Recovering Realism

After a period of being criticized for being out-dated, political realism is once again recovering its position as the dominant approach in the international relations sub-field. While this return to prominence has been accompanied by a surge of new research, so far there is no book that systematically collects and collates the different strands of contemporary realism, accounting for their different predictions and explaining their prescriptions for policymakers. Almost all of the extant books on realism either focus on a particular version of realist theory, or else place their emphasis on the historical development of the research tradition. This book provides a broad survey of contemporary realist scholarship, and builds on Elman's earlier work on the relationship between realism and foreign policy; balance of power theory; realism and typologies; and the metatheoretic status of realism.

The volume is intended for use as a text in upper division undergraduate courses in IR, and in IR field survey classes for graduate students; as a resource for scholars working within the IR sub-field; and as a readable introduction to contemporary political realism for a wider academic and policymaking audience. The book will also serve as a companion volume to The Realism Reader and the chapters have been matched accordingly.