QAU teacher’s book on theories of international relations

Islamabad

Dr. Ahmad Ijaz Malik, assistant professor at the School of Politics and International Relations, Quaid-i-Azam University, in his book on theories of international relations develops an original theoretical approach by engaging in post-Cold War and post-9/11 academic discourses.

He also presents a systematic qualitative and quantitative research methodological approach for researchers to follow and conduct content, document and discourse analyses, which are most recent methodological approaches in the discipline of international relations.

According to the writer, the book contributes to the influential theoretical traditions of International Relations such as realism, neoliberalism, neoconservativism, cosmopolitanism and constructivism and presents a critical evaluation of the US foreign policy in the Middle East in the post-Cold War era as well an original analysis based on empirical and factual data.

The publisher, I B Tauris, while promoting the substance of the work have explained that the US-led coalition which launched an invasion of Iraq on 20 March 2003 led to a decade-long military presence in the country. In the run-up to that invasion, many comparisons were made with the 1991 Gulf War.

Ahmed Ijaz Malik takes these two instances of military intervention by Republican US governments to highlight how the official discourse of leaders and decision-makers has an impact on foreign policy and its results.

By taking these two examples, he examines how discourse affects real events, and the extent to which the legacy of the Cold War has influenced the decisions which are made at the upper echelons of the US government.