ABSTRACT
In the 1980s, there was nearly a consensus on at least one point, namely that international relations (IR) contained three basic perspectives: (1) political realism; (2) liberalism (seen also with varying emphasis as idealism, or pluralism or economic liberalism); and (3) marxism (seen also, again with varying emphasis, as structuralism or as a socialist model). Each of these holds a characteristic view of international politics. In spite of a century of sustained effort, it is not unfair to say that these perspectives continue to exist only in a rather speculative outline. Also, as far as (1) and (2) are concerned, they mostly repeat the cognitive structure of international problematic that was articulated by Hume and Kant, and established in the nineteenth century.
