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Expanding the Study of International Relations: The French Connection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2011

Gene M. Lyons
Gene M. Lyons
Affiliation:
Dartmouth College
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Abstract

The study of international relations has been dominated by scholars working in the United States and has concentrated on questions that have been important to the U.S. as it emerged as the leading international power after 1945. These tendencies have limited the questions asked, the concepts generated, and the perspectives relevant to theory building. These limits can only be overcome by integrating the work of specialists from other countries. To this end, recent contributions by a number of French scholars are examined through a review of four publications. They provide a deeper sense of the options open to lesser states than is usually found in American contributions, a greater acceptance of flux and change in the international system, with less weight given to external influences on foreign policy formation and more to domestic politics and to personal relations among political leaders.

Type
Review Articles
Information
World Politics , Volume 35 , Issue 1 , October 1982 , pp. 135 - 149
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1982

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References

1 , Aron, Peace and War (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1966).Google Scholar

2 Dexter, Byron, ed., The Foreign Affairs 50-Year Bibliography (New York: Bowker, 1972).Google Scholar

3 Finnegan, Richard B. and Giles, John J., “A Citation Analysis of Patterns of Influence in International Relations Research,” International Studies Notes, 1 (Winter 1975), 11–21.Google Scholar

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7 ibid., 56–59.

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10 References are to the English translation of Grosser.

11 See Keohane, Robert O. and Nye, Joseph S. Jr., eds., “Transnational and World Politics,” International Organization, xxv (Summer 1971)Google Scholar; and Power and Interdependence (fn. 9).

12 As only one example of the many publications from this program, see Falk, Richard A., A Study of Future Worlds (New York: Free Press, 1975).Google Scholar

13 See , Wallerstein, The Modern World System (New York: Academic Press, 1976)Google Scholar, and The Modern World System II (New York: Academic Press, 1980); for continuing research, see the journal edited by , Wallerstein, Review: A Journal of the Fernand Braudel Center for the Study of Economics, Historical Systems and Civilizations (distributed through Sage Publications, Beverly Hills, Calif.)Google Scholar

14 For three examples of this multivolume project, see Gompert, David C. and others, Nuclear Weapons and World Politics (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1977)Google Scholar; Howard Wriggins, W. and Adler-Karlsson, Gunnar, Reducing Global Inequities (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978)Google Scholar; and Camps, Miriam, with Given, Catherine, Collective Management (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1981).Google Scholar