International Relations Theory

i

EDITED BY

STEPHEN McGLINCHEY, ROSIE WALTERS

& CHRISTIAN SCHEINPFLUG

International

Relations Theory

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i

“In the plethora of textbooks on IR almost none depart from ‘playing it safe’,

giving forms of instruction in the rudiments of established theories. The great

breakout of this volume is its entire second half of proposing quite radical new

ways of looking at the world. The book is both ‘safe’ and ‘unsafe’ and in both

it is sometimes witty in a way that students will savour – learning what IR is,

and what it could be. A lovely book in which even the doyens of ‘old’ IR are

sometimes bold.”

– Stephen Chan OBE, Professor of World Politics, School of Oriental &

African Studies, University of London.

“This rich volume offers a highly accessible and exceptionally broad-ranging

introduction to the field of International Relations theory. In 20 short chapters

the book provides a highly readable and comprehensive overview of core

theoretical frameworks ranging from ‘mainstream’ realism and liberalism all

the way to queer theory and critical geography. By placing each theory in

context, and by providing a wealth of easily graspable examples, the book

provides ‘one-stop shopping’ for the full range of theoretical frameworks and

concepts – along with welcome attention to non-western perspectives. An

excellent place to start.”

– Mette Eilstrup-Sangiovanni, Senior University Lecturer in International

Relations at Cambridge University.

“This is a superb book. It offers a comprehensive listing that is imaginatively

presented and enormously accessible. Helpfully, too, it takes the form of a

global conversation. IR theory at its sparkling best.”

– Peter Vale, Professor of Humanities, University of Johannesburg; Professor

of Public Policy and Global Affairs, Nanyang Technological University and

Nelson Mandela Professor of Politics Emeritus, Rhodes University.

ii

International

Relations Theory

EDITED BY

STEPHEN MCGLINCHEY, ROSIE WALTERS

& CHRISTIAN SCHEINPFLUG

iii

E-International Relations

www.E-IR.info

Bristol, England

2017

ISBN 978-1-910814-19-2 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-910814-20-8 (e-book)

This book is published under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC 4.0 license. You

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Other than the terms noted above, there are no restrictions placed on the use

and dissemination of this book for student learning materials/scholarly use.

Production: Michael Tang

Copy-editing: Gill Gairdner

Cover Image: feedough via Depositphotos

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

iv

E-IR Foundations

Series Editor: Stephen McGlinchey

Editorial Assistants: Michael Bolt, Eloise Cox, Gary Leigh and Farah Saleem.

E-IR Foundations is a series of beginner’s textbooks from E-International

Relations (E-IR) that are designed to introduce complicated issues in a

practical and accessible way. Each book will cover a different area connected

to International Relations. This is the second book in the series, with more to

follow.

You can find the books, and many other learning materials, on E-IR’s Student

Portal: http://www.e-ir.info/students

E-IR is developing our Foundations series as part of our mission to provide

the best source of freely available scholarly materials for students of

International Relations. Each book is available to buy in bookstores in

paperback and, uniquely for textbooks, also freely accessible in web and PDF

formats. So, readers can have each book at their fingertips and on all their

devices without any restrictions or hassle.

Typically, textbook publishing is designed to appeal to professors/lecturers

and, consequently, even the introductory books are intended less as an aid to

the student and more to assist the instructor in the classroom. Our books are

designed to meet the needs of the student, with the focus on moving readers

from no prior knowledge to competency. They are intended to accompany,

rather than replace, other texts, while offering the student a fresh perspective.

