Agencies, Structures and Allies

Abstract

The preceding chapters have set out the nature of this work, its aims, goals, questions and interests. These chapters have also staked out a certain amount of territory for the Realist paradigm of International Relations. Chapter 2 brought to light the strengths and weaknesses of this paradigm, as well as some of the reasons — its parsimony for one — why this theory is as dominant as it is within the discipline. However, recent theoretical developments and the various limitations apparent within Political Realism give hope to those scholars seeking to challenge this so-called ‘conventional wisdom’.