Summer reading in IR

April 11, 2007 6:28 AM

What are the must-read books on international relations?

This Fall I'm hoping to head off to graduate school for an M.A. in international relations and I'd like to do some refresher reading (I've been away from school for about a year). My regional focus is on Southeast Asia, and the program will focus on international community and society (things like immigration, globalization, media, etc., and how they affect people and culture).

I'm looking for some core IR texts to read through that will remind me just what it was I learned during those 5 years we call "undergraduate," but I'm also looking for a few more positional books dealing with some of the subjects/regions outlined above. Thanks!

posted by dead_ to education (11 comments total)

Off the top of my head, I'd recommend these to start you off; they're old school academic chestnuts:

Hans Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations;
Robert Jervis, Perception and Misperception in International Relations;
Kenneth Waltz, Man, the State, and War;
Eric Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism since 1780;

I'd also read up on Joseph Nye's (and the numerous responses to them) articles on Soft Power, as that seems to be at the center of a lot of arguments right now. There is also a lot of scholarship supporting and rebutting Samuel Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations, so that might be another good one to read.

For more region specific, Marilyn Young's The Vietnam Wars is a good historical recap of 1945-1990 with a focus on the interstate relations.
posted by norm at 6:54 AM on April 11, 2007

Charles Tilly's essay Warmaking and Statemaking as Organized Crime is a lot of fun and is, from the perspective of old fashioned IR theory, pretty subversive, in part since it doesn't take the state as a given. Herbst's States and Power in Africa is likewise eye opening. Both helped me start (but not finish) my thesis!
posted by mrbugsentry at 7:11 AM on April 11, 2007

I've been recommending CA Bayly's Birth of the Modern World to all and sundry.
posted by Abiezer at 7:34 AM on April 11, 2007

Strategic Asia 2006-07 by Ashley Tellis and Michael Willis provides a good overview of some of the security-related issues facing the region. Also check out versions of the book from previous years.

I also second Nye. One of the first IR texts I read was Understanding International Conflicts. The Clash of Civilizations is something you should read because just about every IR student has read it - but be sure to read the many responses and challenges to Huntington as well.

Finally, you'd do well to simply follow the current affairs in the region through any decent international news publication/website.
posted by kjars at 7:36 AM on April 11, 2007

Diplomacy: Theory and Practice, Second Edition by G. R. Berridge.
posted by ewkpates at 8:17 AM on April 11, 2007

I'd also recommend one of the core books of the English School/International Society approach: Hedley Bull's classic The Anarchical Society
posted by AwkwardPause at 8:21 AM on April 11, 2007

Here is a good list of core texts in International Relations theory:

Armstrong, David, Lorna Lloyd and John Redmond, International Organization in World Politics (3rd edn., 2004).
Barnett, Michael, and Duvall, Raymond (eds.), Power and Global Governance (2005).
Baylis, John and Smith, Steve (eds.), The Globalization of World Politics (2nd edn. 2001).
Booth, Ken and Steve Smith (eds.), International Relations Theory Today (1995).
Bull, Hedley, The Anarchical Society: A Study of Order in World Politics (3rd edn. 2002).
Bull, ‘The Theory of International Politics 1919-1969’ in Brian Porter (ed.), The Aberystwyth Papers: International Politics 1919-1969 (1972).
Burchill, Scott, Andrew Linklater (eds.), Theories of International Relations (2nd edn. 2001).
Carlsnaes, Walter, Thomas Risse, and Beth Simmons, Handbook of International Relations (2002).
Carr, E.H., The Twenty Years’ Crisis, 1919-1939. See introduction to 2001 edn. by Michael Cox.
Clark, Ian, Globalisation and Fragmentation: International Relations in the 20th Century (1997).
Craig, Gordon, and George, Alexander, Force and Statecraft (1983).
Doyle, Michael W. and G. John Ikenberry (eds.), New Thinking in International Relations Theory (1997).
Gilpin, Robert, The Political Economy of International Relations (1987), chs. 1 and 2.
Halliday, Fred, Rethinking International Relations (1995).
Hoffmann, Stanley,‘An American Social Science: International Relations’, ch. 1 of Hoffmann, Janus and Minerva (1987).
Keohane, Robert, International Institutions and State Power (1989).
Keohane, Robert (ed.), Neorealism and its Critics (1986).
Nye, Joseph, Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History (6th edn. 2003).
Ruggie, John, Constructing the World Polity (1998).
Smith, Steve and Hollis, Martin, Explaining and Understanding International Relations (1991).
Smith, Steve and Marysia Zalewski (eds.), International Theory: Positivism and Beyond (1996).
Kenneth Waltz, Man, the State and War (1959).
Waltz, Kenneth, Theory of International Politics (1979).
Wendt, Alexander, Social Theory of International Politics (1999).
Wight, Martin, International Theory: The Three Traditions, edited by Gabriele Wight and Brian Porter (1993).
Wight, Martin, Power Politics (1945, revised 1979).
posted by sindark at 8:30 AM on April 11, 2007 [3 favorites]

