International Relations Theory and the Third World

Is Western international relations theory relevant for the Third World? During the Cold War, scholars focused obsessively on the challenges of the US-Soviet conflict, paying little theoretical heed to the role of the Third World in international politics or the sources of its foreign policy behaviour. What attention the Third World did receive was within the context of the East/West struggle. As the hostilities of the Cold War began to fade, so apparently did the creative energy of IR theorists. Since then, in spite of major global change, no new theoretical changes have taken place - until now. International Relations Theory and the Third World addresses the lack of scholarship devoted to Third World policy behaviour by collecting the top analysts and showcasing them in this volume. The authors describe and examine the deficiencies of existing theory and present alternate explanations of Third World policy behaviour. Taken together, their essays demonstrate how exploring the Third World experience can broaden and enrich our understanding of how and why states interact in the international system.

STEPHANIE G. NEUMAN is Director of the Comparative Defense Studies Program and teaches Third World security courses at Columbia University.