Fathers of International Thought

Fathers of International Thought PDF Author: Kenneth W. Thompson
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 9780807119068
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 174

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Book Description
In Fathers of International Thought, renowned foreign affairs scholar Kenneth W. Thompson returns to the writings of sixteen thinkers in order better to understand the issues and problems that recurrently beset global politics. A companion volume to Masters of International Thought, in which Thompson analyzed the thinking of eighteen leading twentieth-century political theorists, Fathers of International Thought traces the ideas of earlier philosophers, theologians, and legal and political theorists who provided the foundations for the present century’s master thinkers. Thompson begins by discussing the relevance of classical political philosophy to the field of modern international relations theory. He then presents lucid essays on sixteen of the most brilliant minds from Plato through the nineteenth century, focusing on the importance of their thought in contemporary international affairs. Besides Plato, the classical thinkers, whom Thompson refers to as the fathers, include Aristotle, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Niccolò, Machiavelli, Grotius, David Hume, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Montesquieu, Edmund Burke, Immanuel Kant, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and Karl Marx. According to Thompson, the interrelatedness of earlier and recent thought is undeniable for such concepts as authority, justice, community, regimes, and power. He shows how the ideas of the fathers have application to the current international scene, as with events in Eastern Europe and the Persian Gulf area, and political upheaval on the African continent. The lesson for policy makers, students of politics and international relations, and, indeed, all citizens is that a comprehensive philosophical approach to world politics can lead to the rediscovery of enduring political principles and our place in history. By considering the insights of earlier thinkers, decision makers may come to recognize most present-day problems as perennial issues, however changing the context. Understanding the classics may help them avoid unsuccessful patterns in foreign policy. An introductory survey of early political philosophers and their relevance to our times is sorely needed by students and practitioners of international politics. Fathers of International Thought, by a man Foreign Affairs described as “one of the best teachers still active from the postwar generation of scholars that developed the discipline of international relations,” will be of lasting value in meeting that need.

Fathers of International Thought

Fathers of International Thought PDF Author: Kenneth W. Thompson
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 9780807119068
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 174

Get Book Here

Book Description
In Fathers of International Thought, renowned foreign affairs scholar Kenneth W. Thompson returns to the writings of sixteen thinkers in order better to understand the issues and problems that recurrently beset global politics. A companion volume to Masters of International Thought, in which Thompson analyzed the thinking of eighteen leading twentieth-century political theorists, Fathers of International Thought traces the ideas of earlier philosophers, theologians, and legal and political theorists who provided the foundations for the present century’s master thinkers. Thompson begins by discussing the relevance of classical political philosophy to the field of modern international relations theory. He then presents lucid essays on sixteen of the most brilliant minds from Plato through the nineteenth century, focusing on the importance of their thought in contemporary international affairs. Besides Plato, the classical thinkers, whom Thompson refers to as the fathers, include Aristotle, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Niccolò, Machiavelli, Grotius, David Hume, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Montesquieu, Edmund Burke, Immanuel Kant, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and Karl Marx. According to Thompson, the interrelatedness of earlier and recent thought is undeniable for such concepts as authority, justice, community, regimes, and power. He shows how the ideas of the fathers have application to the current international scene, as with events in Eastern Europe and the Persian Gulf area, and political upheaval on the African continent. The lesson for policy makers, students of politics and international relations, and, indeed, all citizens is that a comprehensive philosophical approach to world politics can lead to the rediscovery of enduring political principles and our place in history. By considering the insights of earlier thinkers, decision makers may come to recognize most present-day problems as perennial issues, however changing the context. Understanding the classics may help them avoid unsuccessful patterns in foreign policy. An introductory survey of early political philosophers and their relevance to our times is sorely needed by students and practitioners of international politics. Fathers of International Thought, by a man Foreign Affairs described as “one of the best teachers still active from the postwar generation of scholars that developed the discipline of international relations,” will be of lasting value in meeting that need.

Rethinking International Relations

Rethinking International Relations PDF Author: Bertrand Badie
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1789904757
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
In this thought-provoking book, Bertrand Badie argues that the traditional paradigms of international relations are no longer sustainable, and that ignorance of these shifting systems and of alternative models is a major source of contemporary international conflict and disorder. Through a clear examination of the political, historical and social context, Badie illuminates the challenges and possibilities of an ‘intersocial’ and multilateral approach to international relations.

