Abstract

LOBO-FERNANDES, Luís. The problem of theory-building in Morgenthau and Waltz: realism, demarcations, and scientific growth in international relations. Relações Internacionais [online]. 2018, n.58, pp.107-116. ISSN 1645-9199.  https://doi.org/10.23906/ri2018.58a08.

Hans J. Morgenthau’s magnum opus, Politics among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace, first published in 1948, has exercised a determining influence not only in the development of the realist paradigm, but most importantly in the scientific autonomy of the field of International Relations in the 20th century. This article explores Morgenthau’s main propositions, confronts them with Kenneth N. Waltz’s own theoretical hypotheses and criticism, and concludes that the rediscovery of Thucydides’s complex realism may help to surmount methodological dead-ends, bringing about necessary theoretical bridges and somewhat more productive syntheses.

Keywords : Hans Morgenthau; Kenneth Waltz; complex realism; scientific growth in the field of international relations.

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