Rethinking Realism in International Relations: Between Tradition and Innovation

This volume draws on the work of international scholars from diverse perspectives to provide a timely, focused debate on the future of realist theory in international relations.

Part I presents novel contributions to realist theory building, including suggested elaborations of Mearsheimer's offensive realist variant, a reconsideration of the role of revisionism in structural realist theory, a bridge to the English School of international relations, and a critique of trends in realist theorizing since the end of the Cold War. In part II, structural and neoclassical realists provide empirical analyses of foreign policy behavior, the role of geopolitics, and the grand strategies of major powers. The chapters in part III assess the viability of the ways forward for realism from realist, critical, and feminist perspectives.

This tightly integrated intellectual exchange presents a transnational overview of the evolution and potential future of the realist paradigm. The volume editors conclude with an assessment of the current state of realism and suggest ways for the debate to progress.

Annette Freyberg-Inan is an associate professor of political science at the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam, and the author of What Moves Man: The Realist Theory of International Relations and Its Judgment of Human Nature. Ewan Harrison is an assistant dean in the College of Arts and Sciences at Washington University, St. Louis. He is the author of The Post Cold War International System: Strategies, Institutions, and Reflexivity and has published in Review of International Studies, International Studies Review, International Politics, International Affairs, and Journal of Peace Research. Patrick James is a professor with the School of International Relations at the University of Southern California, where he is also the director of the Center for International Studies. He is the author, coauthor, and coeditor of a number of books on international relations, including International Relations and Scientific Progress: Structural Realism Reconsidered and Who Intervenes? Ethnic Conflict and Interstate Crisis.