Man, the State and War; A Theoretical Analysis

Waltz, Kenneth N.

Published by Columbia University Press, New York, 1965

About this Item

[8],263, [1] pages. Wraps. Foreword by William T. R. Fox. Footnotes. Bibliography. Index. Cover has some wear and soiling. Kenneth Neal Waltz (June 8, 1924 - May 12, 2013) was an American political scientist who was a member of the faculty at both the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University and one of the most prominent scholars in the field of international relations. He was a veteran of both World War II and the Korean War. Waltz was a founder of neorealism, or structural realism, in international relations theory. In 1981, Waltz published a monograph arguing that in some cases the proliferation of nuclear weapons could increase the probability of international peace. Leslie H. Gelb has considered Waltz one of the "giants" who helped define the field of international relations as an academic discipline. The book is influential within the field of international relations theory for establishing the three 'images of analysis' used to explain conflict in the international system. Waltz's initial contribution to the field of international relations was his 1959 book, Man, the State, and War, which classified theories of the causes of war into three categories, or levels of analysis. Waltz refers to these levels of analysis as "images," and uses the writings of one or more classic political philosophers to outline the major points of each image. Each image is given two chapters: the first mainly uses the classical philosopher's writings to describe what that image says about the cause of war; the second usually consists of Waltz analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of that image. The third image describing the framework of world politics and the first and second, determining the forces that create the policies of a state. If an issue at stake is important enough to a state, it can achieve a satisfactory outcome only by using its power.

Seller Inventory # 82866

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Man, the State and War; A Theoretical Analysis
• Publisher: Columbia University Press, New York
• Publication Date: 1965
• Binding: Trade paperback
• Edition: Fourth Paperback Printing.
• Condition: Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Foreign Policy
  • Nationalism
  • Pacifism
  • Socialism
  • Democracy