The Study of World Politics: Volume 1: Theoretical and Methodological Challenges

The Study of World Politics is two volume set that presents thirty-nine essays of some two hundred essays authored by Professor James Rosenau, a renowned international political theorist. They include both articles recently published and those that have not previously been published. All of them focus on the theme of the study of world politics, with the twenty-three articles in this volume devoted to probing theoretical and methodological challenges.

This volume is divided into five parts and address such issues as:

• the challenge of world politics
• the professional political scientist
• methods
• concepts and theories
• the analysis of foreign policy.

Included in this collection is perhaps James Rosenau’s most widely-read essay, ‘Pre-Theories and Theories of Foreign Policy’ as well as several essays that articulate various dimensions of global governance and how they are shaped by the dynamics of globalization. These articles are marked by unique and imaginative formulations which break with a number of conventional approaches employed in the fields of international relations and foreign policy.

The Study of World Politics provides the reader with access for the first time to a collection of James Rosenau’s outstanding scholarship, making this an invaluable book to students and academics with interests in politics.

James N. Rosenau is University Professor of International Affairs at The George Washington University, having previously been affiliated with three other universities. He is a former President of the International Studies Association (1984-85) and a holder of a Guggenheim Fellowship (1987-88). His books include Turbulence in World Politics: A Theory of Change and Continuity (1990), Along the Domestic-Foreign Frontier Exploring Governance in a Turbulent World (1997), and Distant Proximities: Dynamics Beyond Globalization (2003).