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"Balance of power"
In the first debate: Many members of international relations (liberalism) maintained that war was the result of “balance of power” and the results of misunderstanding, miscalculations and recklessness on the part of politicians. They had lost control in 1914. A more peaceful world order could be created by making foreign policy elites accountable to public opinion and by democratizing foreign policy. -
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1. Debate
Ontological debate
Liberalism (1919) vs. Realism (1939/48) -
Edward Hallett Carr (Realist)
“Utopians” were quality of “naivety” which means goal stood in the way of the analyses
This critics of Edward Hallett Carr was so-called the first debate before the WWII and continued by various scholars including Morgenthau in the US in the 1940s / 1950s -
Hans Morgenthau
Morgenthau continued the realist critique of liberal internationalism launched by Carr. -
Disciplinary debate
Proponents of the scientific approach try to build a new theory of international politics. This led to a major disciplinary debate. -
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2. Debate
Epistemological debate
Behaviorism vs. traditionalism -
Morgenthau's theoretical framework
Many scholars in the US believed Morgenthau’s theoretical framework was too impressionistic in nature. -
New subfield of strategic studies
The nuclear age led to the rise of a new subfield of strategic studies in the 1950s and 1960s. This subfield was divided into several divisions. -
New academic departments
In the 1960s and 1970s the study of IR developed and my new academic departments appeared all over the world. -
Rise of study of international interdependence
Liberal theories of interdependence and the later “neo-liberal institutionalist” analysis of international regimes argued that the economic and technological unifications of the human race required new forms of international political cooperation. -
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3. Debate
Ontological debate
Neorealism vs. neoliberalism -
Robert O. Keohane
Robert O. Keohane wrote the book “After Hegemony: Cooperation and Discord in the World Political Economy”. -
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4. Debate
Epistemological debate
Rationalism (positivist approaches) vs. Constructivism -
Initiative of the 4. Debate: Alexander Wendt
Alexander Wendt wrote the book "Social Theory of International Politics"
