The New Great Debate: Traditionalism vs. Science in International Relations

1966 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morton A. Kaplan
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Scientific Method ◽  
Physical Science ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Scientific Models ◽  
The Past ◽  
Great Debate ◽  
Scientific Approach ◽  
Human Purpose

Over the past decade traditionalists have launched a series of attacks on scientific approaches to international politics. Most of the arguments employed against the scientific approach stem from those used earlier by E. H. Carr in The Twenty Years’ Crisis. The general arguments that have been employed include these among others: that politics involves purpose in a way that physical science does not; that scientific knowledge is applicable to facts, but understanding, wisdom, or intuition are required for areas where human purpose is involved; that those pursuing scientific models tend to mistake their models for reality; that scientific method requires high precision and measurement and therefore is incapable of coping with the most important elements of international politics; and that the practitioners of scientific method can never be sure that they have not left something out of their model.

scholarly journals ’n Verruimde invalshoek tot die verlede? Die sosiaal-wetenskaplike benadering tot die Nuwe Testament

1991 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. J. Joubert
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Scientific Models ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Scientific Approach ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Social Scientific

A broadened perspective to the past? The social scientific approach to the New Testament This paper focuses on the possibilities that the social scientific approach holds out for the understanding of the New Testament. A review of the contributions of the sociological and the cultural anthropological approaches to the New Testament is undertaken before the social-scientific approach as a whole is evaluated. The use of social-scientific models, in particular, in the construction of the possible social contexts of the New Testament documents, is evaluated in terms of the ability of these contexts to establish ‘new’ systems of meaning.

Microfoundations in international relations

2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua D. Kertzer
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Research Design ◽  
International Security ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Short Note ◽  
Two Stage ◽  
Explanatory Variables ◽  
The Past ◽  
Micro Level

Many of our theories of international politics rely on microfoundations. In this short note, I suggest that although there has been increasing interest in microfoundations in international relations (IR) over the past 20 years, the frequency with which the concept is invoked belies a surprising lack of specificity about what microfoundations are, or explicit arguments about why we should study them. I then offer an argument about the value of micro-level approaches to the study of conflict. My claim is not that all theories of IR need to be developed or tested at the micro-level in order to be satisfying, but rather, that many of our theories in IR already rest on lower-level mechanisms—they either leave these assumptions unarticulated or fail to test them directly. In these circumstances, theorizing and testing micro-level dynamics will be especially helpful. I illustrate my argument using the case of resolve, one of the central explanatory variables in the study of international security. I argue that the absence of microfoundations for resolve is one reason why IR scholars have had difficulties testing whether resolve has the effects we often claim, and sketch out a two-stage research design political scientists can use to study unobservable phenomena.

The moral aporia of race in international relations

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 267-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecelia Lynch
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Politics ◽  
The Past ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Theoretical Assumptions ◽  
Post Colonialism

Drawing on recent scholarship on race, post-colonialism, and ethics in the field of international relations, I return to the ‘first debate’ in the field regarding realism versus liberalism to highlight how racialized international political practices a century ago shaped theoretical assumptions, deferrals, and absences in ways that continued to resonate throughout the century. In reviewing several prominent periods of the past 100 years, I argue that (a) a powerful, ongoing moral aporia regarding race has marked the practice of international politics and the study of international relations over the century, despite important challenges and (b) it is critically important for the field as a whole to confront both the aporia and these challenges to understand its own moral precarity and to dent ongoing racialized injustices.

Crafting the International Order

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
International Politics ◽  
International Order ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Legal Professionals ◽  
The Past ◽  
Law And Politics ◽  
Everyday Realities ◽  
Past 300 Years

Lawyers make politics, and international lawyers make international politics. Yet despite there being a few prominent judges and academic stars, the roles which jurists play as practitioners of international politics is often underappreciated or their juristic personas take a backseat to those of the politician and the diplomat. This volume sheds light on how lawyers over the past 300 years have made sense of, engaged in, and shaped international politics. Individual chapters show how politicians and administrators, diplomats and military men conceived of and considered their tasks in legal terms and how the large, amorphous field often described as ‘international relations’ was filled with life in the distinctly legal vernacular of laws and regulations, treaties and agreements, resolutions and conventions. The volume provides insights into what it means when concrete decisions are taken, negotiations led, or controversies articulated and resolved by legal professionals. It also enquires into how the often criticized gaps between juristic standards and everyday realities can be explained by looking at the very medium of law. Rather than sorting people and problems into binary categories such as ‘law’ and ‘politics’ or ‘theory’ and ‘practice’, the case studies in this volume reflect on these dichotomies and dissolve them into the messy realities of conflicts and interactions which take place in historically contingent situations and in which international lawyers assume varying personas.