On East Asia, specifically:

Acharya, A., Constructing a Security Community in Southeast Asia (2001).
Acharya, A., The Quest for Identity: International Relations of Southeast Asia (1999).
Alagappa, M. (ed.), Asian Security Practice: Material and Ideational Influences (1998).
**Alagappa, M. (ed.), Asian Security Order: Instrumental and Normative Features (2003).
Ball, Desmond (ed.), The Transformation of Security in the Asia Pacific Region (1996).
Berger, M.T. and Borer, D.A., The Rise of East Asia (1997).
Booth, Ken and Trood, Russell (eds.), Strategic Cultures in the Asia Pacific Region (1999).
Brown, Michael (et al) The Rise of China (2000).
Buzan, B., and Waever, O. Regions and Powers: The Structure of International Security (2003).
Chan, S., East Asian Dynamism: Growth, Order and Security in the Pacific Region (1990).
Feld, Werner J. and Boyd, G., Comparative Regional Systems (1980).
Hao Yufan and Huan Guocang, The Chinese View of the World (1989), ch. 2 esp.
Hsiung, J., Asia Pacific in the New World Politics (1993).
Hurrell, A. and Fawcett, L. (eds.), Regionalism in World Politics (1995).
**Ikenberry, G.J., and Mastanduno, M. (eds.), International Relations Theory and the Asia Pacific (2003).
Iriye, A. and Cohen, W. (eds.), The Great Powers in East Asia (1990).
**Kim, Samuel S., (ed.) The International Relations of Northeast Asia (2004).
Leifer, Michael (ed.), The Balance of Power in East Asia (1990).
McGrew, A., Asia-Pacific in the New World Order (1998).
Mcdougall, D., The International Politics of the Asia-Pacific (1997).
Morley, James W. (ed.), Security Interdependence in the Asia Pacific Region (1986).
Noland, M., Pacific Basin Developing Countries: Prospects for the Future (1990).
Pempel, T.J., (ed.), Remapping East Asia: the Construction of a Region (2005)
Preston, P.W., Pacific Asia in the Global System (1996).
Pye, Lucian, Asian Power and Politics (1985).
Rozman, G. (ed.), The East Asian Region: Confucian Heritage and its Modern Adaptation (1991).
Rozman, G. (ed.) Northeast Asia’s Stunted Regionalism (2004).
Scalapino, Robert A., Sato, S., Wanandi, J., Han S-J (eds.), Asian Security Issues: Regional and Global (1988).
Segal, Gerald, Rethinking the Pacific (1990).
**Shambaugh, D. (ed.) Power Shift: China and Asia’s New Dynamics (2005)
Shibusawa, M., Ahmad, Z.H. and Bridges, G., Pacific Asia in the 1990s (1992).
Simon, Sheldon W. (ed.), East Asian Security in the Post-Cold War Era (1993).
Suh, J.J., Katzenstein, P.J., and Carlson, A. (eds) Rethinking Security in East Asia: Identity, Power, and Efficiency (2004).
**Yahuda, M., The International Politics of the Asia-Pacific (1996; 2nd edn 2004).
posted by sindark at 8:33 AM on April 11, 2007

Brilliant suggestions from sindark--I hope you have a 15 month summer (",)

Upon further reflection, let me also add Anne Marie Slaughter's excellent A New World Order, even if it's not so much a text book, as her personal take on the state and future of IR.
posted by AwkwardPause at 8:49 AM on April 11, 2007

Great answers so far from everyone! I'm marking sindark's two lists as "bests," because after a quick perusal of the titles and summaries they certainly seem to be what I'm looking for, but I have also added many other people's suggestions to my shopping cart over at Amazon. Thanks so much for your suggestions and please keep them coming!
posted by dead_ at 9:33 AM on April 11, 2007

Seconding Diplomacy: Theory and Practice, Second Edition by G. R. Berridge.
posted by k8t at 9:34 AM on April 11, 2007