Kenny Boy
By For some reason, Kenneth Waltz is getting a lot of attention today. Matt Yglesias writes:
I was talking to an international relations grad student last week, and he told me that what I was saying was (a) old hat, and (b) deeply confused, and that if I wanted to at least put together a less confused version of my old hat idea I ought to read Kenneth Walz’s Theory of International Politics.
I used to be an international relations grad student, and my advice to Matt would be not to touch Theory of International Politics unless he plans on taking a similarly disastrous path with the rest of his life. I’m kind of curious who suggested TIP; it is not the act of a friend.
Before you fetch the knives, let me explain that I dearly, dearly love the work of Kenneth Waltz, and that I think TIP is a masterful book. I just really don’t see the point of reading it as a non-academic. It is a reasonably complicated work that, by the author’s own admission, has only the most tenuous links to an analysis of actual foreign policy. As a international relations theory text, it’s foundational, but I am extremely skeptical of its ability to help anyone interested in a less academic approach to foreign policy.
Matt does bring up an interesting point about price; Theory now sells for about $73. I bought my copy for about $40 seven years ago. There’s a nice discussion about textbook price developing over atCrooked Timber. I recall hearing a story once about how Waltz lost all rights to royalties from Man, the State, and War; this may or may not have an effect on the price of TIP.
Anyway, I have to agree with Dan Drezner that the indispensable Waltz volume for foreign policy commentators is Man, the State, and War. This has nothing to do with the fact that it costs a fraction of the price of TIP. Rather, MSW sets out a classificatory scheme for international relations theory that still structures the field today. TIP can be understood as a continuation and refinement of the project that Waltz begins in MSW. Man, the State, and War is readily understandable to those without a background in international relations theory, and most certainly can help accomplish what Matt wants, which is a way of making ad hoc foreign policy commentary more coherent and theoretically rigorous.
So, Matt, save your money and buy MSW. It will save you a headache, and will be far more relevant to what you presumably want to do with your work.