Contemporary theory of international politics faces a twofold problem: the critical engagement with legacies of national power politics in connection to 20th Century International Relations and the regeneration of notions of humanity. This book contributes to this engagement by a genealogy of thoughts on war, peace, and ethics.

This volume offers an accessible and wide-ranging introduction to the history of international political thought. Taking as its starting-point the various concepts people have used to think about differences between political communities, the book explores changing perceptions of international politics from antiquity to the twentieth century. As well as discussing well-known themes such as relations between independent sovereign states and the tension between raison d'état and a universal code of natural law, it also examines less familiar ideas which have influenced the development of international political thought such as the distinction between civilization, national culture and barbarism, religious attitudes towards infidels, and theories about racial difference and imperialism. Among the key thinkers covered are Thucydides, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Kant, Marx and Morgenthau, alongside less commonly studied figures such as Herodotus, Pope Innocent IV, Herder, Constant and Zimmern. Each chapter concludes with a guide to further reading which will help students to develop a more detailed understanding of the subject. Written with the beginner student in mind, this lively textbook is an ideal introduction for anyone studying international political thought.

International thought is the product of major political changes over the last few centuries, especially the development of the modern state and the industrialisation of the world economy. While the question of how to deal with strangers from other communities has been a constant throughout human history, it is only in recent centuries that the question of ‘foreign relations’ (and especially imperialism and war) have become a matter of urgency for all sectors of society throughout the world. This book provides the first comprehensive overview of the evolution of Western international thought, and charts how this evolved into the predominantly Anglophone field of International Relations. Along the way several myths of the origins of International Relations are explored and exposed: the myth of the peace of Westphalia, the myths of Versailles and the nature of the League of Nations, the realist-idealist ‘Great Debate’ myth, and the myth of appeasement. Major approaches to the study of international affairs are discussed within their context and on their own terms, rather than being shoe-horned into anachronistic ‘paradigms’. Written in a clear and accessible style, Ashworth’s analysis reveals how historical myths have been used as gatekeeping devices, and how a critical re-evaluation of the history of international thought can affect how we see international affairs today.

Torbjorn L. Knutsen introduces ideas on international relations expressed by thinkers from the High Middle Ages to the present day and traces the development of four ever-present themes: war, peace, wealth and power. The book counters the view that international relations has no theoretical tradition and shows that scholars, soldiers and statesmen have been speculating about the subject for the last 700 years. Beginning with the roots of the state and the concept of sovereignty in the Middle Ages, the author draws upon the insights of outstanding political thinkers - from Machiavelli and Hobbes to Hegel, Rousseau, and Marx and contemporary thinkers such as Woodrow Wilson, Lenin, Morgenthau and Walt - who profoundly influenced the emergence of a discrete discipline of International Relations in the twentieth century. Fully revised and updated, the final section embraces more recent approaches to the study of international relations, most notably postmodernism and ecologism.

This introduction to International Relations shows how discussions of war, wealth, peace and power stretch back well over 500 years. It traces international ideas from medieval times, through the modern ages up to the collapse of the Soviet empire. It shows how ancient ideas still affect the way we perceive world politics. This is the 3rd edition of an accessible and popular text. It introduces the ways theologians like Augustine and Aquinas wrestled with the nature of the state and laid down rules of war that are still in use. It shows how Renaissance humanists like Machiavelli and Bodin developed our secular understanding of state sovereignty. The book argues that contract philosophers like Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau introduced concepts that laid the basis for the scholarly field of International Relations, and that Enlightenment thinkers followed up with balance-of-power theories, perpetual-peace projects and visions of trade and peaceful interdependence. These classic international theories have been steadily refined by later thinkers by Marx, Mackinder and Morgenthau, by Waltz, Wallerstein and Wendt who laid the foundation for the contemporary science of International Relations (IR). The book places international arguments, perspectives, terms and theories in their proper historical setting. It traces the evolution of IR theory in context. It shows that core ideas and IR approaches have been shaped by major events and that they have often reflected the concerns of the Great Powers. Yet, it also makes clear that the most basic ideas in the field have remained remarkably constant over time.

In honour of Prof. Kalevi Holsti’s 80th birthday, this collection presents 15 of the renowned Political Scientist’s major essays and research projects. It also offers a collection of his writings and essays on theories of international relations, foreign policy analysis, security and the world order. These previously published works address issues that remain “hot topics” on the international agenda, such as the changing nature of warfare and the causes of failed states; major essays also evaluate the current search for international order. Prof. Holsti is the author of a major textbook that has been translated into Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, and Bahasa Indonesian. Thousands of undergraduates around the world are acquainted with his work.

Introduces international relations as a theme in political theory. The author takes 11 philosophical and political theorists and, through discussion of their thinking, develops the theme that classical political theory can offer an understanding of international relations in practice.