International Relations Theory - Introduction

Introduction

Further information: Great Debates (international relations theory)

The study of International relations as theory can be traced to E.H. Carr's "The Twenty Years' Crisis" which was published in 1939 and to Hans Morgenthau's "Politics Among Nations" published in 1948. International relations as a discipline is believed to have emerged after the First World War with the establishment of a Chair of International Relations at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. Early international relations scholarship in the Interwar years focused on the need for the balance of power system to be replaced with a system of collective security. These thinkers were later described as "Idealists". The leading critique of this school of thinking was the "realist" analysis offered by Carr.

Explanatory and constitutive approaches in international relations theory is a distinction made when classifying international relations theories. Explanatory theories are ones which see the world as something external to theorize about it. A constitutive theory is one which believes that theories actually help construct the world.

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