Evolution of international relation theory

Tóm tắt

International relation theory is a set of relatively comprehensive views of international relations based on common theories. In international relation studies, there are many different theories and theory classifications. In general, all of these theories have five essential goals: generalizing and describing the reality of international relations, understanding the nature of international relations, explaining the international relation phenomena, forecasting and guiding the actions. The studies of international relations appeared long before, but the theories of international relations have been created rather late. Before the 20th century, there were no theories on international relations which were shaped clearly, but there were only sporadic and unsystematic viewpoints. After the 20th century and especially after 1945, the theories of international relations have fast evolved and were quite diverse. This evolution has continued in the period of Post-Cold War. On the basis of presentation and examination of the process of formation and evolution of international relation theories, this paper gives some remarks as follows: all of the international relation theories were born in the West and also evolved mostly in the West; all of these theories were built on the scientific bases; all of the international relation theories have the trend to evolve in interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary directions; the construction of international relation theory aims not only at explaining the past, guiding the present actions, but also at forecasting the future; most of international relation theories before 1945 were based on materialist viewpoint and paid attention to the character of law in the evolution of international relations; the evolution of international relation is usually accompanied by critical thinking and discussion; the application of international relation theory is quite popular in developed countries, but somewhat more limited in developing countries.