1. Monday, April 19, 2010
Concepts and Functions of „Theory“: can there be theory-free knowledge ?
Set Reading:
R.Meyers: The role of theory in the study of international politics – PDF file supplied on my website
R.Meyers: Contemporary developments in international relations theory – PDF file supplied on my website
Highly recommended: Milja Kurki/Colin Wight: International Relations and Social Science, Ch. 1 in Dunne/Kurki/Smith

2. This file can be downloaded from my website
Lost in the maze ??? Send to

3. INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS THEORY – A SIMPLE START
DOES THEORY MATTER?
WHAT ARE ITS PHILOSOPHICAL & HISTORICAL ROOTS?
PUTTING THEORY INTO PRACTICE
ALL IR TEXTBOOKS HAVE THEORY CHAPTERS

4. WHY THEORY? IDEAS MATTER THEORIES INFLUENCE POLICIES AND POLITICS
THEORY HELPS US DEAL WITH COMPLEXITY
IR THEORIES ARE GENERAL IDEAS ABOUT WORLD AFFAIRS
THEORIES ARE A NECESSARY MEANS OF BRINGING ORDER TO THE SUBJECT MATTER OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

5. WHAT THEORIES DO DESCRIBE EXPLAIN EXPLANATORY THEORY PREDICT
PRESCRIBE NORMATIVE THEORY
CONSTITUTE Reality and/or our lenses
through which we see it =
CONSTITUTIVE THEORY

6. THEORIES ARE NOT LAWS THEY REFLECT HISTORICAL CIRCUMSTANCES
THEY REFLECT THE PERSONAL VIEWS AND EXPERIENCES OF THOSE WHO WRITE THEM
THEY ARE CONTINUALLY BEING REVISED IN LIGHT OF CHANGING CIRCUMSTANCES

7. BE CRITICAL
FOR MOST COMPLEX PROBLEMS THERE ARE EASY SOLUTIONS THAT ARE OFTEN WRONG
COMMON SENSE CAN BE NON SENSE
STATES, LIKE PEOPLE, ACT FOR MANY REASONS THAT SOMETIMES CONTRADICT EACH OTHER
DIFFICULT CHOICES OFTEN MAKE BAD POLICIES

8. HOW THEORIES DEVELOP EXPLANATORY THEORIES BEGIN WITH ASSUMPTIONS
THEORIES OFFER HYPOTHESES
THEORIES HAVE INDEPENDENT AND DEPENDENT VARIABLES
PRACTICAL EXAMPLES ?

9. HYPOTHESIS ?
IF WE CONTINUE TO BURN RISING AMOUNTS OF PETROL THEN THE WORLD’S TEMPERATURE WILL RISE
INDEPENDENT VARIABLE - BURNING FUEL
DEPENDENT VARIABLE - GLOBAL CLIMATE
SCIENTISTS TEST THEIR THEORIES EMPIRICALLY – MEASURING INDEPENDENT VARIABLE
SHOW A CAUSE AND EFFECT RELATIONSHIP TO GLOBAL WARMING

10. CONCEPTS TO KNOW PREMISSES HYPOTHESES INDEPENDENT/DEPENDENT VARIABLES
VALIDITY CRITERIA (Refutation vs. Corroboration)
ACTORS
LEVELS OF ANALYSIS

11. Three Images or Levels of Analysis of International Relations

12. Three Levels of Analysis
International Level (“third image”)
Qualities of the International System
Domestic Level (“second image”)
Qualities of the Political and Economic System
Individual Level (“first image”)
Qualities of Individual Leadership

13. Three Images
Kenneth Waltz Man, the State, and War. What are the causes of war?
Third Image: The International System
Second Image: The State
First Image: Human nature

14. Incomplete explanation
1st Image: Human Nature
Optimists
Pessimists
People are basically good
Reform, education
Crime and war are deviant behaviors
Progress is possible, perhaps inevitable
Human nature is flawed
Passion and egoism are fundamental
Crime and war are normal
Utopian ideals are not achievable
Does knowledge lead to peace?
Does knowledge imply same preferences?
But...
But...
Incomplete explanation

15. 1st Image Original Sin: Augustine (354-430) Thucydides (460-400 B.C.)
Reinhold Niebuhr ( ). Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932)
Thucydides ( B.C.)
Fear, Power, Honour
Sigmund Freud ( )
Subconscious, repression
Robert Jervis (1976). Perception and Misperception

16. WAR 2nd Image: The State Institutions Despotic states Internal strife
Internal strife -> diversionary war
Despotic states/leaders vs democratic states
Institutional characteristics, transparency, lag times, popular opinion
WAR

17. The State
Liberalism
Reason and progress make the eventual elimination of war possible
Immanuel Kant ( )
On Perpetual Peace
Historical evolution
Technology leads to more brutal wars
States will be compelled to become peaceful
Republics will be inclined towards peace
Commerce creates incentives to pursue peace
Voluntary association in legal federation of peaceful states

18. The State Marxism-Leninism
The mode of production determines social relations
Government represents dominant class interests
Under capitalism
Expanding production leads to diminishing returns
Search for profits leads to demand for new markets and investment opportunities
Conflict among capitalist states
Harmony among socialist states

19. 3rd Image: International anarchy
Thomas Hobbes ( ). Leviathan (1651)
Human beings are animals that seek pleasure and survival
In the state of nature, others are threats, so all are at war
Life is “nasty, brutish and short”
To transcend anarchy, we surrender our natural rights to an absolute sovereign in a social contract
International anarchy
State of Nature
State of War

20. Thus, what is a Theory ? More Explanations…
Theory is "the net which we throw out in order to catch the world – to rationalize, explain, and dominate it."
Karl Popper. Logik der Forschung, 1935: p.26
(The Logic of Scientific Discovery, London: Routledge Classics 2002, 2003, 2004)
A good theory should fulfil the following functions:
describe, explain and predict (Burchill) observable events – positive idea of theorizing
verify and/or more strictly falsify (Popper) statements about the relationships between observable events - by confronting accumulated knowledge with reality
“No matter how many instances of white swans we may have observed, this does not justify the conclusion that all swans are white”. Karl Popper, The Logic of Scientific Discovery, op. cit.
be internally consistent and coherent
be parsimonious and elegant

21. But remember the basic difference…
Explanatory theories are involved in testing hypo-theses, in proposing causal explanations, in identi- fying main trends and patterns in international re-lations
They presuppose a reality „ out there“ against which they can be tested ….
AND THIS IS EXACTLY THE PROBLEM !!
The issue is whether what is „out there“ is always theory-dependent, conditioned by the language and the culture of the observer and general beliefs about IR tied to a particular place & time – my claim is that there is no view from nowhere !

22. Consequence: constitutive theory
We come to the study of international relations with a specific language, cultural beliefs and preconceptions, and particular life-experiences which affect our understanding of the subject.
Our world views are, inter alia, shaped by language, culture, religion, ethnicity, class, gender, political interests, and socio-economic and societal status.
We can interpret the world only within the context of particular linguistic, cultural, political, and last but not least scientific frameworks – they act as the lenses through which we perceive our universe.
Thus it follows:
The study of theory/theories should enable us to examine all these lenses in order to discover how they construct their world views and in which way they shape, simplify, order – and also distort - „reality“.

23. Time for a little break …