Social Evolution of International Politics

　　School of International Relations and Public Affairs

　　Abstract: The article advances an endogenous explanation for the systemic transformation of international politics and offer to neatly resolve the debate between offensive realism and defensive realism through a social evolutionary approach. It contends that international politics has always been an evolutionary system and it had evolved from an offensive realism world to a defensive realism world. Consequently, offensive realism and defensive realism are appropriate grand theories of international politics for two different historical epoch. Different grand theories of international politics are for different epochs of international politics, and different epochs of international politics actually need different theories of international politics. Because international politics has always been an evolutionary system, non-evolutionary approaches will be intrinsically incapable for understanding the evolution of the system. The science of international politics must be a genuine evolutionary science and students of international politics must “give Darwin his due”.