International Relations Theories: Discipline and Diversity

by Tim Dunne, Milja Kurki, Steve Smith

Written by leading figures in the field, the third edition of this successful text provides an up-to-date and comprehensive account of all the major theories of international relations, supporting them with case study examples. While some of the theories discussed are complex, the authors convey them in a clear and accessible manner, with the use of engaging pedagogical features, making this an ideal introduction to international relations theories. A new chapter on Critical Theory has been added to allow more coverage for this approach and alternative understandings, such as post-colonialism and environmentalism, have chapters devoted to them, unlike other textbooks. Chapters have also been updated to reflectrecently published work and the case studies have been revisited to include considerations of new developments in world politics.Online Resource CentreThe text is accompanied by an Online Resource Centre providing additional resources for lecturers and students.Lecturer resources:PowerPoint slidesFigures and tables from the textbookStudent resources:Web linksFlashcard glossaryRevision guide

Genres: Politics, International Relations, Nonfiction, Political Science, Textbooks, Research, Philosophy

400 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 12, 2007

Reviews

[Jessica Regan · Rating 2 out of 5]

First of all, I don't know how a book with so many typos and grammatical errors ever made it to publishing. That's besides the point, though, as my main complaint with this book is that it explained things in much more confusing terms than necessary. This book seems to take the idea that if there's a bigger word for something simple, you should use it. I don't mind big words, but when a concept is being taught to you for the first time (and this is an intro to IR textbook), it's definitely not the most helpful strategy. The authors also went off on distracting tangents, often writing about the disagreements within single theories instead of explaining how those theories relate to others. All in all, this book made my IR class harder than it had to be.

[Dovide · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5

A very solid introduction to the discipline of International Relations, covering some internal debates within the field, a short history of its emergence and distinction from similar fields, and a thorough survey of a large number of schools. It details how they conceive of the discipline, their inter-paradigm debates, and provides a mise en pratique with a case study in each chapter, as well as a featured text from one of the field’s foremost experts, with its analysis highlighted for the reader.

All in all, I really appreciated the way the information was presented. It paints a very clear picture of a large and diverse number of technical schools of thought in a relatively accessible way. I do agree with some reviewers that certain chapters were excessively jargon-heavy, which compromised the ease of understanding for an introduction—particularly, I found the ‘Critical Theory’ chapter quite frustrating and fairly impenetrable.

Of course, I didn’t agree with every IR approach, and some seemed to me honestly quite irrelevant to truly understanding the world—particularly the liberal and neoliberal approaches, with their focus on the inherent “peacefulness” of democratic states and on fostering human rights abroad. I found this particularly galling after the world has witnessed 2 years of genocide in Gaza led by a self-proclaimed democratic state with the material support of the rest of the so-called peaceful democratic west. Nonetheless, this is an introductory textbook, so I don’t reproach it for including these approaches, especially given the influence of the neoliberal school within the discipline.

I found the chapters on Marxism, Poststructuralism, Postcolonialism, Green Theory, and Global IR particularly enlightening and powerful in their explanatory abilities and insights. They were very well written, made me think a lot, and I look forward to exploring these topics further.

All in all, this is a very solid and accessible introduction to the field of International Relations. I highly recommend it as an entry point for any newcomers to the field, such as myself.

[Benjamin Warner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cohesive coverage of undergraduate level IR theory

[Hataipat · Rating 4 out of 5]

ยังอ่านไม่จบหรอกเเต่อ่านไปได้เยอะเเล้ว เหลือบทที่13 หนังสือดีมากนะเวอร์ชั่นเเปลไทย เเนะนำ

[Abdelwahhab Nasri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished reading this best academic book about IR and Global Politics, so in general the discipline of International Relations is very large with various ways, and it's like Mathematics and how to analyse this world according the IR theories and how transform them from theoretical way to practical one

[Reko Wenell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good introduction to many different theories. I especially appreciated them advocating for pluralism and letting each chapter be written by an advocate of the theoretical approach.

I thought I might say a few words about each based mostly on the contents of this book (meaning I may be off as a theory could be presented very differently):

Classical Realism was definitely the most appealing one, especially in the way Lebow presented it. It’s not nearly as cruel nor dumb as my hazy conception of it was.

