Inferior Education (Christine Porcaro, Week 3, Substantive)

The reading from this past week showed a glimpse of the varying viewpoints that comprise IR theory. What I found interesting was the mention of the lack of variety in readings and opinions that comprised the US educational system. “We believe that most American general theory courses do not do justice to the world-wide variety of substantively and politically significant approaches to international relations identified above”. Since this theory course has just begun I cannot say whether this is true within this class context but I do believe that through the American educational system we are generally exposed to more realist type thinking. My exposure to realism and its variants has been far greater than any other IR theory. Because realism is the most widely accepted does that make it o.k. to leave other theories less noted? I am not sure. I would not go as far and say that my education has been inferior to the standards that this article has for IR theory but I do feel that it would not hurt to expand the way in which we think. Yes, realism is an important part of IR theory but other less influential theories have also had a hand in shaping IR as we know it today.