Table Of Content
FIFTY KEY THINKERS
IN INTERNATIONAL
RELATIONS
Here in one handy volume is a unique and comprehensive overview of the key thinkers in international
relations in the twentieth century. From influential statesmen such as Lenin and Kissinger, to emerging
thinkers of hitherto marginalised areas of concern, including feminism, historical sociology and the
study of nationalism, the book describes the main elements of each thinker’s contribution to the study
of international relations. Information, where appropriate, is supplied on the individual thinker’s life
and career, and signposts to further reading and critical analysis are also provided.
Martin Griffiths is a senior lecturer in the School of Political and International Studies at the Flinders
University of South Australia. Previous works include Realism, Idealism and International Politics
(Routledge, 1992).
FIFTY KEY THINKERS
IN INTERNATIONAL
RELATIONS
Martin Griffiths
London and New York
First published 1999 by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2001.
© 1999 Martin Griffiths
The right of Martin Griffiths to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by him in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or
by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
has been applied for
ISBN 0-415-16227-0 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-16228-9 (pbk)
ISBN 0-203-00547-3 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-17491-7 (Glassbook Format)
To the memory of my parents
Richard Tudor (1924–1993)
Lilian Doreen (1926–1996)
C
ONTENTS
PREFACE ix
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xi
REALISM 1
Raymond Aron 3
Edward Hallett Carr 7
Robert Gilpin 11
John Herz 16
George Kennan 21
Henry Kissinger 25
Stephen Krasner 31
Hans Morgenthau 36
Susan Strange 41
Kenneth Waltz 46
LIBERALISM 51
Norman Angell 53
Charles Beitz 58
Michael Doyle 63
Francis Fukuyama 68
David Held 75
John Hobson 80
Stanley Hoffmann 85
Richard Rosecrance 89
Woodrow Wilson 95
Alfred Zimmern 100
RADICAL/CRITICAL THEORY 107
John Burton 109
Robert Cox 113
Richard A. Falk 119
André Gunder Frank 124
Johan Galtung 129
Vladimir I. Lenin 134
Andrew Linklater 138
vii
CONTENTS
THEORY OF INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY 145
Hedley Bull 147
Terry Nardin 151
John Vincent 156
Michael Walzer 162
Martin Wight 168
INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATION 175
Karl W. Deutsch 177
Ernst Haas 181
Robert Keohane 185
David Mitrany 191
John Ruggie 194
Alexander Wendt 199
POSTMODERNISM 205
Richard Ashley 207
Robert B. J. Walker 211
GENDER AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 217
Jean Bethke Elshtain 219
Cynthia Enloe 223
J. Ann Tickner 227
HISTORICAL SOCIOLOGY/THEORIES OF THE STATE 233
Anthony Giddens 235
Michael Mann 240
Charles Tilly 246
Immanuel Wallerstein 252
THEORIES OF THE NATION 259
Benedict Anderson 261
Ernest Gellner 266
Anthony D. Smith 270
GUIDE TO FURTHER READING 277
viii
P
REFACE
This book follows in the footsteps of Diané Collinson’s Fifty Major Philosophers (1987) and John
Lechte’s Fifty Key Contemporary Thinkers (1994). It has been a daunting challenge to maintain the high
standards set by these authors. Like them, I provide the reader with a summary of each thinker’s work,
some biographical information where appropriate and a bibliographical guide to further reading. I have
tried to be as objective as possible with each thinker, although I have not shied away at times from
inserting my own judgements. To assist the reader in navigating the field as a whole as well as the
particular schools of thought within it, I include a general guide to further reading at the end of the book.
This book confines its coverage to key thinkers of the twentieth century. There are a number of
other, excellent texts on classical thinkers in the discipline (listed in the general guide), and I wanted as
little overlap with them as possible. For this reason I also excluded key thinkers in nuclear strategy, and
refer the reader to John Baylis and John Garnett (eds), Makers of Modern Strategy, London, Pinter,
1991. Some duplication is inevitable, however. The last two decades have been characterised by a series
of seemingly endless arguments over the comparative merits of competing ‘paradigms’ in the field. In
the absence of consensus over the appropriate criteria for their identification and evaluation, it is fitting
to consider key thinkers in their own right, and this is increasingly the case in the field. Thus a number
of the thinkers included in this book are also discussed elsewhere. See, in particular, Iver B. Neumann
and Ole Waever (eds), The Future of International Relations: Masters in the Making, London, Routledge,
1997; Joseph Kruzel and James N. Rosenau (eds), Journeys Through World Politics: Autobiographical
Reflections of Thirty-Four Academic Travellers, Lexington, Massachusetts, Lexington Books, 1989;
and Michael Smith, Realist Thought From Weber to Kissinger, Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University
Press, 1986. However, I have tried to minimise such duplication, some of which is inevitable when one
is writing about key thinkers in any academic field.
Despite the growing emphasis on the need to discuss individual thinkers rather than disembodied
‘schools of thought’, I follow the example of John Lechte’s volume and so divide the thinkers into
particular categories rather than simply list all fifty thinkers in alphabetical order. The categories
themselves represent the dominant schools of thought in the contemporary study of international
relations, even though there is a substantial range of views and ideas among the thinkers within them.
Indeed, it could be argued that the mark of any great thinker is his or her ability to transcend conventional
frameworks for analysis. For example, J.A. Hobson’s theory of imperialism is highly critical of many
liberal arguments concerning the merits of ‘free trade’, and was inspired by some of the ideas of Karl
Marx. Similarly, Robert Keohane is indebted to the insights of many realists, even as he has sought to
go beyond their alleged limitations. The use of categories, in my view, is not meant to place these
thinkers within some kind of intellectual or ideological cage, but to show how key thinkers, whilst they
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