About E-International Relations

E-International Relations is the world’s leading open access website for

students and scholars of international politics, reaching over three million

readers per year. E-IR’s daily publications feature expert articles, blogs,

reviews and interviews – as well as student learning resources. The website

is run by a non-profit organisation based in Bristol, UK and staffed by an all￾volunteer team of students and scholars.

http://www.e-ir.info

v

Acknowledgements

This book would not have been possible without the assistance of E-IR’s

Student Review Panel. Members of the panel gave up their spare time to read

drafts of each chapter and offer their thoughts on how they could be

improved. The panel comprised Laura Southgate, Matthew Koo, Constance

Dijkstra, Loveleena Sharma, Daniel Golebiewski, Ljupcho Stojkovski, Max

Nurnus, Jess Dam, Caroline Cottet, Jan Tattenberg, Matthew Ribar, Laura

Cartner, Cameran Clayton, Phoebe Gardner, Ana Carolina Sarmento, Naomi

McMillen, Kanica Rakhra, Dean Cooper-Cunningham, Jonathan Webb, Daniel

Rowney, Janja R. Avgustin and Scott Edwards.

The editors would also like to thank all members of the E-International

Relations team, past and present, for their many acts of kindness in feeding

back on ideas and providing a supportive climate for the book’s development.

Finally, and most importantly, the editors would like to thank the authors of

each of the chapters for working so hard on this project and helping us deliver

such an excellent book.

vi

vii International Relations Theory

Contents

GETTING STARTED WITH INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS THEORY

Stephen McGlinchey, Rosie Walters & Dana Gold 1

PART ONE – ESTABLISHED THEORIES

1. REALISM

Sandrina Antunes & Isabel Camisão 15

2. LIBERALISM

Jeffrey W. Meiser 22

3. THE ENGLISH SCHOOL

Yannis A. Stivachtis 28

4. CONSTRUCTIVISM

Sarina Theys 36

5. MARXISM

Maïa Pal 42

6. CRITICAL THEORY

Marcos Farias Ferreira 49

7. POSTSTRUCTURALISM

Aishling Mc Morrow 56

8. FEMINISM

Sarah Smith 62

9. POSTCOLONIALISM

Sheila Nair 69

10. TOWARDS A GLOBAL IR?

Amitav Acharya 76

Contents viii

PART TWO – EXPANSION PACK

11. GREEN THEORY

Hugh C. Dyer 84

12. GLOBAL JUSTICE

Alix Dietzel 91

13. QUEER THEORY

Markus Thiel 97

14. SECURITISATION THEORY

Clara Eroukhmanoff 104

15. CRITICAL GEOGRAPHY

Irena Leisbet Ceridwen Connon & Archie W. Simpson 110

16. ASIAN PERSPECTIVES

Pichamon Yeophantong 117

17. GLOBAL SOUTH PERSPECTIVES

Lina Benabdallah, Victor Adetula & Carlos Murillo-Zamora 125

18. INDIGENOUS PERSPECTIVES

Jeff Corntassel & Marc Woons 131

19. A CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVE ON REALISM

Felix Rösch & Richard Ned Lebow 138

20. THE ‘ISMS’ ARE EVIL. ALL HAIL THE ‘ISMS’!

Alex Prichard 145

REFERENCES 153

NOTE ON INDEXING 166

ix International Relations Theory

Contributors

Victor Adetula is Head of Research at the Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala,

Sweden and Professor of International Relations and Development Studies at

the University of Jos, Nigeria.

Amitav Acharya is Distinguished Professor of International Relations and the

UNESCO Chair in Transnational Challenges and Governance at American

University, USA.

Sandrina Antunes is an Assistant Professor at the Department of International

Relations and Public Administration at the Universidade do Minho, Portugal

and a Scientific Fellow at the Center for the Study of Politics, Université Libre

de Bruxelles, Belgium.

Lina Benabdallah is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Wake

Forest University, USA.

Isabel Camisão is an Assistant Professor of International Relations at the

University of Évora, Portugal.

Irena Leisbet Ceridwen Connon is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Human

Geography at the University of Dundee, UK.

Jeff Corntassel is an Associate Professor and Director of Indigenous

Governance at the University of Victoria, Canada. He is a citizen of the

Cherokee Nation.

Alix Dietzel is a Lecturer in Global Ethics at the University of Bristol, UK.

