About the Book
The Realism Reader provides broad coverage of a centrally important tradition in the study of foreign policy and international politics. After some years in the doldrums, political realism is again in contention as a leading tradition in the international relations sub-field.
Divided into three main sections, the book covers seven different and distinctive approaches within the realist tradition: classical realism, balance of power theory, neorealism, defensive structural realism, offensive structural realism, rise and fall realism, and neoclassical realism. The middle section of the volume covers realism’s engagement with critiques levelled by liberalism, institutionalism, and constructivism and the English School. The final section of the book provides materials on realism’s engagement with some contemporary issues in international politics, with collections on United States (U.S.) hegemony, European cooperation, and whether future threats will arise from non-state actors or the rise of competing great powers.
The book offers a logically coherent and manageable framework for organizing the realist canon, and provides exemplary literature in each of the traditions and dialogues which are included in the volume. Offering substantial commentary and analysis and including enhanced pedagogy to facilitate student learning, The Realism Reader will provide a 'one-stop-shop' for undergraduates and masters students taking a course in contemporary international relations theory, with a particular focus on realism.
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Introduction; Realist research programs; Chapter 2 Classical realism; Chapter 2a The beginnings of a science, Edward Hallett Carr; Chapter 2b The realist critique, Edward Hallett Carr; Chapter 2c The moral blindness of scientific man, Hans J. Morgenthau; Chapter 2d A realist theory of international politics, Hans J. Morgenthau; Chapter 2e Idealist internationalism and the security dilemma, John H. Herz; Chapter 2f The pole of power and the pole of indifference, Arnold Wolfers; Chapter 3 Balance of power theory; Chapter 3a The balance of power, Ernst B. Haas; Chapter 3b Aims, Edward Vose Gulick; Chapter 3c Feedback, Robert Jervis; Chapter 3d Balancing on land and at sea, Jack S. Levy, William R. Thompson; Chapter 4 Neorealism; Chapter 4a Political structures, Kenneth N. Waltz; Chapter 4b Anarchic orders and balances of power, Kenneth N. Waltz; Chapter 4c Realist thought and neorealist theory, Kenneth N. Waltz; Chapter 4d The origins of war in neorealist theory, Kenneth N. Waltz; Chapter 5 Defensive structural realism; Chapter 5a Cooperation under the security dilemma, Robert Jervis; Chapter 5b Alliance formation and the balance of world power, Stephen M. Walt; Chapter 5c Introduction, Stephen Van Evera; Chapter 5d Realists as optimists, Charles L. Glaser; Chapter 5e Breaking out of the security dilemma, Evan Braden Montgomery; Chapter 6 Offensive structural realism; Chapter 6a Anarchy and the struggle for power, John J. Mearsheimer; Chapter 6b Mearsheimer’s world, Glenn H. Snyder; Chapter 6c The “poster child for offensive realism”, Christopher Layne; Chapter 7 Rise and fall realism; Chapter 7a Power transition, A.F.K. Organski; Chapter 7b The power transition research program, Jonathan M. DiCicco, Jack S. Levy; Chapter 7c The nature of international political change, Robert Gilpin; Chapter 7d Hegemonic war and international change, Robert Gilpin; Chapter 7e Declining power and the preventive motivation for war, Jack S. Levy; Chapter 7f Neorealism and the myth of bipolar stability, Dale C. Copeland; Chapter 8 Neoclassical realism; Chapter 8a The necessary and natural evolution of structural realism, Charles L. Glaser; Chapter 8b Introduction, Jeffrey W. Taliaferro, Steven E. Lobell, Norrin M. Ripsman; Chapter 8c Chain gangs and passed bucks, Thomas J. Christensen, Jack Snyder; Chapter 8d Unanswered threats, Randall L. Schweller; Chapter 8e Neoclassical realism and the national interest, Colin Dueck; Critiques and responses; Chapter 9 Engaging liberal critiques; Chapter 9a Taking preferences seriously, Andrew Moravcsik; Chapter 9b Is anybody not an (international