Twas popular in the 90s.
Nowadays Realist/Liberal positivism seems to be in vogue again, with a smattering of thin-constructivist criticisms acknowledged. Personally, I blame the rise of Neoconservatism for retarding the entire political discourse to the point that those could look good again (of course, some would argue, not unfairly, that post-structural gibberish created fertile conditions for the rise of Neoconservatism in the first place).