The Oxford Handbook of History and International Relations

The Oxford Handbook of History and International Relations PDF Author: Mlada Bukovansky
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198873476
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 769

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Book Description
Historical approaches to the study of world politics have always been a major part of the academic discipline of International Relations, and there has recently been a resurgence of scholarly interest in this area. This Oxford Handbook examines the past and present of the intersection between history and IR, and looks to the future by laying out new questions and directions for research. Seeking to transcend well-worn disciplinary debates between historians and IR scholars, the Handbook asks authors from both fields to engage with the central themes of 'modernity' and 'granularity'. Modernity is one of the basic organising categories of speculation about continuity and discontinuity in the history of world politics, but one that is increasingly questioned for privileging one kind of experience and marginalizing others. The theme of granularity highlights the importance of how decisions about the scale and scope of historical research in IR shape what can be seen, and how one sees it. Together, these themes provide points of affinity across the wide range of topics and approaches presented here. The Handbook is organized into four parts. The first, 'Readings', gives a state-of-the-art analysis of numerous aspects of the disciplinary encounter between historians and IR theorists. Thereafter, sections on 'Practices', 'Locales', and 'Moments' offer a wide variety of perspectives, from the longue durée to the ephemeral individual moment, and challenge many conventional ways of defining the contexts of historical enquiry about international relations. Contributors come from a range of academic backgrounds, and present a diverse array of methodological and philosophical ideas, as well as their various historical interests. The Oxford Handbooks of International Relations is a twelve-volume set of reference books offering authoritative and innovative engagements with the principal sub-fields of International Relations. The series as a whole is under the General Editorship of Christian Reus-Smit of the University of Queensland and Duncan Snidal of the University of Oxford, with each volume edited by specialists in the field. The series both surveys the broad terrain of International Relations scholarship and reshapes it, pushing each sub-field in challenging new directions. Following the example of Reus-Smit and Snidal's original Oxford Handbook of International Relations, each volume is organized around a strong central thematic by scholars drawn from different perspectives, reading its sub-field in an entirely new way, and pushing scholarship in challenging new directions.

The Realist Tradition and Contemporary International Relations

The Realist Tradition and Contemporary International Relations PDF Author: W. David Clinton
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 0807149217
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 343

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Book Description
The tradition in international relations theory known as realism has often been associated with the Cold War. The contributors to this intriguing volume argue, however, that realism remains a profound and relevant perspective on contemporary international politics. They point out that classical realism is based on concepts that were elucidated long before the Cold War began and are not confined by its boundaries. Further, they believe that insights of the realist tradition can provide valuable guidance in our contemporary world. W. David Clinton and ten scholars of foreign policy reexamine the work of thinkers spanning twenty-five centuries who have contributed to the development of realism across the ages. In their essays, the authors consider two key questions: What makes these thinkers "realists"? And how is their work relevant to the modern, post--Cold War world? These essays take a fresh look at such canonical thinkers as Thucydides, Augustine, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Hume, Burke, Carr, Niebuhr, and Morgenthau. Countering the widespread belief that realism has nothing left to offer, this collection demonstrates that continuities remain in the political world -- and that the ideas rooted in realism are too important and too useful to ignore. While there are obvious differences among the political philosophers whose works are considered here, they share a common concern about human limitations and the possible dangerous consequences of ignoring those limitations. Each in his own way, these classic thinkers discuss the need for prudence to counter the ever-present threat of tragedy resulting from our innocent, hopeful, or self-righteous efforts for perfection. These provocative essays demonstrate that though a realist understanding of the nature of international relations is at least as old as Thucydides, it is also as contemporaneous as the most recent headline.

