Evaluating Progress in International Relations: How do you know?

235 Pages·2016·2.24 MB·English

by  Annette Freyberg-Inan, Ewan Harrison, Patrick James

Evaluating Progress in International
Relations
This edited volume offers a systematic evaluation of how knowledge is produced
by scholarly research into International Relations. The contributors explore three
key questions: To what extent is scientific progress and accumulation of know-
ledge possible? What are the different accounts of how this process takes place?
And what are the dominant critiques of these understandings? It is the first publi-
cation to survey the full range of perspectives available for evaluating scientific
progress as well as dominant critiques of scientism.
In its second part, the volume applies this range of perspectives to the
research program on democratic peace. It shows what we gain by accommod-
ating and enabling dialogue among the full range of epistemological approaches.
The contributors elaborate and defend the epistemological position of sociable
pluralism as one that seeks to build bridges between soft positivism, critical
theory, and critical realism. The underlying idea is that if the differences between
the various approaches used by different communities of researchers can be
understood more clearly, this will facilitate meaningful cross- cutting communi-
cation, dialogue, and debate and thereby enable us to address real- world prob-
lems more effectively.
This timely and original work will be of great interest to advanced-l evel stu-
dents and scholars dealing with philosophy of science and methodological ques-
tions in International Relations.
Annette Freyberg- Inan is Researcher and Lecturer at the Amsterdam Institute
of Social Science Research and the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Ewan Harrison is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at
Rutgers University, USA.
Patrick James is Professor of International Relations at the University of
Southern California, USA.
The New International Relations
Edited by Richard Little
University of Bristol,
Iver B. Neumann
Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), Norway
and Jutta Weldes
University of Bristol
The field of international relations has changed dramatically in recent years. This
new series will cover the major issues that have emerged and reflect the latest
academic thinking in this particular dynamic area.
For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com/ New-
International-Relations/book-series/NEWIR
Africa in the Expansion of The Conduct of Inquiry in
International Society International Relations Second
Surrendering the Savannah Edition
John Anthony Pella, Jr Philosophy of science and its
implications for the study of world
Small State Status Seeking
politics
Iver B. Neumann and
Patrick Thaddeus Jackson
Benjamin de Carvalho
Nuclear Realism
Critical Security Methods Global political thought during the
New frameworks for analysis thermonuclear revolution
Claudia Aradau, Jef Huysmans, Rens van Munster and Casper Sylvest
Andrew Neal and Nadine Voelkner
The Politics of Globality since 1945
Assembling the planet
The International Political Sociology
Edited by Rens van Munster and
of Security
Casper Sylvest
Rethinking theory and practice
Trine Villumsen Berling Evaluating Progress in International
Relations
Reflexivity and International
How do you know?
Relations
Edited by Annette Freyberg-I nan,
Positionality, critique, and practice
Ewan Harrison, and Patrick James
Jack L. Amoureux and Brent J. Steele
Russia and the Idea of Europe
A Practice of Ethics for Global Second Edition
Politics A study in identity and international
Ethical reflexivity relations
Jack L. Amoureux Iver B. Neumann
Evaluating Progress in
International Relations
How do you know?
Edited by Annette Freyberg-I nan,
Ewan Harrison and Patrick James
First published 2017
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2017 selection and editorial matter, Annette Freyberg-I nan, Ewan
Harrison and Patrick James; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Annette Freyberg-I nan, Ewan Harrison and Patrick James to
be identified as authors of the editorial matter, and of the individual
authors as authors of their contributions, has been asserted by them in
accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
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ISBN: 978-1-138-67416-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-31556-146-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
Annette Freyberg-Inan and Ewan Harrison dedicate this book
to their co-editor Patrick James in sincere gratitude for being a
truly outstanding scholar, mentor, and friend over two
decades.

Contents
List of illustrations ix
Notes on contributors x
Foreword xiii
Preface xvi
Introduction: progress, consensus, and cumulation in IR
scholarship? 1
EWAN HARRISON, ANNETTE FREYBERG- INAN, AND
PATRICk JAMES
PART I
Judging progress in the study of international relations 15
1 The bias of “science”: on the intellectual appeal of
neopositivism 17
PATRICk THADDEUS JACkSON
2 Maps, models, and theories: a scientific realist approach to
validity 31
COLIN WIGHT
3 Substance, form, and context: scholarly communities,
institutions, and the nature of IR 51
TORBJøRN L. kNUTSEN
4 The role of theory for knowledge creation in IR: a sociable
pluralist discussion 74
ANNETTE FREYBERG- INAN
viii Contents
PART II
Evaluating progress in democratic peace research – an
illustrative case study 87
5 Bounded pluralism and explanatory progress in
international relations: what we can learn from the
democratic peace debate 89
FRED CHERNOFF
6 Systemism, analytic eclecticism, and the democratic peace 109
JARROD HAYES AND PATRICk JAMES
7 Rethinking the democratic peace: competing accounts of
“scientific progress” in IR 125
EWAN HARRISON
8 The normative within the explanatory: a critical take on the
democratic peace literature 139
PIkI ISH- SHALOM
9 The closer you look, the less you see: knowledge cumulation
in IR 156
LAURA SJOBERG
Conclusion: different standards for discovery and
confirmation 173
ANNETTE FREYBERG- INAN, EWAN HARRISON,
AND PATRICk JAMES
Bibliography 185
Index 206
Illustrations
Figures
5.1 Democratic peace and criteria used by each explanatory theory 102
6.1 Functional relations in a social system 117
6.2 The democratic peace in 1997 120
6.3 The democratic peace in 2010–2012 122
Tables
1.1 Expressiveness and evaluation 23
1.2 Dichotomies 25
1.3 The neopositivist world 26
5.1 Authors’ use of explanatory criteria and explanation of
democratic behavior 100
5.2 Realism, liberalism, and criteria 101
6.1 Analytic eclecticism and implementation 115
10.1 Summary of responses to principal questions 174