Encounters: Theory, Difference, and Representations

T he nature, purpose, and scientific ambition of IR come into focus whenever there appears a treatise that aspires to recast the terms of disciplinary debates. The publication of Alexander Wendt’s Social Theory of International Relations triggered these effects. 1 While acknowledging the strengths of Wendt’s arguments, I do not wish to engage them here. I am impressed that critics brought into focus several important points about the author’s desire for a uniform meta-theoretical understanding of international relations; 2 his insistence on the necessity of a common methodological commitment to empiricism and positivist metaphysics; 3 and his undeclared teleology or drive to develop a social science centered principally on the state system. 4 These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.