Discourses of Global Politics - A Critical (Re)Introduction to International Relations

Jim George

Lynne Rienner Publishers

1994

266 páginas

8h 52m

ISBN-13: 9780333618684

An unusual combination of synthesis and original scholarship, this new text considers the contemporary agenda of international relations within a broad historical-philosophical context.
George first deals explicitly with precisely how, and with what effect, the dominant post-World War II approaches to international relations are located in this larger context. He then concentrates on the application of these approaches in the theory and practice of the IR community. Going beyond the conventional accounts of, for example, the "Americanization" of the discipline and its development via a "great debates" scenario, he suggests an alternative way of reading and understanding international relations.

The book offers at least three new dimensions to the available IR literature: George takes seriously the question of how we understand ourselves and our world, adding to the IR agenda a comprehensive discussion of the way we "know," and the way we apply that knowledge (e.g., via policy decisions). Though he brings a critical focus and tone to this discussion, he investigates the dominant disciplinary perspectives in their own terms. And not least, he explores some of the most significant of the critical perspectives that have been at the forefront of the challenge to traditional and disciplinary orthodoxies.