International Relations Theories

International relations remains to date an academic discipline in search of itself. The discipline has gone through a number of changes in terms of its underlying philosophical theories--and is showing signs of entering another transition period.

The purpose of this research is to examine the evolution of major international relations theories and to briefly explain the significance of these theories to understanding world politics. Particular attention will be given to changes in the field since 1970 and to future prospects for international relations theory.

Prior to the First World War, it could reasonably be argued that the field of international relations was in its infancy. No clear philosophical premises directed the study of global politics. Relations between nations were not usually guided by paradigms of thought. Rather, global politics tended to be largely anarchistic and unscientific (Linklater, 1982, pp. 9-10). In the wake of a world war, the concept of an "international community" was pressed into the minds of the nations' leaders with the hope of developing a system of international institutions and laws capable of preventing another major global conflict.

The Second World War and the rise of Nazism shattered the illusion of the legalistic approach to international relations. The legalistic and moralistic approach was eventually replaced as the dominant paradigm by the philosophy of realism--a paradigm that still is a guiding force t

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had to compete against other viable international relations paradigms. Neo-realism is one such paradigm that quickly gained popularity in western concepts of international relations. A model of neo-realism was perhaps best developed by Kenneth Waltz. Waltz agrees with the emphasis on distribution of power relationships for understanding global events. But he adds a structural component to the model that had earlier been neglected. Whereas realism only analyzed relationships between nations, Waltz looks at both the political and economic structures of nations as well as power relationships. Political and economic structures "define the arrangement, or the ordering, of the parts of the system" (Keohane, 1986, p. 73). This ordering of the parts of each nation's system provides insights into the capabilities of nations. Thus, factors such as economic interdependence, military apparatuses, political institutions, and even educational systems are all structures that affect a nation's needs and strengths and influence the formation of power relationships. For example, the actual power relationship between two countries that are economically interdependent may not be revealed in a straightforward realism analysis. One country m

Category: Foreign - I