A comprehensive treatment of regional transformation, offering insights from different theoretical perspectives and generating a range of policy-relevant ideas.

A comprehensive treatment of regional transformation, offering insights from different theoretical perspectives and generating a range of policy-relevant ideas.

This book develops the idea that since decolonisation, regional patterns of security have become more prominent in international politics. The authors combine an operational theory of regional security with an empirical application across the whole of the international system. Individual chapters cover Africa, the Balkans, CIS Europe, East Asia, EU Europe, the Middle East, North America, South America, and South Asia. The main focus is on the post-Cold War period, but the history of each regional security complex is traced back to its beginnings. By relating the regional dynamics of security to current debates about the global power structure, the authors unfold a distinctive interpretation of post-Cold War international security, avoiding both the extreme oversimplifications of the unipolar view, and the extreme deterritorialisations of many globalist visions of a new world disorder. Their framework brings out the radical diversity of security dynamics in different parts of the world.

This book addresses the problem of World Regional Studies and its components: regional complexes, regional subsystems and global regions. With an increasingly complex international system and the emergence of new actors, it is clear that the conceptual framing within the classical disciplines of IR, Political Theory, International Political Economy or Comparative Politics can no longer fully explain a number of processes originating from a tighter and intricate nexus between local, regional and global dimensions. World Regional Studies explains the emergence of new phenomena in international relations and world politics on a regional and predominantly non-Western regional level. How do non-Western societies react to the transformations of the global order? Is a non-Western democracy possible? Should we discuss the possibilities for the appearance of a non-Western IR theory or a new framework for analyzing de-westernized global development? This study, based on decade-long research and teaching post in World Regional Studies at MGIMO-University and Russian University of Humanitarian Studies (RGGU), seeks to answers these questions.

This book shows how the political, economic, military and cultural revolutions of the nineteenth century shaped modern international relations.

International relations theory has been the site of intense debate in recent years. A decade ago it was still possible to divide the field between three main perspectives – Realism, Liberalism, and Marxism. Not only have these approaches evolved in new directions, they have been joined by a number of new ‘isms’ vying for attention, including feminism and constructivism. International Relations Theory for the Twenty-First Century is the first comprehensive textbook to provide an overview of all the most important theories within international relations. Written by an international team of experts in the field, the book covers both traditional approaches, such as realism and liberal internationalism, as well as new developments such as constructivism, poststructuralism and postcolonialism. The book’s comprehensive coverage of IR theory makes it the ideal textbook for teachers and students who want an up-to-date survey of the rich variety of theoretical work and for readers with no prior exposure to the subject.

This textbook shows how to think about international relations and offers insights into its most important theories and issues. Written from beyond the Anglo-US academic environment, with attention to regional nuances, it teaches students to perceive international politics in an organized and theoretical way, thus helping them grasp the complexity of the subject and see simple ways of making sense of it. Providing a thorough introduction to the main theories and approaches to international relations, the book covers the main dilemmas, concepts and methodological issues alongside a number of neglected theoretical paradigms such as institutionalism, Marxism, critical approaches, feminism and power in world politics. It will be of great use as a main textbook as well as a supplementary guide for related courses, including Foreign Policy Analysis, Conflict Studies, Security Studies, History of International Relations, International Organizations and Global Governance.