Authors James E. Dougherty and Robert L. Pfaltzgraff, Jr. reject the passive and static view of International Relations, seeking through the analytical process the verification and documentation of various conceptual propositions and theoretical approaches that accompany political phenomena in the international arena.

They offer scientific and pedagogical comments and observations for further exploration and study. The sources they utilized, which are expressed with exemplary clarity and precision in the book's footnotes, constitute an important part of the material that records and presents all that is useful and interesting published on a global basis - with an emphasis on the Anglo-Saxon context - in the field of International Relations.

[Excerpt from the text of the preface]