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Books to read to prepare yourself for an IR degree?

Gonna be studying at St. Andrews in September and want to have some knowledge of the course to prepare me.

Anyone recommend any good IR books?

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 1

PetitePanda

Study Forum Helper

Maybe look at St. Andrews or other unis' reading list?

Reply 2

Aabb123

I will look now, cheers

Reply 3

username5021294

I study IR and I think these books are useful in terms of explaining some fundamentals of international relations theory:

International Relations: Critical Concepts in Political Science - Andrew Linklater (this one is particularly well-rounded and will explain all the IR theories that you will take in your undergraduate years)

The Anarchical Society: A Study of Order in World Politics - Hedley Bull (very popular in academic circles)

The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration - Anthony Giddens (extremely popular academic but I, personally, disagree with many of his positions)

The Claims of Culture: Equality and Diversity in the Global Era - Seyla Benhabib (she makes some extremely interesting points)

The Transformation of Political Community - Andrew Linklater (Linklater is a paradigm-shifter, love his stuff)

Introduction to Critical Theory - David Held (a personal favourite, Held is a legend but the hardest and most complex on this list)

These are very academically oriented books and might be hard to crack for someone who just entered into the IR arena but you're bound to come across them in your education. I say if you find some difficulties, you can message me here or just push through it and do some supplementary research. They were tough for me at the beginning when the concepts were new but now it's all good.

Reply 4

Aabb123

That is really helpful, I will order a few of these books, I will see what ones appeal to me. I’ll see how I get on, I agree, I can imagine some political theory can be quite heavy for some one who hasn’t studied it before, buy at least it will give me some foundations for my learning later on this year.

How different is an IR degree to a Politics degree?

Thank you!

Reply 5

username5021294

Original post by Aabb123

IR deals with the state of affairs between different countries and the world order while politics deals with the governance of a particular community and the ideological theories behind them. This is an extremely broad explanation, you're going to have to find your way towards the multiple definitions of each.

The border separating them is very porous nonetheless and they interact with each other in every respect.

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 6

Aabb123

Ok, I see. Of the books you listed above which you recommend for someone who wants to be introduced to IR?

Reply 7

username5021294

Original post by Aabb123

Ok, I see. Of the books you listed above which you recommend for someone who wants to be introduced to IR?

The first.

Ok, thank you

Amazon don’t have it, know where I could buy it?

Reply 10

username5021294

Original post by Aabb123

Ok, thank you

You're welcome

Original post by Aabb123

Amazon don’t have it, know where I could buy it?

No, I'm sorry. This is a multi-volume book so the best method to read it would be to borrow it from a library -- which is impossible in light of recent events.

There's another less theoretical but still a bit conceptual reading which I'm pretty sure Amazon has ... On Global Order: Power, Values and the Constitution of International Society by Andrew Hurrell.

You would have to make up your own mind. Sorry.