This article contributes to two debates about international relations (IR) as a discipline: first, how global is IR, and how is it structured? Second, what is the state of theory in IR? We conducted (co-) citation analyses of both Web of Science (WoS) and—for the first time— non-WoS publications from Europe, North America, Latin America, Africa, and Asia. With regard to the first question, we find that global IR resembles a core–periphery structure as a “hub and spoke” system whereby transatlantic core nodes are interconnected to each other and to some periphery nodes, while the periphery nodes are connected to the core but not to each other. IR scholarship in the periphery quotes the transatlantic theory cluster but is not linked to each other, not even in the same region. Knowledge produced in the periphery has to go through the transatlantic core in order to be recognized globally. As to the transatlantic core, we identify two major (co-) citation clusters: one committed to IR theory-building across issue areas from a variety of perspectives and the other focused on security studies with a strong emphasis on quantitative methods. With regard to the second question, global IR hangs together through references to the IR theory cluster consisting of North American and European authors who appear to define what IR theory is. Scholars in the periphery refer to this transatlantic IR theory cluster when engaging in theory-building. IR theories have become rather diverse and pluralistic, even in the core. While scholars still refer to the big “isms,” they use them around the globe in a synthesizing manner.

中文翻译：

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IR 理论与全球 IR 的核心-外围结构：引文分析的经验教训

本文促成了关于国际关系 (IR) 作为一门学科的两场辩论：首先，国际关系的全球化程度如何，它的结构如何？第二，国际关系理论的现状如何？我们首次对来自欧洲、北美、拉丁美洲、非洲和亚洲的 Web of Science (WoS) 和非 WoS 出版物进行了（共同）引文分析。关于第一个问题，我们发现全球 IR 类似于一个核心-外围结构，是一个“中心辐射”系统，跨大西洋的核心节点相互连接并与一些外围节点相连，而外围节点则连接到核心。但不是彼此。外围的国际关系学术引用了跨大西洋理论集群，但彼此之间没有联系，即使在同一地区也没有。外围地区产生的知识必须经过跨大西洋核心，才能在全球范围内得到认可。至于跨大西洋核心，我们确定了两个主要的（共同）引文集群：一个致力于从各种角度跨问题领域构建 IR 理论，另一个专注于安全研究，重点强调定量方法。关于第二个问题，全球 IR 通过引用由北美和欧洲作者组成的 IR 理论集群联系在一起，他们似乎定义了 IR 理论是什么。外围学者在进行理论构建时，会参考这个跨大西洋的国际关系理论集群。国际关系理论已经变得相当多样化和多元化，即使在核心部分也是如此。虽然学者们仍然提到大的“主义”，但他们以综合的方式在全球范围内使用它们。