Introduction to International Relations

International Relations as Scientific Endeavor

Jaechun Kim

BRIEF HISTORY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

International Relations as Distinct Field of Study

Intl Rel is usually studied as a sub-field (or sub-discipline) of Political Science in many universities….

Political Science was not a separate discipline (or field of study)

Study of politics used to be a part of legal studies and study of history; Studying politics belonged to the realm of law and history…

Advent of Behavio(u)ralism Analytic focus should be on the informal aspects

of political life… not on legal systems or history of a nation…!

This was reaction to traditional legal and historical approaches..

We have to study politics scientifically Advent of Political Science as distinct field of study…

Genealogy of Political Science Comparative Politics; International Relations;

Political Philosophy; Political Economy, etc.

Intl Relations as a distinct subfield of Political “Science”

IR (as with study of politics) used to be the study of international laws and history of international relations (i.e., diplomatic history)

Impact of behavioral revolution on IR!

Behaviouralism Positivism (Scientific Method) became a mainstream methodology to conduct research in IR Be like natural scientists!

Positive Theory vs. Normative Theory…Difference??

Positivism in IR Assumption: We can be like natural scientists!

Positivism as mainstream approach in PS and IR

PS and IR should be a scientific endeavor...! near consensus…

Prevalence of quantification and statistical method…

Is it possible to study IR scientifically??? What do you think???

 WHAT IS SCIENTIFIC METHOD OR POSITIVISM? WHAT IS SCIENCE?

One of the methods that lead us to find the truth…

Science is not a panacea!!: Activities including human interactions and emotions are difficult, if not impossible, to answer with scientific methods...

Other methods to find truths about social life??

Intuition; Feel; Superstition

Divine revelation

Science – Having skeptical structure of mind; skeptical attitude

Scientific knowledge can be accumulated; communicated; and the scientific method can be replicated; procedures should be public

Goal of Science is to explain; to make inferences…

Explanation usually involves causation (which is different from correlation)…

IV (Independent Variable) CV (Causal Variable) EV (Explanatory Variable)

DV (Dependent Variable)

QUANTITATIVE VS. QUALITATIVE METHODS

Quantitative – large number of cases; N>20 – large N studies.

Qualitative – one or several cases

Both quantitative and qualitative researches can be systematic and scientific; Qualitative study can be scientific as well!

It really depends on the nature of research questions…

COMPONENTS OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH DESIGN in social science

Choosing a good research question - what is your puzzle? (You’ve got to have a good research question…)

Should have real world implications (should be important in real world)…

Should be related to the existing scholarly

literature…

Clarification of concepts… Setting up hypotheses…

Building theories

What is theory?

Reasoned speculation about why your hypothesis is correct… speculation about the answer to your research puzzle

Good theory should

be testable (falsifiable)

be generalized

have observable implications

be parsimonious

Testing your hypotheses Qualitative method… Quantitative method.. Or both…

Collecting Data to test hypotheses…

What is data? Data – systematically collected elements of information about the world

You will have to report data collection process

Validity: your data collection method should be valid

Reliability: your data collection method should be also reliable