Women serving in combat areas are often exposed to the same risks and engage
in the same reactions as their male counter parts do. Yet they suffer discrimination
both in ser vice and after, as well as a very high risk of sexual assault while serving.
Many female veterans of Iraq were surprised to find that when they returned home,
they were not respected as the men were for their ser vice. As one rightfully angry
female U.S. Army veteran put it: “War doesn’t give a damn what your job is, we’re
getting killed anyway... We’re getting blown up right alongside the guys. We’re
manning what ever weapons we can get our little hands on. We’re in combat!”^1 The
plight of women in the U.S. armed forces is not unique, but it highlights a deeper theo-
retical critique of con temporary and historical international relations and foreign
policy. What is the source of the long- standing ban on women serving in combat
roles in the military? How does limiting women’s roles in the military affect our views of
women’s potential as leaders in other pursuits? Would world politics look diff er ent
if women and men were given equal opportunities worldwide, and if so, how? Inter-
national relations theories offer answers.
Learning Objectives■ Explain the value of studying international relations from a theoretical
perspective.
■ Understand why scholars pay attention to the levels- of- analy sis prob lem.
■ Explain the central tenets of realism, liberalism, radicalism, and
constructivism. Understand the feminist critiques of each perspective.
■ Analyze con temporary international events using diff er ent theoretical
perspectives.thinking theoretically
A theory is a set of propositions and concepts that combine to explain phenomena by
specifying the relationships among the propositions. Theory’s ultimate goal is to pre-
dict phenomena. Good theories can explain events across space (e.g., it works just as
well in Argentina as it does in Morocco) and time (e.g., it works just as well today as it
did in the tenth century). Good theories generate testable hypotheses: specific falsifi-
able statements questioning a par tic u lar relationship among two or more variables.
72 CHAPTER THREE ■ i nternatiOnaL reLatiOns theOries