Chapter Four: International Politics from a Structural Perspective

Study

Chapter Summary

Structural approaches to world politics were the dominant paradigm (mental framework) for much of the field's history as a scholarly discipline, and even for most thinking about the subject before it became an actual academic subject. These approaches, in various forms, are still the primary challengers to rational choice analysis of international relations. Scholars widely acknowledge that each of these theories has some merit--each accurately describes some portion of reality--but disagree over the theories' relative usefulness.

Study Questions

• What is a structural approach? What makes it “structural”?
  
  

• What are the key assumptions of Waltz's theory of neorealism?
  
  

• What are the key assumptions of liberalism?
  
  

• How are neorealism and liberalism different?
  
  
  
• What key characteristics distinguish Marxism as a structural theory from liberalism and neorealism?
  
  
• What is Principles' final assessment of how useful structural perspectives are as theories of international relations?