The Puzzles of Politics: Inquiries into the Genesis and Transformation of International Relations

Friedrich Kratochwil is the author of the classic book: Rules, Norms and Decisions (1989), which introduced constructivism to international relations and has had a profound and significant impact on the discipline.
The Puzzle of Politics brings together for the first time a collection of his key essays to explain his approach to international relations and how his thinking has developed over the last 30 years. It addresses topical themes and issues central to his work including sovereignty, law, epistemology, boundaries, global governance and world society.
The book includes a framing introduction written for this volume in which Kratochwil provides an intellectual biography providing context as well as an introduction to his work.
This important volume will be of very strong interest to students and scholars of international relation, political theory and law.
Friedrich Kratochwil is presently Professor of International Relations at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, and visiting scholar at Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea. After receiving his Ph.D. from Princeton he taught at the in the US at Maryland, Columbia and Penn, before returning to the LMU in Munich, Germany. He has been the editor of the European Journal of International Relations and member of the editorial boards of several journals, including the Journal of International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, International Studies Quarterly, International Organization, World Politics, Review of International Studies, and the Journal of International Relations and Development.

Friedrich Kratochwil is presently Professor of International Relations at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, and visiting scholar at Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea. After receiving his Ph.D. from Princeton he taught in the US at Maryland, Columbia and Penn, before returning to the LMU in Munich, Germany. He has been the editor of the European Journal of International Relations and member of the editorial boards of several journals, including the Journal of International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, International Studies Quarterly, International Organization, World Politics, Review of International Studies, and the Journal of International Relations and Development.

1. Introduction: An Intellectual Biography Part 1 Defining the Approach 2. The Human Conception of International Relations 3. On the Notion in International Relations 4. Sovereignty, Property and Propriety: the Generative of Modernity Part 2 Writings on International Law 5. Thrasymmachos Revisited: On the Relevance of Norms and the Study of Law 6. The Limits of Contract 7. Has the Rule of Law become a Rule of Lawyers? Part 3 Writings on Epistemology 8. Constructing a New Orthodoxy? Wendt’s Social Theory of International Politics 9. History, Action and Identity: Revisiting the Great Debate and Assessing its Importance for Social Theory 10. Then Points to Ponder about Pragmatism: Some Critical Reflections on Knowledge Generation in the Social Sciences Part 4 Drawing Boundaries: the Inter/External and the Private/Public Nexus 11. Of Systems and Boundaries: An Inquiry into the Formation of the State System 12. The Politics of Place and Origin: An Enquiry into the Chasing Boundaries of Representation and Legitimacy 13. Global Governance and the Emergence of World Society