What's the Point of International Relations?

This volume brings together many of IR's leading thinkers to challenge conventional understandings of the discipline's origins, history, and composition.

Introduction - Asking questions of, and about, IR [Synne L. Dyvik, Jan Selby and Rorden Wilkinson] Part one-What's the point of IR? Chapter 1 - What's the point of IR? The international in the invention of humanity [Ken Booth] Chapter 2 - Insecurity redux: The perennial problem of "the point of IR" [Patrick Thaddeus Jackson] Chapter 3 - What's the point of IR? Or, we're so paranoid, we probably think this question is about us [Cynthia Weber] Chapter 4 - In defense of IR [Beate Jahn] Part two-The origins of a discipline Chapter 5 - Relocating the point of IR in understanding industrial-age global problems [Craig N. Murphy] Chapter 6 - Past as prefigurative prelude: Feminist peace activists and IR [Catia C. Confortini] Chapter 7 - Beyond practitioner histories of international relations: Or, the stories that professors like to tell (about) themselves [Robert Vitalis] Chapter 8 - How elite networks shape the contours of the discipline and what we might do about it [Inderjeet Parmar] Part three-Policing the boundaries Chapter 9 - Be careful what you wish for: Positivism and the desire for relevance in the American study of IR [Jennifer Sterling-Folker] Chapter 10 - Don't flatter yourself: World politics as we know it is changing and so must disciplinary IR [L. H. M. Ling] Chapter 11 - Indian IR: Older and newer orientations [Achin Vanaik] Chapter 12 - Undisciplined IR: Thinking without a net [Laura Sjoberg] Part four-Engaging the world Chapter 13 - Mind the gap: Defining and measuring policy engagement in IR [Catherine Weaver] Chapter 14 - IR theory in the Anthropocene: Time for a reality check? [Stephanie Lawson] Chapter 15 - UN studies and IR: History, ideas, and problem-solving [Thomas G. Weiss] Chapter 16 - Beyond the "ivory tower?" IR in the world [Peter Newell and Anna Stavrianakis] Part five-Imagining the future Chapter 17 - Escaping from the prison of Political Science: What IR offers that other disciplines do not [Justin Rosenberg] Chapter 18 - The future of feminist international relations [Adrienne Roberts] Chapter 19 - A methodological turn long overdue: Or, why it is time for critical scholars to cut their losses [Samuel Knafo] Chapter 20 - Subverting the "international:" Imagining future as past [Yongjin Zhang]