Visions of International Relations : Assessing an Academic Field

A discussion of international relations and human behaviour. The essays are by eight scholars, each of whom presents a divergent ontological, epistemological or methodological view on the study of international relations, in the hope of redefining and reinvigorating intellectual exchange.

Almost since the founding of the discipline of international relations, scholars have debated about appropriate ways to describe, study and explain the realm of human behaviour that has to do with relations among states and peoples. Such scholarly discussion, however enlightening, has in more recent years also led to polarization of views, fragmentations of interests and attention, and bouts of intolerance within the field. In this collection of essays by eight prominent scholars, each of whom presents a divergent ontological, epistemological or methodological view on the study of international relations, there appears hope for redefining and reinvigorating intellectual exchange. Emerging from a series of seminars organized by the Walker Institute of International Studies at the University of South Carolina, the volume, edited by Donald J. Puchala, brings together the assessments of scholars who were challenged to defend their standpoints but also to build bridges between them.