Resurrecting IR theory: Editors’ introduction to a special section

Abstract

As a discipline, international relations (IR) has become increasingly circumspect about the role and explanatory power of theories of international politics (e.g. Mearsheimer and Walt, 2013; Zambernardi, 2015). Research has exposed the particularity of once predominant theories of IR, the processes through which these theories were produced, the practices through which they became accepted, and what was ignored as a result. In so doing, scholars have raised vitally important questions about ‘theory for whom and for what purpose’ (e.g. Cox, 1981; Odoom and Andrews, 2016; Oren, 2003; Shilliam, 2010; Turton, 2015; Vitalis, 2015)? This research has substantively challenged long-held concepts such as meta-theory, grand theory, hypothesis testing, paradigms, great debates, and even modernity. As a consequence, it has been asked whether we are witnessing ‘the end of International Relations theory’ (Dunne et al., 2013)?