Introduction

Summary

International politics being but a specific instance of a general political theory, the main task is to understand the requirements and problems of such a theory. For if this assumption is correct, the key to a theory of international politics will not be found in the specific subject matter of international politics but in the requirements and problems of a general political theory.

Hans J. Morgenthau

Maybe there are periods when one can get along without theory, but at present its deficiency denigrates people and renders them helpless against violence. The fact that theory may evaporate into a hollow and bloodless idealism or sink into a tiresome and empty rehashing of phrases, does not mean that these forms are its true forms. (As far as tedium and banality are concerned, philosophy more than finds its equal in the so-called investigation of facts.) In any case, today the whole historical dynamic has placed philosophy at the centre of social actuality, and social actuality at the centre of philosophy.

Max Horkheimer

This book is concerned with providing an answer to a very specific question: why is it that theory oriented toward human emancipation remains poorly developed within the discipline of International Relations? The answer offered is one rooted in an analysis and critique of the predominant approach to the study of world politics — that of positivism.