This book analyzes the duality of IR theory, how it is possible for such theory to both explain and inform international politics, and discusses the dialectical approach to theorizing international politics as way to reconcile the analytical and the critical function of such theory.

Theories of international relations (IR theory) aim to both explain and inform the practice of international politics. In A Dialectical Approach to Theorizing International Relations, Andreas H. Hvidsten investigates different ways of understanding this dual nature of theory through a re-reading of the canonical theoretical literature in IR. He shows how the relation between the analytical and the critical function of theory has profound implications for studying international politics, and makes the case for a dialectical understanding of theorizing as a way of reconciling the tension between analysis and critique inherent in IR theory.