Ken Booth - International Relations Theory Today

EDITED BY KEN BOOTH AND TONI ERSKINE

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Copyright this collection Polity Press 2016
Each chapter the author
First published in 1995 by Polity Press

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All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-1-5095-0834-1

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Booth, Ken, 1943-, editor. | Erskine, Toni, 1969-, editor.
Title: International relations theory today / Ken Booth, Toni Erskine.
Description: Second edition. | Cambridge, UK ; Malden, MA : Polity Press, [2016] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015038689| ISBN 9780745671208 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780745671215 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: International relations.
Classification: LCC JX1391.I6383 2016 | DDC 327.101--dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015038689

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Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition.

For further information on Polity, visit our website: politybooks.com

The aim of this book, like that of its first edition in 1995, is to underline the continuing significance of thinking theoretically about international relations. It provides students and other scholars of International Relations (IR), Political Science, Security Studies, and Global Politics at second-year and higher levels with ideas and material to help in understanding, explaining, analysing, and engaging with the old and new challenges at the crucial international level of world politics.

In producing this book we have incurred many debts. We wish to begin by recalling the role of Anthony Giddens, who proposed the publication of the first edition. For prodding us into a second edition, and providing excellent advice and support from its conception to publication, we warmly thank Politys Louise Knight. Also at Polity, Pascal Porcheron, Nekane Tanaka Galdos, and Caroline Richmond provided valuable assistance at various stages in the project.

Steve Smith was one of the two co-editors of the first edition. His imprint on that book was everywhere, and his introductory essay has rightly become a standard reference point in the field.

The chapters making up this volume would not be what they are without the authors conference held in the Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth University. For help in funding that conference we acknowledge the assistance of Aberystwyth Universitys Research Fund and its Department of International Politics (and the support of successive heads of department, Michael Foley and Jenny Mathers), the David Davies Memorial Institute of International Studies, and the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Canberra. Special thanks are due to an outstanding group of front-line discussants, chairs, and commentators at the Aberystwyth conference and afterwards: Richard Beardsworth, Andrew Davenport, Ian Clark, Milja Kurki, Jenny Mathers, Mustapha Pasha, Jan Ruzicka, Duncan Snidal, Kamila Stullerova, and Hidemi Suganami. Their interventions and suggestions significantly strengthened the chapters presented in this book. For help with the logistics of the conference, we were ably supported by Rachel Vaughan, Elaine Lowe, and Grant Dawson.

Politys three anonymous reviewers of the manuscript were quick, conscientious, and critical, and we also want to acknowledge their contribution.

In helping us to manage the flow of e-mails, and for providing outstanding editorial assistance at different stages of the project, we are in the debt of Kimberley Layton, Nishank Motwani, and Rhiannon Neilsen. We are also grateful for the research funding from UNSW Canberra that made their assistance possible.

As ever, and last but not least, we thank our long-suffering families, and particularly EB and MD, for their support and patience throughout this long project.

The Preface to the first edition began: This is a confusing yet exciting and important time for those who study international relations. In the tumultuous two decades that followed, we are convinced that the times are even more confusing, the challenges to understanding it all are greater than ever, and the future yet more in doubt. The subject matter of this book therefore remains of profound and universal significance.

Ken Booth and Toni Erskine

Pinar Bilgin is Professor of International Relations at Bilkent University. She specialises in critical approaches to Security Studies and is the author of Regional Security in the Middle East: A Critical Perspective (2005) and The International in Security, Security in the International (2016). She is past president of the Central and East European International Studies Association, a past member of the steering committee of the Standing Group on International Relations of the European Consortium for Political Research, a governing council member of the European International Studies Association, an associate member of the Turkish Academy of Sciences, and associate editor of International Political Sociology.

David L. Blaney holds the G. Theodore Mitau Chair of Political Science, Macalester College, St Paul, Minnesota. His research revolves around international political theory, culture and IR and IPE, and political economic thought. With Naeem Inayatullah, he has written International Relations and the Problem of Difference (2004) and Savage Economics: Wealth, Poverty and the Temporal Walls of Capitalism (2010), and, with Arlene Tickner, he has edited Thinking International Relations Differently (2012) and Claiming the International (2013). He is now working on theodicy and political economic thought from Smith to neo-classical economics and contemporary IPE.

Ken Booth was formerly E. H. Carr Professor and head of the Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth University. He is presently senior research associate, editor of International Relations, and president of the David Davies Memorial Institute of International Studies. He is a former chair of the British International Studies Association. His publications include Strategy and Ethnocentrism (1979), Theory of World Security (2007), and The Security Dilemma: Fear, Cooperation and Trust in World Politics (2008, with Nicholas J. Wheeler). He is a Fellow of the British Academy and a recipient of the International Studies Associations Susan Strange Award.

Chris Brown is Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and the author of