Modern and Future International Relations

[rousseau]

A few years back I asked another forum for some suggested reading on international relations and got one or two suggestions but am interested in finding some more, *not just what's happening, but also philosophy and theory on what is going to, should, or could happen* as we move into the future.

I tend to shop for books at used book stores so while a lot of the history I find is relevant, modern stuff usually not so much.

 

[boneyard bill]

A few years back I asked another forum for some suggested reading on international relations and got one or two suggestions but am interested in finding some more, *not just what's happening, but also philosophy and theory on what is going to, should, or could happen* as we move into the future.

I tend to shop for books at used book stores so while a lot of the history I find is relevant, modern stuff usually not so much.

Hans Morgenthau comes to mind as a major foreign policy theorist from the sixties. If you like the biographical approach, George Kennan's memoirs is a good read. Zbigniew Brezinski published a major work in the '90's. From what I've read of it, it is nonsense, but it is important because he is still very influential.

In many respects it is difficult to separate foreign policy at the theoretical level from one's political theory of domestic policy. After all, your view of foreign policy is tied to a world view which also underpins domestic policy.

Personally, I prefer diplomatic history for an understanding of how foreign policy decisions are arrived at and implemented. However, modern diplomacy is very different in many respects because of the role of special interests, the disappearance of colonialism, the emergence of "nation-building" and the presence of more international institutions such as the United Nations, the IMF, the World Trade Organization, and the World Bank.