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Friedrich Kratochwil is the author of the classic book: Rules, Norms and Decisions (1989), which introduced constructivism to international relations and has had a profound and significant impact on the discipline. The Puzzle of Politics brings together for the first time a collection of his key essays to explain his approach to international relations and how his thinking has developed over the last 30 years. It addresses topical themes and issues central to his work including sovereignty, law, epistemology, boundaries, global governance and world society. The book includes a framing introduction written for this volume in which Kratochwil provides an intellectual biography providing context as well as an introduction to his work. This important volume will be of very strong interest to students and scholars of international relation, political theory and law. Friedrich Kratochwil is presently Professor of International Relations at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, and visiting scholar at Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea. After receiving his Ph.D. from Princeton he taught at the in the US at Maryland, Columbia and Penn, before returning to the LMU in Munich, Germany. He has been the editor of the European Journal of International Relations and member of the editorial boards of several journals, including the Journal of International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, International Studies Quarterly, International Organization, World Politics, Review of International Studies, and the Journal of International Relations and Development. Friedrich Kratochwil is presently Professor of International Relations at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, and visiting scholar at Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea. After receiving his Ph.D. from Princeton he taught in the US at Maryland, Columbia and Penn, before returning to the LMU in Munich, Germany. He has been the editor of the European Journal of International Relations and member of the editorial boards of several journals, including the Journal of International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, International Studies Quarterly, International Organization, World Politics, Review of International Studies, and the Journal of International Relations and Development. 1. Introduction: An Intellectual Biography Part 1 Defining the Approach 2. The Human Conception of International Relations 3. On the Notion in International Relations 4. Sovereignty, Property and Propriety: the Generative of Modernity Part 2 Writings on International Law 5. Thrasymmachos Revisited: On the Relevance of Norms and the Study of Law 6. The Limits of Contract 7. Has the Rule of Law become a Rule of Lawyers? Part 3 Writings on Epistemology 8. Constructing a New Orthodoxy? Wendt’s Social Theory of International Politics 9. History, Action and Identity: Revisiting the Great Debate and Assessing its Importance for Social Theory 10. Then Points to Ponder about Pragmatism: Some Critical Reflections on Knowledge Generation in the Social Sciences Part 4 Drawing Boundaries: the Inter/External and the Private/Public Nexus 11. Of Systems and Boundaries: An Inquiry into the Formation of the State System 12. The Politics of Place and Origin: An Enquiry into the Chasing Boundaries of Representation and Legitimacy 13. Global Governance and the Emergence of World Society A collection of Fritz Kratochwil's essays is self-recommending - his standing as one of the most interesting and challenging of contemporary scholars of International Political Theory is incontestable. The particular merit of this collection is that it contains a number of less well-known and difficult to find pieces as well as some of his most famous contributions to the field. This is a book that deserves a very wide audience. - Chris Brown, Professor of International Relations, London School of Economics Nobody has done more to expand the scope of IR theory and to explore how politics is enabled and sustained by social order and how order in turn rests on principles of justice. These essays bring together some of Fritz's outstanding essays on these subjects and should be read by anyone with a serious interest in IR theory. - Richard Ned Lebow, James O. Freedman Presidential Professor at Dartmouth College and Centennial Professor at the London School of Economics

Friedrich Kratochwil is the author of the classic book: Rules, Norms and Decisions(1989), which introduced constructivism to international relations and has had a profound and significant impact on the discipline. The Puzzle of Politicsbrings together for the first time a collection of his key essays to explain his approach to international relations and how his thinking has developed over the last 30 years. It addresses topical themes and issues central to his work including sovereignty, law, epistemology, boundaries, global governance and world society. The book includes a framing introduction written for this volume in which Kratochwil provides an intellectual biography providing context as well as an introduction to his work. This important volume will be of very strong interest to students and scholars of international relation, political theory and law. Friedrich Kratochwilis presently Professor of International Relations at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, and visiting scholar at Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea. After receiving his Ph.D. from Princeton he taught at the in the US at Maryland, Columbia and Penn, before returning to the LMU in Munich, Germany. He has been the editor of the European Journal of International Relations and member of the editorial boards of several journals, including the Journal of International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, International Studies Quarterly, International Organization, World Politics, Review of International Studies, and the Journal of International Relations and Development.

This article moves from deconstruction to reconstruction in research methodology. It proposes pragmatism as a way to escape from epistemological deadlock. We first show that social scientists are mistaken in their hope to obtain warranted knowledge through traditional scientific methods. We then show that pragmatism has grown from tacit commonsense to an explicit item on the agenda of the international relations discipline. We suggest that a coherent pragmatic approach consists of two elements: the recognition of knowledge generation as a social and discursive activity, and the orientation of research toward the generation of useful knowledge. To offer a concrete example of what pragmatic methodology can look like, we propose the research strategy of abduction. We assess various forms of research design to further elucidate how pragmatic research works in practice.

The succession of mostly nonviolent revolutions that replaced Eastern European communist governments in 1989 and the lack of any action by the Soviet Union to stop these changes transformed the international political system. Since these changes were not driven by changes in relative capabilities, they did not follow the postulates of neorealist theory. Rather, the revolutions of 1989 changed the rules governing superpower conflict and, thereby, the norms underpinning the international system. This constructivist perspective systematically links domestic and international structures with political practice and shows that international systems consist of ensembles of social institutions. These institutions change in response not only to shifting distributions of capabilities but also to redefinition of actors' identities as well as changes in state-society relations. Transformations of the international system occur when political practices change and therefore fail to reproduce the familiar international “structures.”

The best proof that E. H. Carr has written a true ‘classic’ is that The Twenty Years' Crisis provides much food for thought even now when some of its alleged foundational verities have become problematic. Rather than being limited to a ‘realist’ understanding of politics pure and simple, the reader encounters an analysis that is much more subtle though much less scientific than later realist interpretations would suggest. True, the first chapter is entitled ‘The science of international politics’ but the discussion about ‘purpose’, Carr's invocation of Marx, and the intellectual history he paints with a broad brush, make it clear that it is not a conception of natural science that informs his inquiry. Besides, as with every classic, different readings are possible.

Markus Fischer characterizes his recent article in this journal as an “empirical contribution” to the debate among neorealist scholars and those whom, ignoring the diversity of their research interests and theoretical perspectives, he subsumes under the rubric of “critical theorists.” Fischer's piece requires a response because of (1) its tendentious reading of the work of other students of international relations theory and (2) its misuse of history.

The relationship between political legitimacy, citizenship, & sovereignty is examined to provide an understanding of politics at the end of the 20th century. Several objections to the liberal assertion that the consent of the people is an adequate measure of political legitimacy are raised; specific attention is dedicated toward exploring consent theory's failure within the contexts of political representation & citizenship. Differences between classical republicanism's & accountability theory's conceptualizations of political representation are then discussed; the inability to create a unified theory of representation is deemed highly problematic. It is subsequently asserted that citizenship is the state's ascription of status upon an individual, not an individual choice. Plato's (1973) use of symbolic representation to develop a coherent political community is then discussed to illustrate the problems of relying upon conventional political thought in analyzing modernity. It is claimed that contemporary political theory should incorporate psychological & social psychological thought in order to understand how cognition & emotion influence political behavior. The argument's implications for a human rights perspective toward defining \"the people\" are also considered. 34 References. J. W. Parker