IR 210 1st Edition Lecture 17 Current Lecture Competition between theories helps reveal their strength and weaknesses and spurs subsequent refinements while revealing flaws in conventional wisdom The need to consider competing ideas and theories extends to our discussion of approaches or ways of studying international relations Stephen Walt How do we study IR Descriptive accounts Historical narratives or stories Puzzles and problem solving Tradition of the 18th century enlightenment rationalism o Description is not enough we need explanation to develop a prescription We can solve any problem our society is presented with Those with knowledge will lead Our problems are manmade therefore they can solve by man No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings Man s reason and spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable and we believe they can do it again JFK Natural law universal order human capacity to solve problems A Why theory Without Theory we cannot hope to understand the world in which we live Martin Wight Theory shaped by events and events shaped by theory Reality theory Agnew and Pike We listen look and feel selectively and we also forget condense and distort the world around us We are all intellectually lazy good feeling over good fact We use theory to make order out of complexity Theories help us construct the world Marxists walk around with certain ideas in their head Occupy Movement trying to undo a system dominant paradigm B General types of theory in IR Intuitive hunches i What you ve heard personal experience Causal Empirical i Testable propositions searching for independent variable Normative i Theories that deal with questions of morality ethics tell us how to behave very prescriptive ii Just War Theory Constitutive Theory i Tells us what things are what the construction of something is ii Constitution tells us what state is and what state does Range of theory tells us where it applies i Low individual behavior one singular person ii Middle behavior of a group all students at USC all university students iii Grand group of everyone all university students in the world King Keohane and Verba A social science theory is a reasoned and precise speculation about the answer to a research question i Key word speculation and not truth ii Research and discovery not searching for echoes Know all levels of analysis Robert Cox we have two kinds of theory in IR i Problem solving theory accepts the dominant paradigm and discourse and works within it 1 Paradigm defines what is real and what is not real we work to influence states 2 Examples Grotians and Kantians a Rational choice theory maximize benefits minimize cost looks at all options know all options assign values to options b Prospect theory look at different options and to see if we are risk accepting or risk adverse Jimmy Carter in hostage crisis c Poliheuristic theory decision making is a two phase process setting up options narrowing agenda going from experience rational choice assign values to options you ve already decided on 3 Most middle range theory fits here as well ii Critical theory challenges the dominant paradigm and all the assumptions that go with it challenges the system start with core assumptions and challenge assumptions made about IR 1 Examples Marxists a Critical feminist theory b Marxist theory foreign aid is bad because is perpetuates the core periphery relationship doesn t fix things or transform system c Pacific or utopian theories How do we know we have a good theory i Transcends time and culture ii Commonsensical iii Fruitful iv Parsimonious concise v Elegant tight important vi Powerful explains a lot C Michael Donelan Ideas and theories in IR shaped by five core traditions Realism Machiavelli Hobbes dominant perspective Rationalism Grotian Enlightenment thinking people can change the world Natural law moral and legal theory moral standards that guide human behavior Historicism context in a historical period Fideism importance of religious doctrine Shape core debates more normative and constitutive each are intellectual traditions D Current research approaches in IR Hollis and Smith The social sciences thrive on two intellectual traditions One is founded on the triumphant rise of natural science since the 16 th century the other is rooted in the 19th century ideas of history and writing history from the inside Reflectivists first used by Robert Keohane post positivists position rejection of rationalists positivists