Beyond the area studies wars: toward a new international studies

Abstract

Because International Studies programs bring together scholars from many disciplines and divergent views, they illuminate and intensify the intellectual fault lines of the American academy. Globally oriented theorists confront area studies specialists, humanists engage social scientists, language and culture specialists contend with rational choice adherents. Yet the underlying imperative of such programs -- to produce students of the 21st century who can act effectively in great variety of capacities in countries abroad -- requires that modus vivendi be reached. Beyond the Area Studies Wars offers rich overview of scholarly field engaged in remaking itself. Even as these essays point to seemingly intractable problems in shaping new International Studies, they yield note of implicit optimism by insisting that a multi-layered, multidisciplinary investigation of human behavior is not only necessary, but possible.