Drawing on a tripartite taxonomy first suggested by the so-called English School of International Relations of a Hobbesian tradition of power politics, a Grotian tradition of concern with the rules that govern relations between states; and a Kantian tradition of thinking which transcends the existence of the states system, this book discusses the thinking of central political theorists about the modern states system. Thinkers covered are Hobbes, Grotius, Kant, Vitoria, Rousseau, Smith, Burke, Hegel, Gentz and Vattel.

Inhalt
Foreword - Notes on the Contributors - Traditions of Thought and Classical Theories of International Relations; I.Clark - Hobbes, the State of Nature and the Laws of Nature; C.Navari - Grotius; B.Kingsbury - Kant: Theorist beyond Limits; H.Williams & K.Booth - Vitoria and the Universalist Conception of International Relations; M.C.Ortega - Desperately Clinging to Grotian and Kantian Sheep: Rousseau's Attempted Escape from the State of War; D.P.Fidler - Adam Smith and the Liberal Tradition in International Relations; A.W.Walter - Edmund Burke and the Commonwealth of Europe: The Cultural Bases of International Order; J.M.Welsh - Hegel, the State and International Relations; A.Linklater - Friedrich Gentz, Rationalism and the Balance of Power; R.Little - Vattel: Pluralism and its Limits; A.Hurrel - Conclusion; I.Clark & I.B.Neumann - Index