relations) liberal?, Brian C. Rathbun; Chapter 9c How liberalism produces democratic peace, John M. Owen; Chapter 9d Kant or cant, Christopher Layne; Chapter 10 Engaging the institutionalist critiques; Chapter 10a Neoliberalism, neorealism, and world politics, David A. Baldwin; Chapter 10b Institutional theory as a research program, Robert O. Keohane, Lisa L. Martin; Chapter 10c Anarchy and the limits of cooperation, Joseph M. Grieco; Chapter 10d The false promise of international institutions, John J. Mearsheimer; Chapter 11 Engaging the constructivist and English School critiques; Chapter 11a Anarchy is what states make of it, Alexander Wendt; Chapter 11b Culture clash, Michael C. Desch; Chapter 11c The English School vs. American realism, Richard Little; Chapter 11d A realist critique of the English School, Dale C. Copeland; Realist theories and contemporary international politics; Chapter 12 Realism, American hegemony, and soft balancing; Chapter 12a The stability of a unipolar world, William C. Wohlforth; Chapter 12b The unipolar illusion revisited, Christopher Layne; Chapter 12c Soft balancing against the United States, Robert A. Pape; Chapter 12d Waiting for balancing, Keir A. Lieber, Gerard Alexander; Chapter 13 Realism and European cooperation; Chapter 13a The future of the American pacifier, John J. Mearsheimer; Chapter 13b European Union security and defense policy, Barry R. Posen; Chapter 13c Still not pushing back, Jolyon Howorth, Anand Menon; Chapter 14 Realism, non-state actors, and the rise of China; Chapter 14a Structural realism in a more complex world, Charles L. Glaser; Chapter 14b The security dilemma and ethnic conflict, Barry R. Posen; Chapter 14c China’s unpeaceful rise, John J. Mearsheimer; Chapter 14d The tragedy of offensive realism, Jonathan Kirshner; Chapter 15 Is realism heading in the right direction?; Chapter 15a The realist paradigm and degenerative versus progressive research programs, John A. Vasquez; Chapter 15b Evaluating theories, Kenneth N. Waltz; Chapter 15c The progressive power of realism, Stephen M. Walt; Chapter 15d Is anybody still a realist?, Jeffrey W. Legro, Andrew Moravcsik; Chapter 15e Correspondence, Peter D. Feaver, Gunther Hellman, Randall L. Schweller, Jeffrey W. Taliaferro, William C. Wohlforth, Jeffrey W. Legro, Andrew Moravcsik;
About the Author :
Colin Elman is Associate Professor of Political Science at Syracuse University. He has published articles in International Organization, International Studies Quarterly, the International History Review, the American Political Science Review, International Security, and Security Studies. He is co-founder and Secretary-Treasurer of both the International History and Politics, and Qualitative and Multi-Method Research organized sections of the American Political Science Association, and co-founder and Executive Director of the Consortium for Qualitative Research Methods.
Michael A. Jensen is a Faculty Research Associate at the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), University of Maryland, where he serves as the Data Collection Manager for the Global Terrorism Database. He also currently teaches courses on international security and terrorism for the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University and the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland. Prior to joining START, he was a post-doctoral fellow at the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs, Syracuse University.
Review :
"The Realism Reader is an absolutely superb collection of writings from the leading schools of modern realist thought and from their most prominent critics. It is perfect for the undergraduate and Masters-level classroom." Jack S. Levy, Board of Governors' Professor, Rutgers University, USA. "Realism, as vital as ever, comes in more varieties than ever. In this single volume Elman and Jensen bring together the chief varieties of modern realism, clarify how they cohere and differ, and present some of the controversies that realists continue to provoke. The Realism Reader will be invaluable to students of international relations." John M. Owen IV, Taylor Professor of Politics, University of Virginia
