Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- Three Images of Meta-Theory in International Relations: Reflexive Engagement, Scholasticism, and Paradigmatism -- Rhetoric of Inquiry: On the Relation Between Form and Content in IR Meta-Theory -- Logics of Argumentation: Monism, Pluralism, Displacement and Diversity Constitutive Elements of a Rhetoric of Inquiry -- Styles of Argumentation: Dogmatism, Pragmatics, Deconstruction and Hermeneutics -- Meta-Theorising and Competing Conceptions Of 'The Real' -- Understanding and the Ethos of Conversation.

This book argues that our current lack of recognising and understanding the different forms meta-theorising takes, hampers the ways in which fruitful engagement between meta-theories can be conducted. It proposes a radical break with the ways in which meta-theorising in International Relations (IR) has so far been understood, and instead suggests a dyadic approach: a rhetoric of inquiry that investigates the diverging forms of argumentation currently present in IR meta-theorising and a conversational ethic that can help steer meta-theoretical engagements across existing divides in more productive ways. The central questions are where meta-theorising should go from here in order to contribute to the analysis of an ever more complex world? Can we develop ways that allow the practice of meta-theorising to channel and consolidate the multiplicity of its debates and contentions to strengthen our understanding of world politics, and if so, how? It will be of general interest in all theory and methodology courses offered at undergraduate and postgraduate levels as well as to academics working in the area of metatheory, international political thought, normative theory as well as IR theory in its various manifestations