International System in World History: Reconstructing International Relations Studies

Author: Liu Debin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-04-01
Features: This book was originally published by Oxford University Press in the UK, and the Chinese edition was translated based on its 2000 edition. The book elaborates on the approximately 60,000-year history of how humans evolved from scattered foraging and hunting groups into today's highly integrated global "international political economy." It focuses on depicting the development trajectories of economic, social, and military-political international systems, as well as the interactions between these systems and human organizational forms such as tribes, city-states, empires, and modern nations. It compiles mainstream theories of international relations and traces their developmental lineage. By proposing the concept of the international system and using it as a framework, the book attempts to conduct an in-depth analysis of long-term societal changes, reconstructing the theoretical framework of international relations research from the perspective of world history. It reflects the research level of senior scholars in the contemporary British School on issues of international relations. This book is suitable for college students, teachers, and researchers in fields such as international relations, history, sociology, political science, and economics, as well as for general readers.