Foreword : Thoughts about assaying theories / Kenneth N. Waltz -- Introduction : Appraising progress in international relations theory / Colin Elman and Miriam Fendius Elman -- Lessons from Lakatos / Colin Elman and Miriam Fendius Elman -- Institutional theory as a research program / Robert O. Keohane and Lisa L. Martin -- The power transition research program : a Lakatosian analysis / Jonathan M. DiCicco and Jack S. Levy -- Liberal international relations theory : a scientific assessment / Andrew Moravcsik -- A Lakatosian view of the democratic peace research program / James Lee Ray -- Operational code analysis as a scientific research program : a cautionary tale / Stephen G. Walker -- Realism, neoliberalism, and cooperation : understanding the debate / Robert Jervis -- The progressiveness of neoclassical realism / Randall L. Schweller -- "Is" and "ought" : evaluating empirical aspects of normative research / Jack Snyder -- Explanation and scientific progress / David Dessler -- Measuring intra-programmatic progress / Roslyn Simowitz -- Kuhn vs. Lakatos? The case for multiple frames in appraising IR theory / John A. Vasquez -- A Lakatosian reading of Lakatos : what can we salvage from the hard core? / Andrew Bennett.