ABSTRACT
What’s the Point of International Relations casts a critical eye on what it is that we think we are doing when we study and teach international relations (IR). It brings together many of IR’s leading thinkers to challenge conventional understandings of the discipline’s origins, history, and composition. It sees IR as a discipline that has much to learn from others, which has not yet lived up to its ambitions or potential, and where much work remains to be done. At the same time, it finds much that is worth celebrating in the discipline’s growing pluralism and views IR as a deeply political, critical, and normative pursuit.
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
Although each chapter alludes to and/or discusses central aspects of all of these components, each part is designed to capture the central thrust of the concerns of the contributors. Moving beyond western debate, orthodox perspectives, and uncritical histories this volume is essential reading for all scholars and advanced level students concerned with the history, development, and future of international relations.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part one|50 pages
What’s the point of IR?
chapter 3|11 pages
What’s the Point of IR?
part two|49 pages
The origins of a discipline
chapter 7|9 pages
Beyond Practitioner Histories of International Relations
part three|51 pages
Policing the boundaries
chapter 9|14 pages
Be Careful What You Wish for
chapter 10|12 pages
Don’t Flatter Yourself
part four|45 pages
Engaging the world
part five|49 pages
Imagining the future