Hugh C. Dyer is an Associate Professor of World Politics at the University of

Leeds, UK.

Clara Eroukhmanoff is a Lecturer in International Relations at London South

Bank University, UK.

Contributors x

Marcos Farias Ferreira is a Lecturer in International Relations at the

University of Lisbon and Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Centro

de Estudos Internacionais, Portugal.

Dana Gold is a PhD candidate at the University of Western Ontario in

London, Canada.

Richard Ned Lebow is a Professor of International Political Theory at King’s

College London, UK, Bye-Fellow of Pembroke College, University of

Cambridge, UK and the James O. Freedman Presidential Professor

(Emeritus) of Government at Dartmouth College, USA.

Stephen McGlinchey is Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the

University of the West of England, Bristol and Editor-in-Chief of

E-International Relations.

Aishling Mc Morrow is a Lecturer in International Relations at Queen’s

University Belfast, UK.

Jeffrey W. Meiser is an Assistant Professor in Political Science at the

University of Portland, USA.

Carlos Murillo-Zamora is a Professor at the University of Costa Rica and the

National University of Costa Rica.

Sheila Nair is Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Northern

Arizona University, USA.

Maïa Pal is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at Oxford Brookes

University, UK.

Alex Prichard is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University

of Exeter, UK.

Felix Rösch is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at Coventry

University, UK.

Christian Scheinpflug is Lead Editor of E-International Relations and a

columnist at the Santiago Times.

xi International Relations Theory

Archie W. Simpson is a Teaching Fellow in Politics and International Relations

at the University of Bath, UK.

Sarah Smith is visiting Assistant Professor in Gender Studies at Central

European University, Budapest. She has also held lecturing posts at Monash

University, Swinburne University of Technology and Australian Catholic

University, Melbourne.

Yannis A. Stivachtis is an Associate Professor of Political Science and

Director of the International Studies Program at Virginia Tech, USA.

Sarina Theys is a Contributing Lecturer in the Politics Department of

Newcastle University, UK.

Markus Thiel is an Associate Professor of Politics & International Relations

and Director of the EU/Jean Monnet Center of Excellence at Florida

International University, USA.

Rosie Walters is a PhD candidate at the University of Bristol, UK and an

Editor-at-Large of E-International Relations.

Marc Woons is a Doctoral Fellow with the Fonds Wetenschappelijk

Onderzoek – Vlaanderen (Research Foundation – Flanders) and the

Research in Political Philosophy Leuven (RIPPLE) Institute at the University

of Leuven in Belgium.

Pichamon Yeophantong is a Lecturer in International Relations and

Development at the University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney),

Australia.

1 International Relations Theory

Getting Started with

International Relations Theory

STEPHEN MCGLINCHEY, ROSIE WALTERS & DANA GOLD

Before we go forward you should know that this book is available in e-book,

PDF, web and paperback versions. While we know that many will use the

digital versions of the book, we encourage you to buy a paperback copy as

well if you are able. A growing body of research offers strong evidence that it

is more effective to study from paper sources than from digital. Regardless of

how you engage with the book, we hope it is an enjoyable read.

You can order the paperback version of this book in all good bookstores –

from Amazon right down to your local bookstore – and digital versions are

always freely available on the E-International Relations Students Portal:

http://www.e-ir.info/students/

The Students Portal also includes a range of online resources that

complement and expand upon the material in this book: http://www.e-ir.info/

online-resources/

Hello

This book is designed as a foundational entry point to International Relations

(IR) theory. As a beginner’s guide, it has been structured to condense the

most important information into the smallest space and present that

information in the most accessible manner in order to introduce this area of

study in a fresh way. It is recommended that you first consult this book’s

companion text International Relations (McGlinchey 2017) so that you have a

fuller understanding of the discipline of International Relations before you

delve into IR theory, which is one of its more difficult elements.

Theories of IR allow us to understand and try to make sense of the world

around us through various lenses, each of which represents a different

theoretical perspective. They are ways to simplify a complicated world. In a