International Relations Reading List

The following reading list is intended to give a better understanding of International Relations and World Politics for the student and the practitioner alike.

  • Allison, Graham T. Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis (1971).
  • Aron, Raymond. Peace and War: A Theory of International Relations (1966).
  • Axelrod, Robert. Evolution of Cooperation (1984).
  • Baldwin, David (ed.). Neorealism and Neoliberalism: The Contemporary Debate (1993).
  • Baldwin, David. Economic Statecraft (1985).
  • Blainey, Geoffrey. The Causes of War (1973).
  • Bueno de Mesquita, Bruce and David Lalman. War and Reason: Domestic and International Imperatives (1992).
  • Bueno de Mesquita, Bruce. The War Trap (1981).
  • Bull, Hedley. The Anarchical Society: A Study of Order in World Politics (1977).
  • Burton, John. The Study of World Society: A London Perspective (1974).
  • Buzan, Barry. “From International System to International Society: Structural Realism and Regime Theory Meet the English School,” International Organization 47, 3 (Summer 1993) pp. 327-352.
  • Carr, E.H. The Twenty Years' Crisis 1919-1939: An Introduction to the Study of International Relations (1939).
  • Christensen, Thomas J. and Jack Snyder. “Chain Gangs and Passed Bucks: Predicting Alliance Patterns in Multipolarity,” International Organization 44, 2 (Spring, 1990), pp. 137-168.
  • Claude, Inis. Power and International Relations (1962).
  • Claude, Inis. Swords into Plowshares: The Problems and Process of International Organization (1959).
  • Clausewitz, Carl von. On War (1832).
  • Copeland, Dale. The Origins of Major War (2001).
  • Cronin, Audrey Kurth, “Behind the Curve: Globalization and International Terrorism,” International Security 27, 3 (Winter 2002/03), pp. 30-58.
  • Deutsch, Karl and J. David Singer. “Multipolar Power Systems and International Stability,” World Politics 16, 3 (April 1964), pp. 390-406.
  • Deutsch, Karl. Political Community and the North Atlantic Area (1957).
  • Doyle, Michael W. Ways of War and Peace: Realism, Liberalism, and Socialism (1997).
  • Fearon, James. “Rationalist Explanations for War,” International Organization 49, 3 (Summer 1995), pp. 379-414.
  • Fearon, James. “Bargaining, Enforcement, and International Cooperation,” International Organization 52, 2 (Spring 1998), pp. 269-306.
  • Finnemore, Martha. National Interests in International Society (1996).
  • Friedman, Thomas. The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization (2000).
  • George, Alexander and Richard Smoke. Deterrence in American Foreign Policy: Theory and Practice (1974).
  • Gilpin, Robert. War and Change in World Politics (1981).
  • Gilpin, Robert. The Political Economy of International Relations (1987).
  • Gilpin, Robert. The Challenge of Global Capitalism: The World Economy in the 21st Century (2000).
  • Glaser, Charles and Chaim Kaufmann. “What is the Offense-Defense Balance and Can We Measure it?” International Security 22, 4 (Spring 1998), pp. 44-82.
  • Glaser, Charles. “Realists as Optimists: Cooperation as Self-Help,” International Security 19, 3 (Winter 1994-95), pp. 50-90.
  • Gourevitch, Peter. “The Second Image Reversed: The International Sources of Domestic Politics,” International Organization 32, 4 (Autumn 1978), pp. 881-912.
  • Grotius, Hugo. The Rights of War and Peace (1625).
  • Gruber, Lloyd. Ruling the World (2000).
  • Haas, Ernst B. “The Balance of Power: Prescription, Concept, or Propaganda,” World Politics 5, 4 (July 1953), pp. 442-477.
  • Haas, Peter M. “Do Regimes Matter: Epistemic Communities and Mediterranean Pollution Control,” International Organization 43, 3 (Summer 1989), pp. 377-403.
  • Haggard, Stephen and Beth Simmons. “Theories of International Regimes,” International Organization 41, 3 (Summer 1987), pp. 491-518.
  • Herz, John H. International Politics in the Atomic Age (1959).
  • Holsti, Ole. Crisis, escalation, war (1972).
  • Huntington, Samuel P. “Transnational Organizations in World Politics,” World Politics 25, 3 (April 1973), pp. 333-368.
  • Huntington, Samuel P. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (1996).
  • Ikenberry, John. After Victory: Institutions, Strategic Restraint and the Rebuilding of Order After Major Wars (2001).
  • Jervis, Robert. “Cooperation under the Security Dilemma,” World Politics 30, 2 (January 1978), pp. 167-214.
  • Jervis, Robert. Perception and Misperception in International Politics (Center for International Affairs, Harvard University) (1976).
  • Kant, Immanuel. Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch (1795).
  • Katzenstein, Peter J. (ed.). The Culture of National Security. Norms and Identity in World Politics (1996).
  • Katzenstein, Peter, Robert Keohane, and Stephen D. Krasner, “International Organization and the Study of World Politics,” International Organization 52, 4 (Autumn 1998), pp. 645-685.
  • Keck, Margaret and Katherine Sikkink. Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics (1998).
  • Kegley, Jr., Charles W. (ed.). Controversies in International Relations Theory: Realism and the Neoliberal Challenge (1995).
  • Keohane, Robert and Joseph Nye. Power and Interdependence (1977).
  • Keohane, Robert. After Hegemony: Cooperation and Discord in the World Political Economy (1984).
  • Keohane, Robert (ed.). Neorealism and Its Critics (1986).