Structural Realism was the polar opposite. Mearsheimer’s description made it sound extremely dumb with people acting like formal models with rigour mean anything when you make utterly unrealistic assumptions and more relevant variables than even partly independent data points. Offensive realism especially sounded like basically just assume and be proud that your model then has only one variable and thus you can actually prove something. I was honestly horrified and I certainly wish this left me with the false impression. Not that modeling based on only power as they mean it is bad or stupid as a general methodology.

Liberalism sounded interesting enough though highly limited.

Neoliberalism sounded limited yet a very reasonable approach. And let me reiterate: these positivist approaches are probably useful in their ways and should be tried, but applying them to the real world seems basically impossible other than in certain limited ways.

The English School sounded like a reasonable enough way of making sense of the international system. I’d be interested to look more into it.

Not sure I remember all that much about the Marxist chapter.

The Critical Theory chapter was utterly terrible. I, someone fairly familiar with the terms and concepts used, struggled to understand what they were even saying. So off-putting. As much as I recall they had both some reasonable and some quite pointless things to say.

Constructivism is basically an excellent and important frame through which to view IR.

Feminism is an important lense to bring to the subject matter but some things in the chapter were bonkers things to say.

Poststructuralism was about what one might expect. Good lense to bring with you but very limited for practical stuff.

Can’t really remember all that much about postcolonialism.

Normative IR Theory sounded completely different from the others but surely a good thing to study.

Can’t say I remember all that much about Green Theory either.

[Dennis Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

International Relations Theories: Discipline and Diversity edited by Tim Dunne, Milja Kurki, and Steve Smith is a pretty good textbook that does exactly what is advertised. I think the language might be a bit too much for those uninitiated into social science, so perhaps this isn't for your freshman seminar, but it is a readily accessible book that covers most of the major theories. Not all theories are created equal, especially if you believe in the scientific method and various empirical and positivist approaches to knowledge creation, but it is decent enough to provide an overview to each of them written by an advocate. Some defend their subjects well, others poorly, but each are authentic to the pedagogy and theoretical approach they espouse. This is a useful book to read if you're serious about IR Theory or are thinking about majoring in it for undergrad.

I will say that most political scientists don't hew too closely to big theory most of the time, so take what you can from the book without getting the wrong idea about the day to day research approaches of most IR scholars.

[Julia Russ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the textbook for my Global Issues class this term. It was valuable in the sense that I have never truly studied International Relations before, so I was unfamiliar with the different lenses from which people perceive and interact on the international stage. And those are lessons that I will take with me as I look to work in the international field.

However. I take serious issue with a lot of the writing in this textbook. So much of the language used in the textbook is so unnecessarily complicated, to the point where I imagine it would be completely inaccessible for the majority of readers. Even for me, as someone that is deeply interested in learning about this topic and who reads a lot, it was very difficult for me to get through at times.

If I have learned anything from my studies this term, it is that shutting out the people from the margins and only talking to those in the inner circle is going to get us nowhere. Writing a book about international relations and how people interact on the global stage, but writing solely for a very small, very privileged group of academics is so ironic it's almost laughable.

[Eduardo]

The book is structured with each chapter introducing a different school of IR. Some are fine, in that they actually have explanatory power or accurately describe reality, the marxist school particularly, but so much of the book, and apparently much of IR theory, is just inane wish-casting and blind to how american power structures all of the world's relations, even in the downturn of the unipolar moment. Another strikingly annoying aspect is the claim some IR schools make that certain states are driven in any way by universalist principles is completely disproven by the mere existence of the state of Israel and it's backing by the west.

[Erica Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I would have completed this textbook prior to my portfolio defense. I feel better prepared and understand the best approach to take in order to speak to the different theories in International Relations and how they can be used in different contexts to assess events and potential outcomes. This is a great reference book for anyone looking for something to read.

[M.R.K M.R.K · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an amazing starter for understanding International Relations Theories. It is a good reference as well to use in papers and reflect on the theories. I like the style that the book introduces them clearly and propose good comprehension generally.

