The Power of Power Politics: From Classical Realism to Neotraditionalism

by John A. Vasquez

• ISBN13: 9780521442350
• ISBN10: 0521442354
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-02-04
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

In this new and much-expanded edition of his classic study, John Vasquez examines the power of the power politics perspective to dominate inquiry, and evaluates its ability to provide accurate explanations of the fundamental forces underlying world politics. Part I of the book reprints the original 1983 text of The Power of Power Politics. It examines classical realism and quantitative international politics, providing an intellectual history of the discipline and an evaluation of statistical research guided by the realist paradigm. The second part provides six new chapters covering neorealism, post-modernism, the neotraditional research program on balancing, Mearsheimer's analysis of multipolarity and institutionalism, the debate on the end of the Cold War, and neoliberalism. Through the use of comparative case studies these chapters analyse the extent to which the realist paradigm has been progressive (or degenerating), empirically accurate, and remains a relevant and explanatorily powerful theoretical approach for our current era.

Table of Contents

List of figures	xi	(1)
List of tables	xii	(1)
Preface	xiii
Introduction	1	(12)
Part I The Original Text: Classical Realism and Quantitative International Politics	13	(170)
Preface to Part I	13	(4)
Acknowledgments	17	(2)
1 The role of paradigms in scientific inquiry: a conceptual framework and a set of principles for paradigm evaluation	19	(13)
2 The role of the realist paradigm in the development of a scientific study of international relations	32	(13)
3 Research design: defining and operationalizing the realist paradigm	45	(15)
4 Theory construction as a paradigm-directed activity	60	(17)
5 Data making as a paradigm-directed activity	77	(27)
6 Research as a paradigm-directed activity	104	(17)
7 Evaluation: the adequacy of the realist paradigm	121	(33)
8 Theory and research in the 1970s: the emerging anomalies	154	(29)
Part II Neorealism and Neotraditionalism: International Relations Theory at the Millennium	183	(204)
9 Retrospective: neorealism and the power of power politics	183	(31)
10 The promise and potential pitfalls of post-modernism: the need for theory appraisal	214	(26)
11 The realist paradigm as a degenerating research program: neotraditionalism and Waltz's balancing proposition	240	(47)
12 Mearsheimer's multipolar myths and the false promise of realist policy prescriptions: the empirical inaccuracy of the realist paradigm	287	(30)
13 Challenging the relevance and explanatory power of the realist paradigm: the debate on the end of the Cold War	317	(52)
14 Conclusion: the continuing inadequacy of the realist paradigm	369	(18)
References	387	(46)
Name index	433	(8)
Subject index	441