In recent decades, positivist and post-positivist variants of feminism have grown more prominent in IR theory scholarship. There are also ' post-positivist/ reflectivist' IR theories (which stand in contrast to the aforementioned ' positivist/ rationalist' theories), such as critical theory. Barnett helped pioneer constructivism.Īside from realism, liberalism and constructivism, there are prominent rational choice approaches to international relations, such as the bargaining model of war framework introduced by James Fearon. IR theorists such as Alexander Wendt, John Ruggie, Martha Finnemore and Michael N. During the late 1980s and 1990s, constructivism emerged as a prominent third IR theoretical framework, in addition to existing realist and liberal approaches.

Neoliberalism (or Liberal Institutionalism) became a prominent competitive framework to neorealism, with prominent proponents such as Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye. The most influential IR theory work of the post-World War II era was Kenneth Waltz's Theory of International Politics (1979), which pioneered neorealism. Carr's The Twenty Years' Crisis (1939) and Hans Morgenthau's Politics Among Nations (1948). The modern study of international relations, as theory, has sometimes been traced to realist works such as E. The three most prominent schools of thought are realism, liberalism and constructivism.

Ole Holsti describes international relations theories as acting like pairs of coloured sunglasses that allow the wearer to see only salient events relevant to the theory e.g., an adherent of realism may completely disregard an event that a constructivist might pounce upon as crucial, and vice versa. It seeks to explain causal and constitutive effects in international politics. International relations theory is the study of international relations (IR) from a theoretical perspective.

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