East-West stories of war and peace

neorealist claims in light of ancient Chinese philosophy

Roland Bleiker

pp. 177-201

in: Stephen Chan, Peter Mandaville, Roland Bleiker (eds), The zen of international relations, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2001

Abstract

Neorealism has arguably been the single most influential contribution to the study of international relations (IR) since the 1980s. One of the paradigm's main purposes is to transcend time and space in order to recognise ahistoric and global patterns in the recurrence of interstate conflict. Yet, the key concepts of neorealist theory have been developed by Western scholars, largely based on analyses of interactions among Western states. How representative can such a grand Western vision be?