Polarity in International Relations

Past, Present, Future

Bertel Heurlin editor Anders Wivel editor Ole Wæver editor Nina Graeger editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Springer International Publishing AG

Published:31st Aug '22

Should be back in stock very soon

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Polarity in International Relations cover

This book brings together a group of leading scholars on international relations to develop and apply the concept of polarity on past and present international relations and discuss its applicability and usefulness in the future. Despite a comprehensive debate on a global power shift, often discussed in terms of the decline of the United States, the crisis in the liberal international order, and the rise of China, IR´s main concept of power, ‘polarity’, remains undertheorized and understudied. The great powers and their importance for dynamics and processes in the international system are central to current debates on international order, but these debates too often suffer from a combination of politicized empirical analysis and reliance on old theoretical debates and conceptualizations, typically originating in the Cold War security environment. In order to meet these challenges, this book updates, conceptualizes, applies and critically debates the concepts of unipolarity, bipolarity, multipolarity and non-polarity in order to understand the current world order.

“Polarity in International Relations: Past, Present, Future tries to make theoretical sense of a moment of international transformation. … At the occasion, he meant that every aspect of international politics is in a certain way linked to the polarity of the system, and that the analyst should focus on such a concept in order to make sense of such a realm. Judging by the amount of relevant scholars and different contributions and perspectives the book achieved to gather … .” (Paulo Bittencourt, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, February 22, 2024)

“Polarity in International Relations brings together a stellar line-up of scholars to present their analysis of polarity, a popular concept during the later stages of the Cold War. … the chapters are worth engaging with, and it is clear that the editors attempted to bring together different scholars working from varying perspectives. … the book is very thought-provoking. It is a great addition to the literature … .” (Lorenzo Cladi, International Affairs, Vol. 99 (2), 2023)

ISBN: 9783031055041

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

428 pages

1st ed. 2022