Combing the same beach: Analytic eclecticism and the challenge of theoretical multilingualism

2020 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
pp. 404-419
Author(s):  
Eric M. Blanchard
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Real World ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Disciplinary Power ◽  
Research Traditions

Sil and Katzenstein present analytic eclecticism as a pragmatic, problem-driven, policy-oriented heuristic, posed against the paradigmatism and parsimony inhibiting the study of world politics. I argue that Sil and Katzenstein’s approach is both promising (in that it is one of the more flexible available frameworks to bring separate research traditions into fruitful dialogue) and potentially problematic (if it limits itself to the triad of realism, liberalism, and constructivism). Informed by a recent methodological turn in post-positivist International Relations (IR) and Political Science, this essay takes seriously eclecticism’s commitment to theoretical multilingualism by imagining an eclectic engagement beyond the heuristic’s original purview and calling for eclectic attention to reflexivity, constitutive theorizing, and the dynamics of power and ethics. The article reflects on existing disciplinary power dynamics and disparities and the urgent demand for scholars to more fully contribute to developing effective approaches to real-world threats, such as climate change.

Analytic Eclecticism in the Study of World Politics: Reconfiguring Problems and Mechanisms across Research Traditions

2010 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 411-431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rudra Sil ◽  
Peter J. Katzenstein
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Comparative Politics ◽  
Real World ◽  
Alternative Model ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Research Traditions ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World

This article defines, operationalizes, and illustrates the value ofanalytic eclecticismin the social sciences, with a focus on the fields of comparative politics and international relations. Analytic eclecticism is not an alternative model of research or a means to displace or subsume existing modes of scholarship. It is an intellectual stance that supports efforts to complement, engage, and selectively utilize theoretical constructs embedded in contending research traditions to build complex arguments that bear on substantive problems of interest to both scholars and practitioners. Eclectic scholarship is marked by three general features. First, it is consistent with an ethos of pragmatism in seeking engagement with the world of policy and practice, downplaying unresolvable metaphysical divides and presumptions of incommensurability and encouraging a conception of inquiry marked by practical engagement, inclusive dialogue, and a spirit of fallibilism. Second, it formulates problems that are wider in scope than the more narrowly delimited problems posed by adherents of research traditions; as such, eclectic inquiry takes on problems that more closely approximate the messiness and complexity of concrete dilemmas facing “real world” actors. Third, in exploring these problems, eclectic approaches offer complex causal stories that extricate, translate, and selectively recombine analytic components—most notably, causal mechanisms—from explanatory theories, models, and narratives embedded in competing research traditions. The article includes a brief sampling of studies that illustrate the combinatorial potential of analytic eclecticism as an intellectual exercise as well as its value in enhancing the possibilities of fruitful dialogue and pragmatic engagement within and beyond the academe.

How Reputation Matters in International Relations

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark J.C. Crescenzi
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Model ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Real World ◽  
World Politics

This chapter establishes a theory of reputation’s role in international relations. Using concepts such as learning and information, the theoretical model argues that reputation can impact a nation’s decision about whether to cooperate and negotiate peacefully with another state, or whether, based on that other state’s reputation, to decide to go towar. The chapter contains an historical illustration of the relevance and role of reputation in real-world politics that focuses on Tsar Alexander’s anticipation of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812, and how Napoleon’s past actions in relation to other states influenced Alexander.

scholarly journals From International Law and International Relations to Law and World Politics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher A. Whytock
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Science Research ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Private International Law ◽  
Direct Role ◽  
Law And Politics ◽  
Interdisciplinary Scholarship ◽  
Private Actors

Political scientists—primarily in the discipline’s international relations subfield—have long studied international law. After considering how political scientists and legal scholars define international law, this article identifies five stages of political science research on international law, including the current interdisciplinary international law and international relations (IL/IR) stage, and it reviews three trends in political science research that constitute an emerging sixth stage of interdisciplinary scholarship: a law and world politics (L/WP) stage. First, moving beyond the “IL” in IL/IR scholarship, international relations scholars are increasingly studying domestic law and domestic courts—not only their foundational role in supporting international law and international courts but also their direct role in core areas of international relations, including international conflict and foreign policy. Second, moving beyond the “IR” in IL/IR scholarship, political scientists are adapting their research on international law to the broader world politics trend in political science by studying types of law—including extraterritoriality, conflict of laws, private international law, and the law of transnational commercial arbitration—that govern the transnational activity of private actors and can either support or hinder private global governance. Third, moving beyond the domestic-international divide, political scientists are increasingly rejecting “international law exceptionalism,” and beginning to take advantage of theoretical convergence across the domestic, comparative, and international politics subfields to develop a better general understanding law and politics.