  • Kissinger, Henry. “Domestic Structure and Foreign Policy,” Daedalus 95, 2 (Spring 1966), pp. 503-529.
  • Kissinger, Henry. Diplomacy (1994).
  • Knorr, Klauss. The Power of Nations: The Political Economy of International Relations (1975).
  • Kratochwil, Friedrich and Rey Koslowski. “Understanding Change in International Politics: The Soviet Empire's Demise and the International System,” International Organization 48, 2 (Spring, 1994), pp. 215-248.
  • Krasner, Stephen (ed.). International Regimes (1983). or the special issue on International Regimes of International Organization 36, 2 (Spring 1982).
  • Krasner, Stephen. “State Power and the Structure of International Trade,” World Politics 28, 3 (April 1976), pp. 317-347.
  • Krasner, Stephen. Structural Conflict: The Third World Against Global Liberalism (1981).
  • Krasner, Stephen. Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy (1999).
  • Lake, David. “Anarchy, Hierarchy and the Variety of International Relations,” International Organization 50, 1 (Winter 1996), pp. 1-33.
  • Lapid, Josef. “The Third Debate: On the Prospects of International Theory in a Post-Positivist Era,” International Studies Quarterly 33, 3 (1989), pp. 235-251.
  • Legro, Jeffrey W. and Andrew Moravcsik, “Is Anybody Still a Realist?” International Security 24, 2 (Fall 1999), pp. 5-55.
  • Lenin, Vladimir. Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism (1917).
  • Mearsheimer, John. “Back to the Future: Instability in Europe after the Cold War,” International Security 15, 1 (Summer 1990), 5-56.
  • Mearsheimer, John. “The False Promise of International Institutions,” International Security 19, 3 (Winter 1994/5), pp. 5-49.
  • Mearsheimer, John J.. The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (2001).
  • Midlarsky, Manus (ed.). Handbook of War Studies (1989).
  • Moravcsik, Andrew. “Taking Preferences Seriously: A Liberal Theory of International Politics,” International Organization 51, 4 (Autumn 1997), pp. 513-53.
  • Moravcsik, Andrew. “A New Statecraft? Supranational Entrepreneurs and International Cooperation.” International Organization 53, 2 (Spring 1999), pp. 267-306.
  • Morgenthau, Hans. Politics Among Nations: the struggle for power and peace (1948).
  • Oye, Kenneth. Cooperation under Anarchy (1986).
  • Pape, Robert. “The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism,” American Political Science Review 97, 3 (August 2003), pp. 343-361.
  • Posen, Barry. Sources of Military Doctrine (1984).
  • Rosecrance, Richard. The Rise of the Trading State (1986).
  • Ruggie, John. Constructing the World Polity: Essays on International Institutionalization (1998).
  • Schelling, Thomas. Arms and Influence (1976).
  • Schelling, Thomas. The Strategy of Conflict (1963).
  • Schroeder, Paul. “Historical Reality vs. Neo-realist Theory,” International Security 19, 1 (Summer 1994), pp. 108-48.
  • Scott, Bruce R. “The Great Divide in the Global Village,” Foreign Affairs 80, 1 (Jan.-Feb. 2001), pp. 160-177.
  • Singer, J. David. “The Level-of-Analysis Problem in International Relations,” World Politics 14, 1, special issue “The International System: Theoretical Essays” (October 1961), pp. 77-92.
  • Singer, J. David. The Correlates of War (1979).
  • Schweller, Randall. “Bandwagoning for Profit: Bringing the Revisionist State Back In,” International Security 19, 1 (Summer 1994), pp. 72-107.
  • Smith, Alastair, 1996. “To Intervene or Not to Intervene: A Biased Decision,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 40, 1 (March 1996), pp. 16-40.
  • Snyder, Jack. “Anarchy and Culture: Insights from the Anthropology of War,” International Organization 56, 1 (winter 2002), pp. 7-45.
  • Thucydides. The Peloponnesian War (421 BC).
  • Viner, Jacob. “Power versus Plenty as Objectives of Foreign Policy,” World Politics 1, 1 (October 1948), pp. 1-29.
  • Wallerstein, Immanuel. The Capitalist World-Economy (1979).
  • Walt, Stephen. The Origins of Alliances (1987).
  • Waltz, Kenneth. “International Structure, National Force, and the Balance of World Power,” Journal of International Affairs 21, 2 (1967), pp. 215-231.
  • Waltz, Kenneth. “The Stability of a Bipolar World,” Daedalus 43, 3 (Summer 1964), pp. 881-909.
  • Waltz, Kenneth. Man, the State, and War (1959).
  • Waltz, Kenneth. Theory of International Politics (1979).
  • Walzer, Michael. Just And Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument With Historical Illustrations (1977).
  • Wendt, Alexander. “The Agent-Structure Problem in International Relations Theory,” International Organization 41, 3 (Summer 1987), pp. 335-370.
  • Wendt, Alexander. “Anarchy is what States Make of it: The Social Construction of Power Politics,” International Organization 46, 2 (Spring 1992), pp. 391-426.
  • Wendt, Alexander. Social Theory of International Politics (1999).
  • Wendt, Alexander. “Why a World State is Inevitable,” European Journal of International Relations 9, 4, pp. 491-542.
  • Wilson, Woodrow. “An Address to a Joint Session of Congress (14 Points)” (January 8, 1918).
  • Wohlforth, William. “The Stability of a Unipolar World,” International Security 24, 2 (Summer 1999), 5-41
  • Wolfers, Arnold. Discord and Collaboration: Essays on International Politics (1965)