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For upper-level undergraduate courses in International Relations and graduate-level courses in International Relations Theory Field Surveys.
Unique in approach, this text explores all aspects of an important scholarly debate over whether the contemporary theory of the balance of power as presented by Kenneth Waltz is a scientifically acceptable theory. This text allows students to examine and analyze the different views (in their original form) by all those in the debate and to come to their own conclusions. Part I presents the initial debate, including reprinted material. Parts II and III feature original pieces where scholars from different views review the debate. The resulting analyses, along with the initial exchanges, provide varying answers to the theoretical, empirical, and philosophy of science questions raised by the debate.
List of contents
1.Introduction: Appraising Balance of Power Theory, Colin Elman.
I. THE INITIAL DEBATE.
2. The Realist Paradigm and Degenerative versus Progressive Research Programs: An Appraisal of Neotraditional Research on Waltz's Balancing Proposition, John Vasquez.
3. Evaluating Theories, Kenneth N. Waltz.
5. Progressive Research on Degenerate Alliances, Thomas J. Christensen and Jack Snyder.
6. New Realist Research on Alliances: Refining, Not Refuting, Waltz's Balancing Proposition, Randall Schweller.
7. Lakatos and Neorealism: A Reply to Vasquez, Colin Elman and Miriam Fendius Elman.
8. The New Debate on Balancing Power: A Reply to My Critics, John Vasquez.
II. NEW CONTRIBUTIONS
9. Why Realism Does Not Work Well for International History (Whether or Not It Represents a Degenerate IR Research Strategy), Paul W. Schroeder.
10. Balances and Balancing: Concepts, Propositions, and Research Design, Jack S. Levy.
11. Is There a Balance of Power, Richard Rosecrance.
12. Neorealism's Logic and Evidence: When Is a Theory Falsified?, Bruce Bueno de Mesquita.
13. Paradoxical Functions of International Alliances: Does Regime Type Make a Difference?, Zeev Maoz.
14. Alliances, Balances of Threat, and Neorealism: The Accidental Coup, Michael Barnett.
15. Measuring Power-and the Power of Theories, William C. Wohlforth.
16. The Natural and Necessary Evolution of Structural Realism, Charles L. Glaser.
III. CONCLUSIONS
17. Closing Dialogue, Colin Elman and John Vasquez.
Combined References.
About the author
JOHN A. VASQUEZ is professor of political science at Vanderbilt University. He has published eleven books, including The Power of Power Politics: From Classical Realism to Neotraditionalism; The War Puzzle; and, most recently, What Do We Know about War? (editor). His scholarly articles have appeared in International Studies Quarterly, World Politics, Security Studies, American Political Science Review, Journal of Peace Research, IO, Journal of Politics, International Political Science Review, Millennium, and British Journal of Political Science, among others. He has been president of the Peace Science Society (International) and the International Studies Association.
COLIN ELMAN is assistant professor of political science at Arizona State University. His work has appeared in American Political Science Review, International Security, Security Studies, International History Review, and International Studies Quarterly, and he is the co-editor (with Miriam Fendius Elman) of Bridges and Boundaries: Historians, Political Scientists, and the Study of International Relations (2001) and Progress in International Relations Theory: An Appraisal of the Field (forthcoming). Elman is currently executive director of the Consortium for Qualitative Research Methods.
Summary
This book explores all aspects of an important scholarly debate that has widespread implications for the political world, including the making of foreign policy--i.e.
