Ralph Pettman: 10 books

This collection of essays explores in general terms the nature of the moral claims common in global politics and the phenomenon of partisan cosmopolitanism in particular. Detailed discussions are presented of the attempts to rescue a single body of human ideals from the multitude of systems that presently...

In Reason, Culture, Religion, Ralph Pettman calls for wider recognition of, and greater commitment to, the ‘new’ international relations, a discipline much more comprehensive and cosmopolitan than the ‘old’. He first documents the way modernist analysts describe and explain world politics....

The contemporary academic study of world politics is a very diverse one This book is particularly concerned with that considerable part of it which in a loose sense represents the ‘behaviouralist’ school - the fashion of analysis that flowered in the 1950s and 1960s, principally in the United...

International political economy (IPE) is a highly complex discipline, drawing not only from the fields of politics and economics, but also those as varied as philosophy, history and anthropology. Now widely accepted as a key dimension to contemporary world affairs, it is no longer possible to talk...

This book provides an overview of the entire discipline of world affairs in a way that makes immediate sense. It is also a critique of the limits that rationalism sets on how we know world affairs, showing how we might transcend these limits by augmenting rationalist research with non-rationalist...

International affairs are most commonly explained in terms of the flow of diplomatic traffic and the wealth-springs of foreign policy. This study complements the conventional debates with one cast in terms of an emerging world society. The fundamental social structures found there, of both...

Few of the smaller nations today, particularly in south-east Asia, have succeeded in remaining unaligned with one or other of the great powers. Burma is the one that has. This book traces the course of Burma’s foreign policy towards China since World War II. It shows how, though at times...

International relations, as a discipline, is overwhelmingly top-down. It looks at world affairs with notable detachment. By taking a cultural anthropological approach, however, it is possible to engage with those involved in a more comprehensive and cogent way. It is possible to provide a deeper understanding...

This unique work looks at the relationship between psychopathology and world politics. What happens when the brain/mind ceases to function properly? How does this impinge on world affairs? What is to be done, for example, when a leader ceases to act in a seemingly sane fashion and yet still commands...

Fully accessible to students and scholars alike, this engaging book introduces the constructivist approach to understanding world affairs. In a highly readable and witty way, it shows how people and their social relations are the basis for everything around us -- International Relations included.