Whats the Point of International Relations?
Whats the Point of International Relations casts a critical eye on what we are doing when we study and teach international relations (IR). Bringing together many of IRs leading thinkers, it presents IR as a deeply political, critical, and normative pursuit, and celebrates the disciplines growing pluralism while also recognising that IR has not yet lived up to its potential, and has much work to do. The volume is divided into five parts:
- What is the point of IR?
- The origins of a discipline
- Policing the boundaries
- Engaging the world
- Imagining the future
Moving beyond western debate, orthodox perspectives, and uncritical histories this volume is essential reading for scholars and advanced level students concerned with the history, present, and future of international relations.
Synne L. Dyvik is Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Sussex, UK.
Jan Selby is Professor of International Relations at the University of Sussex, UK.
Rorden Wilkinson is Professor and Chair of the Department of International Relations at the University of Sussex, UK.
Weve needed this superb volume sorely for some time a collection of fresh and invigorating essays, all responding to the editors call for a newly open, political and humble approach to our discipline. IR emerges through this fresh look not as irrelevant or hamstrung by disciplinary limitations, but as vibrant, diverse and important, and, most of all, as having a very bright future.
Nicola Phillips, University of Sheffield, UK
Enlightening self-reflection without unhelpful narcissism or drama! These are twenty smart, thoughtful, and really productive chapters. I learned things I will use in my classes and in my own work.
Robert A. Denemark, University of Delaware, USA
A wonderful collection of insightful essays that reveal why international relations has become one of the most exciting areas of academic work, one that has not only absorbed innovative perspectives from economics, politics, and political economy but is also becoming an influential source of ideas for these disciplines.
Walden Bello, State University of New York at Binghamton, USA
Through a collection of consistently excellent (and valuably divergent) chapters, this timely and provocative volume calls for and succeeds in modelling a pluralist, dialogical, and political discipline of IR. This is essential reading for anyone interested in the purposes of IR and how these relate to its contested past, current dynamism, and yet-uncertain future.
Toni Erskine, Professor of International Politics, UNSW, Australia
This is an excellent collection of essays on the current state of the field and, fortunately, much more oriented towards real-world problems than its title would suggest.
Chris Brown, London School of Economics, UK
First published 2017
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2017 selection and editorial matter, Synne L. Dyvik, Jan Selby and Rorden Wilkinson; individual chapters, the contributors
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ISBN: 978-1-138-70730-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-70731-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-20146-7 (ebk)
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