''Theory of International Politics'' is a 1979 book on

international relations theory International relations theory is the study of international relations (IR) from a theoretical perspective. It seeks to explain causal and constitutive effects in international politics. Ole Holsti describes international relations theories a ...

Kenneth Waltz Kenneth Neal Waltz (; June 8, 1924 – May 12, 2013) was an American political scientist who was a member of the faculty at both the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University and one of the most prominent scholars in the field ...

that creates a structural realist theory, neorealism, to explain

international relations International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such ...

. Taking into account the influence of

neoclassical economic theory Neoclassical economics is an approach to economics in which the production, consumption and valuation (pricing) of goods and services are observed as driven by the supply and demand model. According to this line of thought, the value of a good ...

, Waltz argued that the fundamental "ordering principle" (p. 88) of the international political system is

anarchy Anarchy is a society without a government. It may also refer to a society or group of people that entirely rejects a set hierarchy. ''Anarchy'' was first used in English in 1539, meaning "an absence of government". Pierre-Joseph Proudhon adopte ...

, which is defined by the presence of "functionally undifferentiated" (p. 97) individual state actors lacking "relations of super- and subordination" (p. 88) that are distinguished only by their varying capabilities. Waltz challenges

reductionist Reductionism is any of several related philosophical ideas regarding the associations between phenomena which can be described in terms of other simpler or more fundamental phenomena. It is also described as an intellectual and philosophical p ...

approaches to international politics, arguing that they fail to account for similar behaviors across states (Ch. 4). According to Waltz, system-level processes of socialization and competition lead states to behave in similar ways (p. 76). Waltz argues that broad patterns of state behavior can be understood as a consequence of states pursuing incentives provided by the anarchic structure of the international system. He argues that state pursue their security above other goals, which limits the potential for cooperation and creates security competition. One of the major findings of the book is that states tend to balance against power, which leads to the persistent formation of balances of power. Waltz also argues that bipolarity (the presence of two great powers) is more stable than multipolarity (the presence of three or more great powers). It is arguably the most influential book in international relations, causing a fundamental discursive transformation and bringing the concept of anarchy to the forefront. It is the most assigned book in International Relations graduate training at U.S. universities. John Mearsheimer describes it as among the three most influential realist works of international relations of the 20th century, Charles Glaser characterized it as the "defining work" in the neorealist international relations literature, and Robert Jervis wrote in 1998 that the book was "the most important book in the field in the past decade." The book caused a resurgence of realism in the field of international relations.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Theory Of International Politics 1979 non-fiction books Books about international relations International relations theory Political realism

See also

References