This textbook shows how to think about international relations and offers insights into its most important theories and issues.
Written from beyond the Anglo-US academic environment, with attention to regional nuances, it teaches students to perceive international politics in an organized and theoretical way, thus helping them grasp the complexity of the subject and see simple ways of making sense of it. Providing a thorough introduction to the main theories and approaches to international relations, the book covers the main dilemmas, concepts and methodological issues alongside a number of neglected theoretical paradigms such as institutionalism, Marxism, critical approaches, feminism and power in world politics.
It will be of great use as a main textbook as well as a supplementary guide for related courses, including Foreign Policy Analysis, Conflict Studies, Security Studies, History of International Relations, International Organizations and Global Governance.
Introduction: What Is International Relations and Why Study Them?
Chapter 1. (Ir)rationality of International Politics
Chapter 2. Realism
Chapter 3. Is It All about Power?
Chapter 4. Neoliberalism
Chapter 5. English School
Chapter 6. Institutionalism
Chapter 7. Constructivism
Chapter 8. Marxism and Neo-Marxism
Chapter 9. Critical Theories
Chapter 10. Feminism
Chapter 11. Non-Western Approaches
What’s Next? An Epilogue
Biography
Mykola Kapitonenko, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the Institute of International Relations of Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University. He is also a Director of the Center of International Studies, an NGO, specializing in regional security studies and foreign policy of Ukraine. He has been invited as a visiting professor to the University of Iowa, and has taught at the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. Since 2015, Mykola has been co-editing UA: Ukraine Analytica. In 2012 he was a winner of the State Prize of Ukraine in Science and Technology.