Gilpinian Realism and International Relations
@article{Wohlforth2011GilpinianRA, title={Gilpinian Realism and International Relations}, author={William C. Wohlforth}, journal={International Relations}, year={2011}, volume={25}, pages={499 - 511} }
I argue that realism in particular and IR more generally erred by assigning Kenneth Waltz’s Theory of International Relations pride of place in revivifying realist thought. Had Robert Gilpin’s War and Change in World Politics been given equal billing, international relations research would have unfolded quite differently over the past three decades. Scholars would not have been bewildered by change, bewitched by the balance of power, blind to numerous potentially powerful realist theories, and…
32 Citations
Considering Rationality of Realist International Relations Theories
- Political Science
- 2020
The article refers to debates inside realism on rationality of international processes. It reveals that even a basic assumption of states calculating their interests and choosing optimal political…
Liberal militarism and republican restraints on power: the problems of unaccountable interventions for American democracy
- Political ScienceCritical Military Studies
- 2020
ABSTRACT The average American citizen no longer directly pays, fights or votes for war. The war on terror and the rise of debt fuelled militarism has detached the average American citizen from the…
Uneven and combined development: convergence realism in communist regalia?
- Economics
- 2020
Abstract Leon Trotsky’s notion of ‘uneven and combined development’ (UCD) has been gaining traction as an explanatory theory of international relations over the past decade, notably in work by Justin…
Status in World Politics: Status and World Order
- Political Science
- 2014
Can the international order be modified to incorporate a greater role for rising or more assertive powers such as China, Russia, India, Brazil, and Turkey? While the rise and decline of major powers…
Power, Order, and Change in World Politics: Order and change in world politics: the financial crisis and the breakdown of the US–China grand bargain
- Political Science
- 2014
Introduction War and Change reflects in intellectual terms both the remarkable ambition and pessimistic inclination of Robert Gilpin. Although much of his academic reputation has rested on work in…
Recasting Statecraft: International Relations and Strategies of Peaceful Change
- Political Science
- 2017
Much of mainstream International Relations (IR) scholarship considers war to be a precondition for significant changes at the systemic level. Peaceful change as a subject has received limited…
A reassessment of E.H. Carr and the realist tradition: Britain, German–Soviet Relations and neoclassical realism
- Art
- 2017
Abstract
E.H. Carr’s connection to realism has increasingly been called into question. Revisionist literature has pointed to realism’s narrow understanding of Carr and drawn from his wider body of…
Recollecting a lost dialogue: Structural Realism meets neoclassical realism
- SociologyInternational Relations
- 2019
Since its appellation, much work has sought to consolidate neoclassical realism. Specifically, a number of variations on the neoclassical theme have reconceptualised the third-image and carved out a…
Is Unipolarity Peaceful?
- Political Science
- 2011
Unipolarity is more peaceful than what theorists predict. In causal terms, its dynamics might be less unidirectional than what is often assumed. First, contrary to Monteiro’s assumption, the…
A Theory of Contestation Space in International Regimes
- EconomicsSSRN Electronic Journal
- 2019
In a time of uncertainty in the international order, scholars of international relations are directing increased attention to both systemic power transitions and contestation of global norms and…
References
SHOWING 1-10 OF 25 REFERENCES
Dueling Realisms
- PhilosophyInternational Organization
- 1997
International relations scholars have tended to focus on realism's common features rather than exploring potential differences. Realists do share certain assumptions and are often treated as a group,…
Is Anybody Still a Realist?
- PhilosophyInternational Security
- 1999
Realism, the oldest and most prominent theoretical paradigm in international relations, is in trouble. The problem is not lack of interest. Realism remains the primary or alternative theory in…
The Tragedy of Great Power Politics
- Political Science
- 2001
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, sadly shattered these idyllic illusions, and John Mearsheimer's masterful new book explains why these harmonious visions remain utopian. To Mearsheimer,…
Realism and the End of the Cold War
- Political Science
- 1994
iNlodern realism began as a reaction to the breakdown of the post-World War I international order in the 1930s. The collapse of great-power cooperation after World War II helped establish it as the…
The Political Economy of International Relations
- Economics, History
- 1987
After the end of World War II, the United States, by far the dominant economic and military power at that time, joined with the surviving capitalist democracies to create an unprecedented…
Rationalist explanations for war
- EconomicsInternational Organization
- 1995
Realist and other scholars commonly hold that rationally led states can and sometimes do fight when no peaceful bargains exist that both would prefer to war. Against this view, I show that under very…
Theory of International Politics
- Art, Philosophy
- 1979
Therefore, the seeker after the truth is not one who studies the writings of the ancients and, following his natural disposition, puts his trust in them, but rather the one who suspects his faith in…
Toward a Scientific Understanding of International Conflict: A Personal View
- Psychology
- 1985
A scientific understanding of international conflict is best gained by explicit theorizing, whether verbal or mathematic, grounded in axiomatic logic, from which hypotheses with empirical referents…
The poverty of neorealism
- EconomicsInternational Organization
- 1984
Almost six years ago, E. P. Thompson fixed his critical sights across the English Channel and let fly with a lengthy polemic entitled The Poverty of Theory. Thompson's immediate target was Louis…
Perpetuating U.S. Preeminence: The 1990 Deals to Bribe the Soviets Out and Move NATO In
- Political ScienceInternational Security
- 2010
Washington and Bonn pursued a shared strategy of perpetuating U.S. preeminence in European security after the end of the Cold War. As multilingual evidence shows, they did so primarily by shielding…