Thucydides' Theory of International Relations

Thucydides' Theory of International Relations PDF Author: Lowell S. Gustafson
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 9780807126059
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
Throughout history, readers of Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War have long sought to apply its lessons to the problems of their times. In that tradition, the authors of these essays explore Thucydides' observations on the human condition in an effort to comprehend their modern world of more than 2,400 years later. The nine contributors find that Thucydides is not only the descriptive historian he is commonly said to be, but also a sophisticated theorist of international relations who emphasized the use of history to interpret the international conditions of his day and had a profound understanding of realism and pluralism, of the relationship between internal and international politics, and of the role of culture in world affairs. Thucydides' work remains worth reflecting on because it challenges the reader to understand the concept of greatness in leadership and to carefully observe what war can reveal about human affairs. Reconsidering Thucydides' thought in the post--Cold War world -- in which the United States is the foremost military power -- the essayists find lessons in his writing that they maintain must be included in a modern understanding of greatness, including the idea that sustained preeminence must incorporate virtue, goodness, and justice. Thucydides, they show, was a savvy ancient who would today demand a fundamental reexamination of certain prevailing assumptions about the character of political life -- assumptions the source of which contemporary realists often erroneously attribute to Thucydides himself. The confusion and disagreements about the proper interpretation of Thucydides' work echo the deepest confusion and disagreements about the meaning of politics and the character of human existence. An illuminating dialogue about the place of Thucydides in modern thought, Thucydides' Theory of International Relations, therefore, is an invitation to reunite the study of international relations with political philosophy in the broadest sense.

The Future of International Relations

The Future of International Relations PDF Author: Iver B. Neumann
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134762208
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 423

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Book Description
This book presents the state of the art of international relations theory through an analysis of the work of twelve key contemporary thinkers; John Vincent, Kenneth Waltz, Robert O. Keohane, Robert Gilpin, Bertrand Badie, John Ruggie, Hayward Alker, Nicholas G. Onuf, Alexander Wendt, Jean Bethke Elshtain, R.B.J. Walker and James Der Derian. The authors aim to break with the usual procedure in the field which juxtaposes aspects of the work of contemporary theorists with others, presenting them as part of a desembodied school of thought or paradigm. A more individual focus can demonstrate instead, the well-rounded character of some of the leading oeuvres and can thus offer a more representative view of the discipline. This book is designed to cover the work of theorists whom students of international relations will read and sometimes stuggle with. The essays can be read either as introductions to the work of these theorists or as companions to it. Each chapter attempts to place the thinker in the landscape of the discipine, to identify how they go about studying International Relations, and to discuss what others can learn from them.

Women's International Thought: A New History

Women's International Thought: A New History PDF Author: Patricia Owens
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108494692
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 371

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Book Description
The first cross-disciplinary history of women's international thought, analysing leading international thinkers of the twentieth century.

Rethinking The Foundations of Modern Political Thought

Rethinking The Foundations of Modern Political Thought PDF Author: Annabel Brett
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 113945997X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 27

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Book Description
Quentin Skinner's classic study The Foundations of Modern Political Thought was first published by Cambridge in 1978. This was the first of a series of outstanding publications that have changed forever the way the history of political thought is taught and practised. Rethinking the Foundations of Modern Political Thought looks afresh at the impact of the original work, asks why it still matters, and considers a number of significant agendas that it still inspires. A very distinguished international team of contributors has been assembled, including John Pocock, Richard Tuck and David Armitage, and the result is an unusually powerful and cohesive contribution to the history of ideas, of interest to large numbers of students of early modern history and political thought. In conclusion, Skinner replies to each chapter and presents his own thoughts on the latest trends and the future direction of the history of political thought.

Classical Theory in International Relations

Classical Theory in International Relations PDF Author: Beate Jahn
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139460900
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
Classical political theorists such as Thucydides, Kant, Rousseau, Smith, Hegel, Grotius, Mill, Locke and Clausewitz are often employed to explain and justify contemporary international politics and are seen to constitute the different schools of thought in the discipline. However, traditional interpretations frequently ignore the intellectual and historical context in which these thinkers were writing as well as the lineages through which they came to be appropriated in International Relations. This collection of essays provides alternative interpretations sensitive to these political and intellectual contexts and to the trajectory of their appropriation. The political, sociological, anthropological, legal, economic, philosophical and normative dimensions are shown to be constitutive, not just of classical theories, but of international thought and practice in the contemporary world. Moreover, they challenge traditional accounts of timeless debates and schools of thought and provide new conceptions of core issues such as sovereignty, morality, law, property, imperialism and agency.

The Architecture Of Global Governance

The Architecture Of Global Governance PDF Author: James P Muldoon, Jr.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429976461
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
A beautifully illustrated textbook of the history, theory and current state of international organizations which increasingly oversee aspects of international affairs and the world's transition to a new global order.. This new and timely textbook recounts the historical and theoretical development of the international system in a lively analysis o