International Relations Are About Relations! The Power of Networks in the Study of International Politics

Abstract

Networks of Nations: The Evolution, Structure, and Impact of International Networks, 1816–2001. By Zeev Maoz, ed. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011. 448 pp. $41.00 paperback (ISBN-13: 978-0-521-12457-7). Few books in International Relations (IR) end up having a lasting impact over time, and even fewer have resonance beyond political science. Networks of Nations is one such book. This is an ambitious work of great breadth and scope. Although it centers on conflict and security, the book offers an extensive network theory of international politics which subsumes the most widely used theories in the field—realism, liberalism, and constructivism—and which spans across many issue areas. In addition, Networks of Nations provides an overview of social network analysis (SNA) as a methodology and introduces new network analytical techniques. Professor Maoz's work represents the coronation of his decade-long research program on the study of international networks and a springboard for future research (Maoz, Kuperman, Terris, and Talmud 2005; Maoz 2006, 2012; Maoz, Terris, Kuperman, and Talmud 2006, 2007). The study of networks in society and politics is the study of relations among social actors. Despite being about relations among international actors, IR as a discipline is surprisingly a latecomer to the adoption of SNA (Hafner-Burton, Kahler, and Montgomery 2009). Professor Maoz has been at the forefront of the movement toward the adoption of SNA for the study of international dynamics. As he acknowledges in the introduction to Networks of Nations , this has often been a thankless task. Early efforts have been met with undue skepticism by diffident reviewers, often untrained in network methodologies. Contrary to the rationalistic perspectives dominating in the field, network approaches offer a structural view of social and international phenomena and are based on the idea that actors influence and are, in turn, influenced by the social structures in which they are immersed. However, traditional IR theories and social network approaches are not incompatible. Networks of Nations ' main claim is that “international …