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Despite repeatedly being surprised by unexpected change, mainstream international relations continues to assume that the world is governed by calculable risk based on estimates of power. Protean Power highlights and challenges this assumption by arguing for the acknowledgement of uncertainty as an important condition of political and social life.

In this book, Paul Sharp argues that we can identify a distinct diplomatic tradition of international thought derived from the unique position diplomats occupy between the groups in which we live. This tradition sheds new insights on big questions about international systems and societies and suggests innovative ways of handling contemporary international issues.

This book develops the idea that since decolonisation, regional patterns of security have become more prominent in international politics. The authors combine an operational theory of regional security with an empirical application across the whole of the international system. Individual chapters cover Africa, the Balkans, CIS Europe, East Asia, EU Europe, the Middle East, North America, South America, and South Asia. The main focus is on the post-Cold War period, but the history of each regional security complex is traced back to its beginnings. By relating the regional dynamics of security to current debates about the global power structure, the authors unfold a distinctive interpretation of post-Cold War international security, avoiding both the extreme oversimplifications of the unipolar view, and the extreme deterritorialisations of many globalist visions of a new world disorder. Their framework brings out the radical diversity of security dynamics in different parts of the world.

Drawing upon philosophy and social theory, Social Theory of International Politics develops a theory of the international system as a social construction. Alexander Wendt clarifies the central claims of the constructivist approach, presenting a structural and idealist worldview which contrasts with the individualism and materialism which underpins much mainstream international relations theory. He builds a cultural theory of international politics, which takes whether states view each other as enemies, rivals or friends as a fundamental determinant. Wendt characterises these roles as 'cultures of anarchy', described as Hobbesian, Lockean and Kantian respectively. These cultures are shared ideas which help shape state interests and capabilities, and generate tendencies in the international system. The book describes four factors which can drive structural change from one culture to another - interdependence, common fate, homogenization, and self-restraint - and examines the effects of capitalism and democracy in the emergence of a Kantian culture in the West.

Molly Cochran offers an account of the development of normative theory in international relations over the past two decades. In particular, she analyses the tensions between cosmopolitan and communitarian approaches to international ethics and offers an argument for a pragmatist approach.

After outlining social scientific approaches to international relations, Professor Nicholson describes the problems of rational decision-making in conflict situations.

Drawing on Freud, Mead, Erikson, Parsons and Habermas,William Bloom relates mass psychological processes to international relations, and provides a rigorously argued answer to the longstanding theoretical problem of how to aggregate from individual attitudes to mass behaviour.

Dr Stephen Gill makes an original contribution to the extent and nature of America as a hegemonic state. He challenges arguments concerning the relative decline of American hegemony and develops a novel concept of transnational capital - the rise in the power of internationally mobile capital.

Since 1945 the incidence of interstate war has been declining rapidly, while the incidence of internal war has been increasing. This book surveys some of the foundations of state legitimacy and demonstrates why many weak states will be the locales of war in the future. The author develops some ideas about conflict resolution and peace derived from such recent experiences of war.

In this major new study of the causes of wars, David Welch argues that, contrary to the received wisdom in academic and policy circles, states are often motivated by sincere concern for the perceived demands of justice, not merely by self-interest.

This book provides an historical account of one of the key weapons developments of the nuclear age. Did technology 'drive' the arms race or were these weapons simply the product of political decisions?

Nations at War provides a scientifically-derived explanation of war. It develops this explanation by reviewing data-based studies of international conflict, analysing war from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries, and identifies factors associated with both the onset and destructiveness of these conflicts.

Uncertainty is the watchword of contemporary world politics as monumental changes occur throughout the international system. Charles Doran proposes a managed solution to peaceful change. He presents a bold, original and wide-ranging analysis of the present balance of power, of future prospects for the international political system and of the problems involved in this transformation.

An analysis of the international order - the hierarchical state system - both from a theoretical and historical perspective. This study combines examination of theory with an up-to-date account of historical developments, and explores the potential for reform.

This volume gathers together international scholars to reconsider the conceptualization of power in world politics. Arguing that the importance of power in international relations is underestimated, the book presents and employs a taxonomy of power that embraces agency, institutions, structure and discourse.

This book offers an accessible analysis of recent developments in the study of international politics.

In this book James Richardson examines nine major international crises from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in order to explain the differing outcomes of each. The author evaluates the main theories which have served to explain crisis behaviour, emphasising the conflict between theories based on an assumption of rationality, and those which emphasise the non-rational.

This book traces the relationship between American global power and the rise of mass production. The USA was propelled to the apex of global division of labor, ensuring victory in World War II and enabling postwar reconstruction under American leadership. Mark Rupert examines the struggles through which industrial labor was incorporated between 1914 and 1952.

This book evaluates the major debates around which the discipline of international relations has developed in the light of contemporary feminist theories.

This book, first published in 1989, gives a critical account of formal international relations theory. That formal and mathematical methods can be applied to the study of international relations is often regarded with surprise, but mathematical methods have been applied to the study of international behaviour since the pioneering work of Lewis Fry Richardson in the 1920s and 1930s.

Susan K. Sell's book argues that lobbying by powerful multinational corporations has moulded international law on intellectual property rights in order to protect their markets. It is a fascinating study of the influence of private interests in government decision-making, and in the shaping of the global economy.

Who is really in charge of the world economy? Not only governments, argues Susan Strange. Big businesses, drug barons and accountants all encroach on the so-called sovereignty of the state. Professor Strange examines this rivalry and points to some important new directions for international relations, business and economics.

Paul Keal argues for the recognition of indigenous peoples as 'peoples' with the right of self-determination in constitutional and international law. Questioning the moral legitimacy of international society, and examining notions of collective guilt and responsibility, Keal's accessible study provides an important insight into contemporary international society.

This book analyses the underlying structure and dynamic forces which have shaped the international trade in arms from the development of military technologies in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries to the twentieth- century revolutions in weaponry.

Taking a look at the impact of non-state actors on world politics and on the foreign policies of states, this book debates transnational relations, arguing that domestic structures of the state as well as international institutions mediate the policy influence of transnational actors.

The emergence of private authority is a feature of the post-Cold War world. This volume examines the implications of this erosion of the power of the state for global governance, analysing actors ranging from financial institutions to religious terrorists. This book is an important contribution to debates concerning globalization.

The first major treatment of the republican way of thinking about law, politics, and society in the context of international thought. The author's discussion of republicanism starts with Aristotle and culminates in the eighteenth century, when international thought became a distinctive enterprise.

In this 1996 book, Roger Spegele develops a new version of realism which stresses links between ethics and international politics.

Cynthia Weber offers an original and important contribution to the understanding of sovereignty, the state and intervention in international relations theory.