REALISM AND
WORLD POLITICS
This book contributes to the rethinking of realism through multiple analyses of the
keys works of Kenneth Waltz, arguing that a sophisticated appreciation of realism
is needed to truly understand World Politics and International Relations.
Bringing together a theoretically varied group of leading scholars from both sides
of the Atlantic, this book is an outstanding appreciation of the work of realism’s
most important theorist since the Second World War, and the persistent themes
thrown up by his work over a half-century. The contributors do not engage with
Waltz’s work as slavish disciples, but rather as positive critics, recognising its decisive
significance in International Relations, while using the process of critical engage-
ment to search for new or renewed understandings of unfolding global situations
and new insights into long-standing problems of theory-building.
The book will be of great interest to students of IR, foreign policy, security
studies and politics.
Ken Boothis Senior Research Associate in the Department of International
Politics, Aberystwyth University, where he was formerly E.H Carr Professor and
Head. He is editor of the journal International Relationsand author/editor of over
20 books on International Relations and Security Studies. He is a Fellow of the
British Academy and Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences.