Perspectives on International Relations

Power, Institutions, and Ideas

• Recent developments have been incorporated throughout the book, including the rise of nationalism in the United States and around the world; conflicts in Russia, Crimea, and the Ukraine; and the use of social media in political protests around the world. 
  
  
• Part II, which focuses on the contemporary international system, has been substantially updated to better distinguish the features of the contemporary system that stand out from the different perspectives. These updates will help students sort out the many, often confusing debates about contemporary affairs. Chapter 5 includes major sections on unipolarity, multipolarity, asymmetric warfare, and state sovereignty, decision making, and ethnic conflicts, while Chapter 6 features expanded coverage of interdependence.
  
  
• The globalization section (Part III) has been updated with the latest information on populist reactions to global trade, growing debt problems around the world, sluggish energy markets, slowing global growth, accelerating migrant and refugee flows, and the latest developments affecting climate change. 
  
  
• To help students better understand the issue of cause and effect, many new causal arrows appear in the margins near the text's discussions of causality.     
  
  
• Streamlined discussion throughout, particularly in the early chapters.

KEY FEATURES:

• SAGE course outcomes help you track and measure student success. Crafted with specific course outcomes in mind and vetted by advisors in the field, SAGE course outcomes clearly define and benchmark the knowledge and skills students are expected to achieve upon completion of your course. 

• Continuously incorporates the three core theories - realism, liberalism, and constructivism - throughout the book, providing students with opportunities to apply these perspectives to world events.

• The book's “Causal Arrows” are visual cues that help students see and better understand what happened and why it happened. Grounded in the various theoretical perspectives, the feature prompts students to consider different points of view and think critically about the various debates in international relations.

• “Perspectives" and "Levels of Analysis” figures give students a visual way to track how each perspective interprets events from the individual, domestic, and systemic levels. These figures help students better grasp the flow of ideas from each level of analysis. 
  
  
• “Parallel Timelines” show how the perspectives prioritize different events, from the origins of WWI to the current era.