Stephen Krasner: Subversive Realist
Stephen D. Krasner is conventionally regarded as a Realist student of international political economy. But he is equally an institutional theorist, who has made major contributions to our understanding of international regimes and sovereignty as well as of the difference between control and authority in world politics. Krasner also shares much common ground with Constructivists, due to his emphasis on the role of ideas and identity. His distinguished work on sovereignty emphasizes these themes. Going further, Krasner is an implicit theorist of social norms, who is more aware than some norms theorists that for norms to be consequential in world politics, the agents promoting them have to be effective. The paper concludes by suggesting that Steve Krasner’s insightful perspective on world politics could be usefully focused on the important but under-theorized concept of persuasion. Progress in understanding persuasion is more likely to be made by combining concepts – as Krasner has done in such a distinguished fashion throughout his career – than by using only one perspective, Realist, Institutionalist, or Constructivist. Indeed, Krasner’s work is a refutation of the view that these three approaches to world politics are mutually exclusive.