The aim of this paper is to look at the development of international relations (IR) while posing questions about the role and importance of norms and values in the international relations theories developed in the United States. The article is divided into four parts. In the first part, the American supremacy in the field of theoretical reflection about developments in the international environment is briefly discussed. In the article's second part the author deals with the issue of norms and values in realism and liberal approaches to international relations. The third part presents the problem of norms and values in social constructivism. In the last part of the paper a general reflection about the neoconservative agenda's influence on American foreign policy is presented together with conclusions.

In this paper I would like to look at the developments in international studies and ask a question about the role of norms and values in the international relations theories developed in the United States. I want to be clear that I am not suggesting that U.S.– based academics are in a “structural” conflict with Europeans or the rest of the world, but because of the discursive nature of IR studies a lot of statements in the discipline have been developed as an answer/reply to ideas coined in the United States, which might result in the feeling of a conflictual situation.