Jonathan Kirshner’s stimulating book wages a two-front battle against the corrosive effects of hubris in international relations: first against the arrogance of power that has repeatedly led to tragic imperial overstretch as first described in Thucydides’s account of the Peloponnesian Wars, and second against the arrogance of social-scientific overstretch in the vain pursuit of valid…
Tag: IR theory
H-Diplo | RJISSF Roundtable 15-41 on Helleiner, The Contested World Economy
When I was approached by H-Diplo’s Thomas Maddux about whether Eric Helleiner’s latest book, The Contested World Economy: The Deep and Global Roots of International Political Economy warranted a roundtable, he wondered if this book was more than a textbook: was it just meant to be a kind of synthetic teaching tool? As I assured…
H-Diplo|RJISSF Roundtable 14-30 on Owens & Rietzler, Women’s International Thought
This roundtable discusses a laborious effort to write women back in the history of international thought and expand the cannon of IR in interesting new directions. But this is not only an exercise in recovery. It is also a consistent effort to understand why it is that women have been marginalized in the historiography of…
H-Diplo|RJISSF Roundtable 14-13 on McCourt, The New Constructivism in International Relations Theory
David M. McCourt’s book, The New Constructivism in International Relations Theory, is an important reflection on the place of constructivism within International Relations, as well as a provocative and productive statement of a way forward for this intellectually diverse research community. McCourt’s reflection is two-sided. He addresses what can sometimes seem like deep divides between…
H-Diplo | ISSF Roundtable 14-7 on Barder, Global Race War: International Politics and Racial Hierarchy
“Theory” makes the world of the professors go ‘round. It is the gold ring on the dissertation-award, post-doc, tenure ladder, lead article, monograph, promotion, citation count endowed chair carousel. In political science in the United States the dominant view of theory among a self-identified ‘mainstream’ roughly corresponds to that of their colleagues in the natural…
H-Diplo|ISSF Roundtable 14-3: Teaching Critical Approaches to International Relations
I very much enjoyed reading the four contributions to this roundtable. The theme that runs through all four is the different journeys, taken by different people, that nonetheless led to similar conclusions about how we can teach International Relations (IR). Underlying all this, for me at least, is a disquieting feeling that, over the last…
Policy Series 2021-22: The Trump Presidency: Trump 1, IR Theory 0
Four years ago I was asked to address whether IR theory might help us understand the coming Trump presidency. I answered “no” for several reasons. IR theory is better at explanation than prediction. Even if it was reasonably good at prediction, its theories were completely outmatched by Donald Trump. Most IR theories are premised on…
Policy Series: Will Trumpism increase the Danger of War in the International System?: IR Theory and the Illiberal Turn in World Politics
This short piece focuses on mapping and evaluating some of the expectations of International Relations (IR) theory with regard to the potential effects of Trumpism and the illiberal turn in world politics on war and peace.[1] Obviously, there is a high degree of uncertainty here, but that does not mean that such an intellectual exercise…
Policy Series: Trump and International Relations Theory: A Response to Robert Jervis’s “President Trump and IR Theory”
Can IR theory help us understand what is about to happen? Can it help get us through the Age of Trump? Or, will Trump destroy IR theory in the same way that he eviscerated most accepted theories of electoral politics? In a cage match between Trump and Theory, the smart bet might be on Trump,…
Policy Series: President Trump and IR Theory
I never thought that I would write the phrase “President Trump,” let alone link it to IR theory. But the former is a great opportunity for the latter. Scholars of international politics bemoan the fact that our sub-field cannot draw on the experimental method. Well, now we can. Although Trump’s election was not a random…