introduction to international relations international relations as scientific endeavor jaechun kim
TRANSCRIPT
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