INTERNATIONAL POLITICS AND IR THEORY: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS IN THE CONTEXT OF THREE MAINSTREAM IR THEORIES

The Westphalian system is recognized as the beginning of international system. After 30-years war, many state-like unit integrated to the world politics. This development directly or indirectly contributed to the formationof the international system. It can be said that world order or international system theory emerged and consisted with Westphalian system. Theory of international relations emerged after World War II in US taking a sub-branch of political science as a separate discipline. US policymakers and institutions started to construct polices for different regions in the world for US. During Cold War the main stream approach to theory of international relations was related to capacity, use of force, national gain and anarchical international system. Commonly international relations or international politics scholars argued and studied to understand conflictsand wars’ reasons in the context of realist international relations theory. This realist view of international relations theory has been began to change and came up with new ideas about international politics and system since 1980’s. In this regard this paper aims to analyze international politics in sight of theories of international relations. Firstly the fundamental concepts of international politics and system are defined and then three international relations theories’ (realism, liberalism and constructivism) views about international politics be evaluated. The article will end with a general overview. It can be said that international politics is evolving in the direction more comprehensive and collective manner. Culture, identity and the process of globalization also have an effective impact in thischange. Further, methodologically the article will follow the content analysis.