR and covers all of the following subtopics: the role and status of theory in the academic discipline of IR; the understanding of IR as a science and what a "scientific" theory is; the different assumptions upon which theory building in IR is based; the different types of theoretical constructions and models of explanations found at the heart of particular theories.

Table of contents

• Cover
• International Relations
• Preface
• Contents
• Part I: International Relations’ Theory
• 1. History of theoretical thought on inter-state relations and the formation of “International Relations” as an academic discipline
• 2. International Relations as science
• 3. World views and the idea of science in the history of European philosophy
• 4. Didactics and method
• Part II: Theories of International Relations: Five Approaches
• 5. Neorealist theory
• 6. Neoinstitutionalist theory
• 7. New liberal theory
• 8. World-systems analysis
• 9. Social constructivist theory
• Instead of a conclusion: Invitation to a discussion
• Index