The book challenges both students and academics to think afresh about the ways they analyze international relations.

The student is left with a nuanced view of history and a critical but constructive approach to theories of international relations. While international politics has been analyzed since antiquity, international relations did not become a discrete field until 1919, when it was first. These include theories of power, cooperation, alliances, empire, integration, and arms control.

The subsequent chapters of the book take major issues and episodes in international relations since 1945 (such as the rise of Japan, change in Latin America, wars in the Middle East, and decolonization) and demonstrate how it is that particular theories assist in explaining them. The periods are: the period of liberalisation of world trade (194473), the rise and eclipse of the policy goal of a New International Economic Order (196082), the period of debt crisis and structural adjustment (198297) and the period since 1997, which is characterised by a revival of the intellectual debates on globalisation and liberalisation. The uses of theory are examined in the opening section which includes a defence of the historical method by John Lewis Gaddis and the arguments for a more scientific method by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita. British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Calvocoressi, Peter, World politics since 1945 / Peter Calvocoressi, 9th ed. This book offers an accessible synthesis of sophisticated theory and in-depth history.

History and theory are all too often treated as separate approaches to international relations. International Relations Since 1945 provides a comprehensive introduction to global political history since World War II.