A Conceptual History: Historical Sociological Analysis of Unipolarity in Structural Realist Literature

Sari Karademir B.

ULUSLARARASI ILISKILER, cilt.19, sa.76, ss.3-17, 2023 (SSCI) identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 19 Sayı: 76
  • Basım Tarihi: 2023
  • Doi Numarası: 10.33458/uidergisi.1234124
  • Dergi Adı: ULUSLARARASI ILISKILER
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, IBZ Online, International Bibliography of Social Sciences, Historical Abstracts, Index Islamicus, Political Science Complete, vLex, Worldwide Political Science Abstracts, TR DİZİN (ULAKBİM)
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.3-17
  • Çukurova Üniversitesi Adresli: Hayır

Özet

Unipolarity has been taken for granted and remains unquestioned in the International Relations literature. This article provides

the conceptual history of unipolarity by bringing an immanent critique. It shows the evolution of unipolarity literature in

the absence of counterbalancing in four stages. It focuses on the use of history in structural realism and brings a historical

sociological perspective to the literature to show how tempocentric theorizing impaired the understanding of unipolarity

as a distinct structure. The article concludes by underlying the importance of noticing the cost of reification of concepts for

theorizing and by highlighting that unipolarity is still understudied both theoretically and methodologically.