Theories of International Relations

Burchill et als. Theories of International Relations is far and away the stand-out textbook in the field for advanced graduate and postgraduate students. Informative and critically engaged, each chapter is a sympathetic analysis of the particular theory in question, of which it covers all of the mainstream. There is no better text for students with some knowledge of the field than this text. The only criticism of this text that could be mentioned is not so much a criticism of this book in particular but of this type of IR theory textbook. The problem with these sorts of paradigmatic approaches to IR theory is the perception mainly on the part of students, but also academics, that there is to some extent a coherent 'realist IR theory', or 'liberal international theory'. Unfortunately, even when the authors are at pains to stress the problems of perceiving, for example, English School IR theory, as coherent, the very nature of the 'textbook', and the mass-taught IR Theory undergraduate module for that matter, is the perception of coherency and also of conflict between theories, rather than the vast intellectual overlap which they share. Thus, while this textbook is unquestionably the leader in the advanced IR theory field, readers should be greatly encouraged to broaden their understanding of the debates (not just 'Great' ones) ongoing in the discipline (Postivism and beyond by Smith, Booth and Zalewski in particular) and knowledge of the discipline's history through reading the original texts themselves discussed in the books. No greater understanding of a tradition of thought can be gained than reading the original texts that are discussed in such depth in this book.