The Metatheoretical Challenges of the Theory of International Relations

Neorealism is one of approaches that for a long time has been considered as the dominant paradigm in the study of international politics and it has an important role to shaping international politics and system. for this reason many theoretical schools have tried to challenge its. To resolve the criticism that was imported to classical realism, Neorealism led by Kenneth Waltz tried to offer a scientific version of realism that Conform with current scientific standards and be able to explain international relations. The result of Waltz efforts providing structural theory of realism that is based on the principles and assumptions of positivism. Neorealist have a Structure-based analysis in terms of ontology, In terms of epistemology, objective and in terms of methodology; they are positiv ist and behaviorist.This led the critics, especially post-positivists to challenged neo-realism from different aspects of ontology, epistemology and methodology. the question is what are the most important theoretical challenges of neorealism theory? to answer this question, we have attempted to answer this question in the field of ontology, methodology and epistemology. the research method in this paper is descriptive - analytic