They are each built on one of three paradigms that has dominated international relations theory since World War II: realism, liberalism, and constructivism. Realists see politics as rooted in anarchy, ...

You can skip them and still know the theory, which is most important. 4. Politics Among Nations Written in 1948, this book by Hans Morgenthau represents the first major foray into defining ...

Realism is the oldest and most venerable school of thought in the study of international politics. Thucydides, Hobbes, and Machiavelli provided its classic texts, and Hans Morgenthau, George Kennan, ...

In 1928, the Kellogg-Briand Pact was inaugurated to great international fanfare. Its signatories, who included the United States and most of Europe, disavowed the use of war in resolving international ...

International Relations at W&M promotes the systematic study of political, economic, and historic relations among states and other actors in the international system. Students and faculty explore ...

Defensive realism is a theory of international relations that’s a useful lens to look through in order to analyze international politics today. The essence of defensive realism is that as a state ...

In the ever-evolving arena of international politics, the concept of permanent alliances or perpetual hostilities often proves to be a myth. As Lord Palmerston had put it long ago, "We have no eternal ...

In recent debates in IR theory a specific trend has evolved which advocates a renewed focus on matters of ontology as a way to overcome or at least to reconceptualise the divides within the field of ...

During Russia's terrible and ongoing total war on Ukrainian civilians, it has become clear that one strain of so-called "realist" thought in international relations theory is a source of confusion and ...

Neorealist theory is the simplest way to understand how countries interact. It’s like the basic starting point for studying how nations relate to each other. Almost every other theory in international ...