THE THEORY OF INTERNATIONAL-POLITICS - AN ANALYSIS OF NEOREALIST THEORY

In recent years a number of writers have defended and attacked various features of structural, or neo-realist theories of international poli tics. Few, however, have quarrelled with one of the most foundational features of neorealist theory: its assumptions about the nature of sci ence and scientific theories. In this essay I assess the views of scie nce underlying much neorealist theory, especially as they are articula ted in the work of Kenneth Waltz. I argue not only that neorealist the ories rest on assumptions about science and theory that have been ques tioned by postpositivist philosophers and historians of science, but a lso that the failure to consider the work of these writers yields theo ries of international politics that are deficient in several respects: they are ''weak'' theories in the sense that they cannot illuminate c rucial features of international politics, they presuppose and sustain a narrow view of power and power relations, they reify practices and relations in the international arena and they offer little promise of producing the sort of ''Copernican Revolution'' for which Waltz called (or, more modestly, even a minimally satisfactory theory of internati onal politics). In light of these shortcomings, I sketch an alternativ e approach to the study of international affairs, one that has been te rmed ''prototype studies.'' I contend that such an approach provides s cholars with a rigorous way of studying international politics, withou t being a theoretical science.