Power, Realism and Constructivism

Stefano Guzzini is Senior Researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies and Professor in the Department of Government at Uppsala University, Sweden.

• Introduction Part I: Power 1. Structural Power: The Limits of Neorealist Power Analysis 2. The use and misuse of power analysis in international theory 3. From (alleged) unipolarity to the decline of multilateralism? A power-theoretical critique 4. Constructivism and International Relations: an analysis of Niklas Luhmann’s conceptualisation of power 5. Power analysis in Bourdieu Part II: Realism 6. The enduring dilemmas of realism in International Relations 7. The Different Worlds of Realism in International Relations 8. Foreign Policy without diplomacy: the Bush administration at a crossroads 9. Robert Gilpin: A Realist Quest for the Dynamics of Power 10. Strange’s oscillating realism: opposing the ideal - and the apparent Part III: Constructivism 11. A reconstruction of constructivism in International Relations 12. The concept of power: a constructivist analysis 13. 'The Cold War is what we make of it’: when peace research meets constructivism in International Relations 14. Wendt’s constructivism: a relentless quest for synthesis’ with Anna Leander 15. Imposing coherence: the central role of practice in Friedrich Kratochwil’s theorising of politics, international relations and science Epilogue: The significance and roles of teaching theory in International Relations

"Guzzini’s book opens up 'thinking space' for a self-reflective, cogent, and fertile vision for how to study the intersection between power and processes of social construction. Together, they suggest an approach to research and theorization of tremendous importance to a field that continues to wrestle with that intersection." - 2014 International Studies Association Theory Section Book Award