Political Theory in IR: Marginal but Inevitable

International relations as any domain of socio-political interactions faces with issues such just and unjust, moral and immoral, right and wrong, i.e., issues traditionally discussed in political theory. This article aims to examine the relationship between International Relations and political theory in its various aspects. The main concern here is to show how the two are tied together. It is argued that the connection is through three main ways: political theory is a source of inspiration and /or legitimization for theoretical claims of various IR theories; the presence of normative concerns usually associated with political theory in even the “positivist” or “scientific” theories of international relations; and finally the existence of international political theories with clear normative aspects especially as it has been reflected in communitarian/ cosmopolitan debate particularly between and among realists and liberals. This clearly shows the ever presence and inevitability of political theoretical notions and discussion for the theory of international relations.