Back to Basics

Abstract

State power has been a bedrock concept in international relations for centuries, but it has taken a backseat in recent years to other topics—information, interests, identity, audiences, to name a few. Back to Basics brings state power back to center stage and sets an agenda for new theorizing about its role in international relations. In this volume, some of the field’s top scholars tackle a wide array of “puzzles about power” and offer new ways of thinking about the role of both states and power in the contemporary world. They explore many “faces” of state power and diverse pathways by which it creates its effects. They theorize a rich environment in which states use their power and explore ways in which this thickly normed and institutionalized world can create surprising outcomes. They also reflect on how variation and change in the nature of sovereignty may influence not only the ways states exercise power but also the ways power is exercised upon them. Taken together, these essays open up new lines of thinking on the changing role of state power in both international relations theory and world politics. Includes essays by Stephen Krasner, Robert Keohane, David Lake, Thomas Risse, Etel Solingen, Peter Katzenstein, Benjamin Cohen, Richard Steinberg, Peter Gourevitch, Arthur Stein, Lloyd Gruber, Daniel Drezner, Robert Jervis, Martha Finnemore, Judith Goldstein.

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