Discourses of Global Politics: A Critical (Re)Introduction to International Relations (Critical Perspectives on World Politics)

This text provides a broad-ranging critique of, and re-introduction to, international relations, drawing on the most significant critical perspectives in recent social science theory. These perspectives are carefully introduced and systematically applied to the dominant traditions of contemporary international relations. Front Matter....Pages i-xi (Re)Introducing the Theory as Practice of International Relations....Pages 1-39 Discourses of Modernity: Toward the Positivist Framing of Contemporary Social Theory and International Relations....Pages 41-68 The Making of International Relations: From Modernist Tradition to Cold War Discipline....Pages 69-89 The Positivist-Realist Phase: Morgenthau, Behavioralism, and the Quest for Certainty....Pages 91-110 The Backward Discipline Revisited: The Closed World of Neo-Realism....Pages 111-138 Critical Social Theory: Thinking Beyond the “Orthodox Consensus”....Pages 139-169 Thinking Beyond International Relations: The Critical Theory Challenge....Pages 171-190 Thinking Beyond International Relations: Postmodernism—Reconceptualizing Theory as Practice....Pages 191-219 Conclusion....Pages 221-231 Back Matter....Pages 233-266