In this book, Michael Nicholson outlines social scientific approaches to international relations and then describes the problems of rational decision-making in conflict situations. He shows how rationality is in many strategic situations hard to define and often leads to paradoxes such as the prisoners dilemma, and explores rational beliefs about the international system. He examines theories of arms races, alliances, and the international problems of ecology. Here he is critical of the classical school of international relations for a lack of rigor in dealing with the problems of evidence...

Fully updated and revised, the second edition of International Relations: A Concise Introduction offers a clear and succinct overview of the forces that govern our world. Outlining key theories, traditional approaches, and controversies old and new, Michael Nicholson also importantly addresses the relationship and incongruities between abstract theories of International Relations and contemporary realities of the international system in an increasingly globalized post-Cold War world.

As international players-from vast and immensely diverse conglomerate corporations to the UN,...

Fully updated and revised, the second edition of International Relations: A Concise Introduction offers a clear and succinct overview of the forces that govern our world. Outlining key theories, traditional approaches, and controversies old and new, Michael Nicholson also importantly addresses the relationship and incongruities between abstract theories of International Relations and contemporary realities of the international system in an increasingly globalized post-Cold War world.

As international players-from vast and immensely diverse conglomerate corporations to the UN,...

This book, first published in 1989, gives a critical account of formal international relations theory.