This article examines how the state, its core characteristics, domestic and international agential capacities
are conceptualized by the realist paradigms of IR and Weberian Historical Sociology (WHS) as its critique. In
doing this, the study seeks to address the pitfalls and deficiencies of the realist conception of the state and
unravel limitations and strengths of WHS to remedy these Realist deficiencies to reach a more sophisticated
theory of the state. It also calls for a serious engagement between WHS and post-positivist IR to theorise the
historically and politically constructed nature of state identity and to transcend the internal/international
divide characterising the Realist epistemology
This article examines how the state, its core characteristics, domestic and international agential capacities
are conceptualized by the realist paradigms of IR and Weberian Historical Sociology (WHS) as its critique. In
doing this, the study seeks to address the pitfalls and deficiencies of the realist conception of the state and
unravel limitations and strengths of WHS to remedy these Realist deficiencies to reach a more sophisticated
theory of the state. It also calls for a serious engagement between WHS and post-positivist IR to theorise the
historically and politically constructed nature of state identity and to transcend the internal/international
divide characterising the Realist epistemology.
Topic:
International Relations, Realism, State, Autonomy, and Weberian Historical Sociology