Theory of International Politics

…the publication of Kenneth Waltz’s Theory of International Politics in 1979. Neorealism represented an effort to inject greater precision, or conceptual rigour, into realist theory. While retaining power as a central explanatory notion, Waltz’s neorealism also incorporated the idea of structure as it is reflected in alliances and other cooperative…

His most influential work, Theory of International Politics (1979), a systematic account of the international balance of power, remained a canonical text in political science well into the 21st century.

In the Theory of International Politics (1979), Waltz argued that most of the important features of international relations, especially the actions of great powers, could be explained solely in terms of the anarchical structure of the international system. Although Waltz’s position was not original, in systematizing it…