Postpositivist international relations theory: a globalist restructuring

Abstract

This book discusses postpositivist theories foregrounding postpositivism against the reigning realist and positivist-pluralist orthodoxies. The book explicates seven theories, not as disparate endeavours but as developments linked by a common thread that seeks to enunciate globalist emancipatory goals for the theoretical field and the world that these theories seek to change. It focuses on the following themes: feminism, environmentalism or green theory, the English School, critical theory, constructivism, postmodernism, and postcolonialism. Additionally, a separate chapter on globalization shows that while mainstream (neo)realist international relations theories respond hostilely to globalization and liberal-pluralist theories react benignly to it, postpositivist theories positively welcome it. The book offers a competent meta-theoretical gridwork, showing on which side of the opposing disciplinary positions in the fourth debate each of the seven theories are located. It is a comprehensive guide to the postpositivist restructuring of the discipline of international relations.