Political Approaches

2018 ◽  
pp. 60-78
Author(s):  
Michael N. Barnett ◽  
Martha Finnemore
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Society ◽  
Real World ◽  
Social World ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Interstate Cooperation ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
World Organization

This chapter examines how prominent theories capture the various ways that the UN affects world politics. Different theories of international relations (IR) cast the UN in distinctive roles, which logically lead scholars to identify distinctive kinds of effects. We identify five roles that the UN might have: as an agent of great powers doing their bidding; as a mechanism for interstate cooperation; as a governor of an international society of states; as a constructor of the social world; and as a legitimation forum. Each role has roots in a well-known theory of international politics. In many, perhaps most, real-world political situations, the UN plays more than one of these roles, but these stylized theoretical arguments about the world body’s influence help discipline our thinking. They force us to be explicit about which effects of the world organization we think are important, what is causing them, and why.

scholarly journals Research Agenda for Political Science in China in an Era of Great Change

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guangbin Yang
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
World Order ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Traditional Role ◽  
State Governance ◽  
Governance Models

AbstractThe world order is undergoing tumultuous changes amid the Sino–US trade war and a global pandemic. During these epochal times for political science, The American school of social sciences needs an intellectual revolution and a repositioning of the research agenda for political science. Comparative political studies must shift their focus from their traditional role of comparison of political institutions to that of state governance models, as the former can no longer advance new knowledge in political science while the latter represents a greater challenge for such studies. Likewise, studies of international relations in the traditional sense should take a step further and explore studies of world politics, i.e., studies of international relations and world order as shaped by institutional changes triggered by political trends within certain countries. The research approach of historical political science is indispensable, whether it is comparison of state governance models or of world politics.

The Globalization of World Politics

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Real World ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Global Issues ◽  
Apply Theory ◽  
Eighth Edition ◽  
Comprehensive Coverage

The Globalization of World Politics is an introduction to international relations (IR) and offers comprehensive coverage of key theories and global issues. The eighth edition features several new chapters that reflect on the latest developments in the field, including postcolonial and decolonial approaches, and refugees and forced migration. Pedagogical features—such as case studies and questions, a debating feature, and end-of-chapter questions—help readers to evaluate key IR debates and apply theory and IR concepts to real world events.

American Realism and the real world

2003 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 401-402
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Real World ◽  
World View ◽  
International System ◽  
Hard Core ◽  
World Politics ◽  
The Real ◽  
Power Rule

Realism remains the dominant approach in America to international relations. Modern American realism has developed into a neorealist strand focused on the structure and outcomes of the international system, and a neoclassical strand concerned with the behaviour of individual states. Within each of these are hard-core offensive realists who see a world full of opportunities for aggressive ‘power maximisers’, and defensive realists who see more possibilities for cautious cooperation between ‘security seekers’. At its heart, however, realism remains a world-view where states and power rule. Realism's great claim to fame is that it explains those aspects of world politics that matter most to policymakers. However, three developments in this past decade give reason to question the relevance of the realist world-view.

The United Nations in the 21st Century by Karen A. Mingst and Margaret P. Karns, and Alynna J. Lyon

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayesha Masood
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
International Relations ◽  
United Nations ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Human Security ◽  
World Politics ◽  
International Organization ◽  
Global Politics ◽  
The United Nations

The United Nations in the 21st century: Dilemmas in World Politics is a noteworthy book on the world’s leading international organization and international relations which provides a comprehensive introduction of the United Nations (UN), its functions and its role in the promotion of peace and stability. and the book has a lot to offer in terms of the United Nations in the broader context of global politics; reflecting mainly on its history, challenges, and reforms, etc. The book offers an in-depth account concerning the functions of the United Nations i.e. how the UN works and also sheds light on the numerous challenges faced by the organization in the present century. From terrorism to piracy and from evolved threats to human security such as cybercrimes to climate change and global warming, the authors in the book accord due importance to the new players on the international scene.

Governmentality and Biopolitics

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin J. Muller
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Michel Foucault ◽  
Science Studies ◽  
World Politics ◽  
The Body ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Critical Security Studies ◽  
Zero Sum ◽  
And Behavior

Governmentality and biopolitics has emerged as a chief source of scholarship and debate within contemporary international relations (IR), particularly among those involved in the sub-disciplines, Critical Security Studies and International Political Sociology. Governmentality, first and foremost, is a term coined by philosopher Michel Foucault, and refers to the way in which the state exercises control over, or governs, the body of its populace. Meanwhile, biopolitics, which was coined by Rudolf Kjellén, is an intersectional field between biology and politics. In contemporary US political science studies, usage of the term biopolitics is mostly divided between a poststructuralist group using the meaning assigned by Michel Foucault (denoting social and political power over life), and another group who uses it to denote studies relating biology and political science. The foci of literatures on governmentality and biopolitics are particularly agreeable to many scholars critical of traditional IR scholarship and its distinct articulation of “world politics.” The shifty nature of both concepts, as defined by Michel Foucault and the subsequent use by various scholars, presents challenges to setting any specific account of these terms; yet the blurriness of these concepts is what makes them productive, contrary to the zero-sum, rationalist accounts of power and behavior so central to much of conventional IR.

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