[Avani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent survey of the variety of schools of thought in the field of international relations. Sometimes speaks from a privileged Western-centric perspective, but remains well-rounded nonetheless.

[Rianne Heartfilia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Soon

[Ghaith Al Far · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very useful book for international relations students

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

A broad overview of the accepted theories of International Relations. Expert writers on their topics. Would recommend as an introduction to IR.

[Bee Thaisaet]

Goood

[Alaa · Rating 1 out of 5]

كيف اقرأ الكتاب 😓

[امجاد العريفي]

كتاب تعليمي بحت ومدخل جيد في التخصص

[ava tiller]

wow props to me for finishing a grad school level IR book

thanks prof. le! u are an icon 👑

[Janus Jespersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Om det at kravle op i elfenbenstårnet

[Pieter Cramerus · Rating 5 out of 5]

I taught an International Relations class to my seniors at a gifted school using this book. It covers all the basic theories of International Relations from Realpolitik, to various offshoots of the theory of engagement, to even a theory for environmentalists. I like the basic discussion of the theories, as they were succinct, and came with great examples. The discussions of the various schools of thought were fragmented, sprinkled throughout the text, and required much digging and collating to make sense to the students.
The book was less expensive than other texts (by far) and had a balanced approach to the subject which did not lean either East nor West in its approach. This book is primarily oriented towards serious students of International Relations and it is academic in its presentation.
So, if you are wanting to go deep and in detail on IR this is your book. It is very readable, but written for graduate students, or very bright undergrads or senior high schoolers.

[Theo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overview of theories in IR, the "metatheoretical" chapters on more fundamental differences between theories (epistemology etc.) are particularly useful. The authors of each chapter seem sometimes a bit too convinced of the theory they cover, which is particularly true of Mearsheimer on structural realism. I agree with other reviewers on the relationships between different theories being somewhat unclear at times, but this could be a consequence of IR theory being chaotic in general.

To improve on the above, I wish different theories were presented in a more uniform format. While I appreciate the very helpful case studies, some chapters were very historical while e.g. the chapter on liberalism focused almost entirely on presenting an empirical paper.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first real philosophy book from an academic standpoint! It was like the IS book written by various authors so the writing style was good and bad at times. However, it did cover theoretial subjects quite well and I thought it was useful as a text when I studied theory. I'm glad I'm done with it though. Now I don't need to worry much more about critical theory, ie poststructuralism (that I presented a class on!), feminism, and constructivism. I wish I would have gotten the other bigger book by Steve Smith instead which I felt was much more informative, eventhough he was a coeditor in this one.

[Kelvin Dias · Rating 5 out of 5]

Acho que esse foi o manual que eu mais gostei de ter contato durante a graduação. Te oferece uma visão bem ampla dos diversos caminhos possíveis dentro das RI (as teorias que surgem dentro da própria disciplina e as teorias aplicáveis das ciências sociais em geral), para muito além do positivismo.

Também aborda os diversos debates que ocorreram na disciplina e ainda traz estudos de caso pra ilustrar cada teoria. Gosto bastante das abordagens mais críticas e sinto que esse livro foi muito importante no meu processo de entendimento delas.

[Pavol Hardos · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed bag. Each approach gets a chapter by it's noted scholar, which may sound like a good idea - who better to explain than a proponent? But the book reads as if some contributors could not decide whether to explain or advance their favorite position and they end up doing neither.

[Rodger Payne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I used this text for a master's level IR class spring 2010. Some early chapters assume knowledge about theoretical material explained in later chapters, which made it difficult for students new to the material.

[Saif AL Jahwari · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a great book in International Relations theories with all recently debates in them supported by case studies. I recommend it for Arab students in IR.

Also, all my best appreciation to Arabic language translator Ms. Dima AlKhathra for all her efforts in translation this excellent book.

[Kin · Rating 4 out of 5]

อ่านไปไม่กี่บท อ่านแบบจริงจังแค่บทเดียวคือ Globalization ที่ต้องแปลเป็นไทยด้วย ภาษายาก อ่านยาก เหนื่อยมาก ตายดีกว่า :'(

[Chaiphat]

add it

[Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

An introductory text to international relations; covering the essential theories and key authors.