‘Well, what is the feminist perspective on international affairs?’: theory/practice

2019 ◽  
Vol 95 (6) ◽  
pp. 1209-1213
Author(s):  
Helen M. Kinsella ◽  
Laura J. Shepherd
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Politics ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Feminist Perspective ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
Ample Evidence ◽  
The Past ◽  
Feminist Theories ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Robust Framework

Abstract This brief introduction elaborates on Marysia Zalewski's significant body of work over the past three decades, which provides not only ample evidence of the benefits of feminist modes of encountering world politics, but also a robust framework for enquiry for scholars of politics and international relations. Her work, while deeply rooted in feminist theories and practice, has implications which go far beyond disciplinary determinations and touch upon, as the symposium demonstrates, the empirics, and the impact of international politics writ large, from finance to terrorism to violence.

The Scientific Methods of Biology, Starting with Charles Darwin

2016 ◽  
Vol 78 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-117
Author(s):  
Cristina Sousa
Keyword(s):  
Nature Of Science ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Scientific Method ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Charles Darwin ◽  
Scientific Methods ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Instructional Framework ◽  
The Past

The choice of the scientific method to be used depends on the question to be investigated, the type of study being performed, and the maturity of the particular subdiscipline. I review the scientific methods frequently used in biology since Darwin, the aspects of the nature of science relevant for teaching and learning about evolution, and some recent studies that tested the theory of evolution and some of its features. I also present some guidelines for teachers, within an inquiry-based instructional framework, to facilitate students’ understanding that hypothesis-driven and observation-driven studies are equally important and responsible for the advancement of scientific knowledge in the field of biology, both in the past and in the present.

Africa as a Subordinate State System in International Relations

1967 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 545-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. William Zartman
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Politics ◽  
State System ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Regional Organizations ◽  
Territorial State ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World

Interpretations of patterns and trends in postwar international relations have frequently noted the outmoded position of the nation-state, the shrinking nature of the world, the extension of a single international relations system to global limits, and the rising importance of superpowers and regional organizations. It was then often concluded that the coming unit of international politics was likely to be not the territorial state, as in the past, but new regional groupings of states, where the component members would collectively acquire greater power by individually giving up some of their sovereignty to a bloc or group.

The Necrologists of International Relations

1985 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 675-695 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. J. Holsti
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Growth Rates ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Power Cycle ◽  
Major Powers ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Way

AbstractTwo contemporary streams of thought in international relations offer significant theoretical challenges to the field and to the way it has been organized since the time of Rousseau. New power cycle theories propose that the etiology of war resides in different growth rates among the major powers. Hegemonic wars are a recurrent consequence of the states system. The literature suggests that the patterns of the past are likely to be repeated in future; hence, the only solution to the problem of war is the transcendence of the states system. The second body of literature proposes that growing interdependence is bringing profound structural changes that are already leading to the demise of the nation state and to the transformation of the states system. The essay critically examines these theories and outlines reasons why both are empirically and logically deficient. These bodies of literature also illustrate how even among rigorous quantitative analysts, normative concerns animate research. Finally, the author suggests why the search for a theory or model of international politics is doomed to failure, and why a healthy field will be characterized by intellectual pluralism.

The position of the State in the international system from the perspective of major schools of thought in international relations

2019 ◽  
pp. 79
Author(s):  
Salah Hassan Mohammed ◽  
Mahaa Ahmed Al-Mawla
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Politics ◽  
International System ◽  
International Order ◽  
The State ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Status ◽  
Future Vision

The Study is based on the state as one of the main pillars in international politics. In additions, it tackles its position in the international order from the major schools perspectives in international relations, Especially, these schools differ in the status and priorities of the state according to its priorities, also, each scholar has a different point of view. The research is dedicated to providing a future vision of the state's position in the international order in which based on the vision of the major schools in international relations.

Diversification propaganda work with foreign audiences

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (4(13)) ◽  
pp. 31-50
Author(s):  
Shiyu Zhang ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Strategic Partnership ◽  
The Past ◽  
Bilateral Relations ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Relationship

Over the past decade, bilateral relations between China and Russia have attracted the attention of the whole world. As neighbors and rapidly developing countries, China and Russia are becoming increasingly important in the international arena. The strategic partnership and interaction between China and Russia occupy a significant place in the politics of both countries. Cooperation is developing dynamically in various fields, primarily in politics. After 2012, a change of government took place in China and Russia, which brought new changes to international relations. Studying the involvement of the media in this process can clarify their impact on international relations, in particular, their role in the relationship between China and Russia.

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