Contexts of International Politics (Cambridge Studies in International Relations, Series Number 36) - Tapa dura

"Goertz is in thorough command of current research. His work may be viewed as a kind of Forschungbericht which gathers the research accomplished to-date, pointing to missing links, weak connections, weighing achievements, and suggesting areas worthy of further study." Terry Pickett, Canadian Review of Studies in Nationalism

In this book Gary Goertz examines how states interact with their environment and contexts, which are important in understanding international politics. He presents a philosophical, methodological and empirical discussion of three important contexts which affect decision makers: history, system structure, and international norms. The effects of these contexts are explored by viewing context in turn as cause, as changing meaning, and as a barrier. The book engages with the literature on structural realism and international regimes, and uses rational actor and diffusion models as theoretical references. A number of concrete studies are provided using these contextual tools, including oil nationalisation, USSR-East European relations, enduring rivalries, and decolonisation. These empirical examples illustrate the fruitfulness of the contextual approach to international politics.