Understanding International Relations, Third Edition

Organization: A Reader (1994) has a wider remit and contains a number of
articles which are very valuable for the study of regimes (see Chapter 7 below).
The general theory sections contain a number of classic articles which are crit-
ical of the neoliberal–neorealist way of setting things up. Cox (1981) is again
reprinted, along with edited versions of Kratochwil and J. G. Ruggie,

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Understanding International Relations
‘International Organization: A State of the Art on the Art of the State’ (1986),
and, especially important, Alexander Wendt, ‘Anarchy is What States Make of
It: The Social Construction of Power Politics’ (1992). Also reprinted is Robert O.
Keohane’s classic ‘International Institutions: Two Approaches’ (1988).
Charles W. Kegley, Jr (ed.) Controversies in International Relations Theory:
Realism and the Neoliberal Challenge (1995) is somewhat less focused on the
immediate debates than its competitors and contains a number of original
pieces: it reprints Grieco (1988) and also Kenneth Waltz, ‘Realist Thought and
Neorealist Theory’ (1990), as well as valuable, state-of-the-art summaries by
Kegley and James Lee Ray.
Michael E. Brown, Sean M. Lynn-Jones and Steven Miller (eds) The Perils of
Anarchy: Contemporary Realism and International Security (1995) is an
International Security Reader, especially valuable on realist thought on the end
of the Cold War. Of general theoretical interest are Kenneth Waltz, ‘The
Emerging Structure of International Politics’ (1993), and Paul Schroeder’s cri-
tique of neorealist accounts of the development of the international system
‘Historical Reality vs. Neo-Realist Theory’ (1994). On offensive, defensive and
neoclassical realism, the following are useful review pieces which capture the
main issues: Review of International Studies 29 Forum on American Realism
(2003); Stephen G. Brooks, ‘Duelling Realisms (Realism in International
Relations)’ (1997); Colin Elman, ‘Horses for Courses: Why Not Neorealist
Theories of Foreign Policy?’ (1997); Gideon Rose, ‘Neoclassical Realism and
Theories of Foreign Policy’ (1998); and Jeffrey Taliaferro, ‘Security Seeking
under Anarchy: Defensive Realism Revisited’ (2000/01).
Important articles and essays not collected above include Robert Powell,
‘Anarchy in International Relations: The Neoliberal–Neorealist Debate’
(1994); Joseph Nye, ‘Neorealism and Neoliberalism’ (1988); Ole Waever, ‘The
Rise and Fall of the Inter-paradigm Debate’ (1996); and, particularly impor-
tant, Robert Jervis, ‘Realism, Neoliberalism and Co-operation: Understanding
the Debate’ (1999). Book-length studies in addition to those referred to in the
text include Robert Gilpin, War and Change in World Politics (1981), and Barry
Buzan, Charles Jones and Richard Little, The Logic of Anarchy: Neorealism to
Structural Realism (1993).
A Special Issue of International Organization, ‘International Organization at
Fifty’ (1998), edited by Peter Katzenstein, Robert O. Keohane and Stephen
Krasner (1998) provides an overview of current mainstream theory, including
constructivist voices such as that of J. G. Ruggie. New looks at both liberalism
and realism, but still within a rational choice framework, can be found in
Andrew Moravcsik, ‘Taking Preferences Seriously: The Liberal Theory of
International Politics’ (1997), and Jeffrey W. Legro and Andrew Moravcsik,
‘Is Anybody Still a Realist?’ (1999). A forum in American Political Science
Review, December 1997, on Waltzian neorealism contains a number of valu-
able contributions, including a reply to his critics from Kenneth Waltz himself.
The main constructivist writings by Kratochwil, Onuf, Ruggie and Wendt are
referenced in the text. The European Journal of International Relations has

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