Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Perspectives on world politics : Understanding world politics; Westphalia and the nation-state system; Contemporary challenges to the nation-state system -- Explaining foreign policy : Objectives, beliefs and foreign policy; Foreign policy decision making -- Conflict and the search for security : Capabilities and power; Role of military force; Explaining violence; Diplomacy and negotiation -- World political economy : Development of a world economy; Economic statecraft and private economic activity; North-south economic relations; Resource and environmental challenges -- Construction of a global society : Interdependence, transnational integration, and separatism; International law and global order; Human rights; World's structural framework for peace -- Glossary.

[The authors'] goal in writing [the book] was to provide the student with a thorough introduction to the theoretical premises, historical setting, structure and process, and most important contemporary issues of world politics. A consistent theme is the extent to which the interstate system itself is being challenged by the changes we explore. [They] also chose to write a text that clearly intertwined empirical knowledge about the subject matter of world politics with the normative choices that confront decision makers and private citizens. -Pref.