No one loves a realist explanation

• Published in: International politics (Hague, Netherlands) Vol. 48; no. 4-5; pp. 441 - 459
• Main Author: Wohlforth, William C
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Palgrave Macmillan UK 01.07.2011; Palgrave Macmillan
• Subjects: Cold War; Constructivism; Costs; Development Studies; Foreign Policy; International Political Economy; International Relations; Original Article; Political history; Political Science; Political Science and International Relations; Political Science and International Studies; Political theory; Post Cold War Period; Realism; Scholarship; Studies; Theory; regime change; Cold War; realism; IR scholars; constructivism

Responding to the special issue editors request, I conduct a retrospective evaluation of my own scholarship on realism and the end of the Cold War. I reprise the main arguments in light of what appears to be the most probative new evidence. I find that ,even though almost all scholars who write abou...