The Six Theories of International Relations
International Relations has no single account of why states do what they do. It has competing traditions, each of which takes the same events and finds a different thing to be the important one. Where Realism sees the distribution of power, Liberalism sees institutions and trade, the English School sees a society of states with rules, and Constructivism sees identities and norms that could have been otherwise.
Theoria applies all six to 45 historical events, moment by moment. Start with a theory below, or browse the events or open the interactive map.
Realism
States pursue power and survival in an international system with no authority above them.
Thucydides, Niccolo Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbes, E. H. Carr
Neorealism
The structure of the international system, not human nature, explains how states behave.
Kenneth Waltz, John Mearsheimer, Stephen Walt, Robert Jervis
Liberalism
What states want is shaped by their societies, their trade and their laws, and cooperation can endure.
Immanuel Kant, Woodrow Wilson, Michael Doyle, Robert Keohane
Neoliberalism
Institutions let self-interested states cooperate even though no one can enforce the bargain.
Robert Keohane, Joseph Nye, Robert Axelrod, Oran Young
English School
States form a society, not merely a system, bound by shared rules and institutions.
Hedley Bull, Martin Wight, Adam Watson, Barry Buzan
Constructivism
Interests and identities are made rather than given, and shared ideas shape what states do.
Alexander Wendt, Martha Finnemore, Kathryn Sikkink, Peter Katzenstein