Deploying an original “Social Evolution Paradigm (SEP)” and drawing from archaeology, anthropology, evolutionary biology, and international relations, this book advances a sweeping account for the systemic transformation of international politics. More specifically, the book shows how the nasty and brutish Hobbesian/offensive realism world many of us take for granted had evolved from an Eden-like paradise; how the Hobbesian world had self-transformed into a more peaceful defensive realist world from 1648 to 1945; and how some regions of the post-1945 world have become more rule-based and peaceful. The book critically engages with all major grand theories of international politics and provides neat solutions to some of the “great debates” among the grand theories, from offensive realism to defensive realism, neoliberalism, the English School, and constructivism. This book is a must read for students of international politics and is of general interest to students of archaeology, anthropology, sociology, political sciences, and social sciences in general.(introduction selected from Oxford University Press)/span>

About the author: Tang Shiping, Professor, School of International Relations and Public Affairs, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.