Epilogue: What to Read Next?

This epilogue situates the book’s argument within broader debates about the study of international relations and political history. Over the past several decades, shifts in historical scholarship—from the linguistic turn to microhistory and gender history—have marginalized traditional diplomatic history, while political science has increasingly relied on quantitative approaches that rarely engage with historical change. Against this background, the epilogue introduces the major theoretical traditions used to interpret international relations, including realism, liberalism, Marxism, and constructivism. The book’s argument is located within the constructivist tradition, which views foreign policy as part of the process through which political communities construct and reproduce their identities. Drawing on scholars such as David Campbell, Alexander Wendt, and Ted Hopf, the epilogue suggests that the study of foreign policy can restore the central place of political history by linking international actions to domestic debates over identity and national purpose.