The main one I am interested in is neorealism (Kenneth Waltz). There is strong claim that the neorealistic approach to international relations is universal. But I have mainly seen it being applied to either 19th/20th century "Great Power Politics". I am wondering if there are any books that test this claim to universalism by looking at ancient history or really anything sufficiently historical (Say < 1700 CE to draw an arbitrary line).
I think it would be interesting to analyze the Roman Republic's rise to Mediterranean hegemony or so.
Eckstein, Mediterranean Anarchy and the Rise of Rome is explicitly an application of System level Analysis to the problem of explaining Rome's dominance in the Mediterranean. It's fairly recent; within ten years I think.