A complete compendium on theories and approaches to international relations covering debates surrounding the major paradigms and latest developments.
Organized around the three paradigms of the discipline of international relations (IR)—realism, pluralism and globalism—this textbook offers a comprehensive and exhaustive coverage of the theories and approaches to IR, including their critiques and evaluations. By treating these theories and approaches under the canopy of the paradigms rather than in isolation, the book facilitates better understanding of their fundamental commonalities and divergences. It addresses the ongoing lively debates both inside and among the paradigms as well as the excessive American-centricity and Eurocentrism of the discipline of IR.
Written as an integrated, self-sufficient unit, this textbook will be a valuable companion for inquisitive undergraduate and postgraduate students, research scholars and teachers, who need not search for additional books and references.
Key Features:
• Careful organization of 15 theories into 3 positivist paradigmatic divisions, and treatment of 4 post-positivist theories to offer a comprehensive and logical approach to the entire subject
• Focus on non-Western traditions of IR thinking such as Kautilya from India, Han Fei from China and reference to India in the study of old regionalism
• Systematic browsing of relevant theoretical literature and current citations for every theoretical point made
• Additional features such as Word Help boxes and review questions to enhance teaching–learning experience
• Six chapters available on the companion website to address the needs of advanced readers
Mukhopadhyay, Amartya: - Amartya Mukhopadhyay is a retired professor of political science and one-term chair at the University of Calcutta. He was formerly professor of political science, departmental chair for seven terms and dean, Faculty of Arts and Commerce, at the University of Kalyani. He has published in diverse areas, including social and political thought (in book Politics, Society and Colonialism: An Alternative Understanding of Tagore's Responses, 2010); postcolonial theory (in book India in Russian Orientalism: Travel Narratives and Beyond, 2013); public policy analysis (in book Politics of Implementation: Mass Transportation Policy for Calcutta 1947-1989, 2002, and 'Politics of Power Crisis in West Bengal: Linkages between Technical and Political Aspects of Policy Making', in Politics in West Bengal: Institutions, Processes and Problems, ed. Rakhahari Chatterji, 1985); Indian politics (as in 'Bearing Unusual Fruit: What Ails the Civil Society in (West) Bengal', in Rethinking India's Democracy, eds Malyasree Mukherjee and Nivedita Saha, 2017, and 'Civil Social Initiatives in Bengal', in West Bengal under the Left, 1977-2011, eds Rakhahari Chatterji and Partha Pratim Basu, 2018); IR theory and practice (in 'Constriction of Choices and the Kashmir Solution', in Conflict Resolution in the Post-Cold War Era, ed. Arun Kumar Banerji, 2000, and ' Theories of Foreign Policy Decision Making: Indian Context', in Socialist Perspective XII, nos. 1 and 2, June 1984); and Bengali and English literature. He is a regular contributor to various webzines on cultural aspects of Bengali and Indian life. At present, he is engaged in and is much advanced in his translation of iconic Bengali folk tales and has taken to writing a novel. Father of two well-established children, Mukhopadhyay spends his time in reading, writing, performing daily chores and taking care of his wife. Mukhopadhyay is a loner and has modern Bengali poetry as his lifetime obsession.
