Read more
List of contents
Preface -- Theories and Theorists -- An American Social Science: International Relations -- Rousseau on War and Peace -- Raymond Aron and the Theory of International Relations -- Hans Morgenthau: The Limits and Influence of Realism -- Order and Violence -- Is There an International Order? -- The Future of the International Political System: A Sketch -- International Systems and International Law -- The Problem of Intervention -- Nuclear Worries: France and the United States -- Actors and Interactions -- On the Origins of the Cold War -- Grasping the Bear: Patterns and Puzzles of Soviet International Behavior -- Cries and Whimpers: Thoughts on West European–American Relations in the 1980s -- Domestic Politics and Interdependence -- Sermons and Suggestions -- International Organization and the International System -- Taming the Eagle: U.S. Foreign Policy and National Security -- Beyond Terror? -- Reaching for the Most Difficult: Human Rights as a Foreign Policy Goal -- Liberalism and International Affairs -- On the Political Psychology of Peace and War: A Critique and an Agenda -- Conclusion -- The Sound and the Fury: The Social Scientist Versus War in History
Summary
In these essays, one of the most eminent political scientists of our time examines international relations from a variety of perspectives connected by timeless and common themes: the conflict between die ever-present risk of violence and the quest for international order, the tensions between the imperatives of power and those of morality, the ties that bind domestic and foreign policy, the ambiguities of the nuclear revolution, the break between prenuclear and post-1945 politics, and the dangers created by the competition between the nuclear superpowers. Assessing the development of the discipline of international relations, the author presents both a summary of the field's significant findings and a critical discussion of its most representative traditions of realism and liberalism. Written between 1960 and 1985, many of these essays have not been previously published in English. They reflect the author's own intellectual evolution and represent a complete picture of his approach to the study of world politics.
