I N T E R N AT I O N A L P O L I T I C S : I N T R O T O

T H E O RY
GOALS

• Understanding why we use political science theory

• What are some of the ways in which theories differ?

• A note of caution about theoretical blinders and a call

for pluralism
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS
AND DIFFERENCES
• Levels of analysis:
– Individual, state, international system

• Actors:
– International institutions, states, (economic classes?
Genders?)

• Assumptions about motivation:

– Power, material payoffs, culture, manliness
THEORY SHAPES REAL
WORLD POLICY
• “President George W. Bush promises to fight terror
by spreading liberal democracy… National Security
Advisor Condoleeza Rice, a former… political science
processor, explains that the new Bush doctrine is an
amalgam of pragmatic realism and Wilsonian
liberal theory.”
– Snyder, in Essential Readings, p. 3
ABSTRACTION
“OLOGIES” AND THE NATURE
OF INQUIRY
• Epistemology
– Is there an objective political reality, or not?

• Ontology
– What are the ‘real’ things worth looking at?

• Parsimony
– How much detail do we need?
THE “SCIENCE” OF
POLITICAL SCIENCE
• Some draw from philosophers (Kuhn, Lakatos) to argue
that social science should progress like natural scientific
paradigms/research programs

• Realism as one theory

whose adherents tend to
treat it as paradigmatic
DISTINGUISHING SOCIAL
FROM NATURAL SCIENCE
• No shared set of validity tests among scholars
(some are objectivist, some are not)

• Research agenda does not “progress:” same

theories used in Peloponnesian War (Thucydides) can
still apply today
FALSIFIABILITY AND
THEORETICAL TESTING
 AVOID BALKANIZATION
• “Popper’s views endorse an open society of scholars
employing a diversity of theories and methods… For
Popper, scientists who are proven wrong will learn more and
be better prepared for future research. As the world
grows more complicated… questions… can hardly fit
a single paradigm.”
– Walker, p. 446 – 447

• “The greatest thing about this man is he's steady. You know
where he stands. He believes the same thing Wednesday,
that he believed on Monday, no matter what happened
Tuesday. Events can change, this man's beliefs never
will.”
– Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, DFA
TAKEAWAY

• The world is complex, and theory is necessary to

make sense of it: policymakers and academics
need it

• Theories can inform us what proper behavior is in

given circumstances

• One danger in using theory, is to become so

blinkered in your paradigm, that you ignore
alternate & better explanations
NO-EGO & “CONCEPTUAL
ECLECTICISM”

• “Don’t get set into one form, adapt it

and build your own, and let it grow. Be
like water.”
– Bruce Lee
DOING THE READINGS
“WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO
SAY?”