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Describing, Representing, Interpreting Read chapter Read first chapter

2018 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

2. Constructing Subjects and Comparison in International Relations Studies

Author : Thomas Lindemann

Published in: Resources and Applied Methods in International Relations

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

The purpose of this contribution is to steer between the idiographic and nomothetic poles, and to present in action the method of structured, focalized and controlled comparisons that are liable to produce “contextualized” “intermediary” theories. I will outline the explanative potential of “chrono-logics” and specific contexts. The emphasis will at first be put on the merits and limits of “particularistic” conceptions of social phenomena, then on underlining the advantages and problems of “covering law,” an ambition of the dominant approaches. Finally, I will demonstrate the focalized and controlled comparison method and will show how it provides a way of analyzing international crises between times of war and peace without misrecognizing the particularity of “cases.”

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Footnotes
1
Guillaume Devin, Sociologie des relations internationales (Paris, La Découverte, 2013).
 
2
Colin Elman and Miriam Elman (eds), Bridges and Boundaries: Historian, Political Scientists and the Study of International Relations (Cambridge (Mass.), MIT Press, 2001).
 
3
Robert Goodin and Hans-Dieter Klingemann (eds), A New Handbook of Political Science (New York (N. Y.), Oxford University Press, 1996), pp. 10–23.
 
4
Matthew A. Baum and Philip B. K. Potter, War and Democratic Constraint. How the Public Influences Foreign Policy (Princeton (N. J.), Princeton University Press, 2015).
 
5
The International Crisis Behavior Project is being conducted by Michael Brecher and the University of Maryland’s Center for International Development and Conflict Management. It collects data on international crises involving a risk of military conflict (all crises since 1918).
 
6
Graham Allison and Philip Zelikov, Essence of Decision. Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis, (New York (N. Y.), Longman, 1999).
 
7
Alexander George and George Bennett, Case Studies and Theory Development (Cambridge (Mass.), MIT Press, 2005).
 
8
Pascal Vennesson, Les Chevaliers de l’armée de l’air (Paris, Presses de Sciences Po, 1997).
 
9
Thomas Lindemann, Causes of War. The Struggle for Recognition (Colchester, ECPR, 2011), Thomas Lindemann and Maéva Clément, “Introduction. Les politiques de prévention des guerres dans les crises internationales,” Dynamiques internationales, 10, September 2015 (available at http://​dynamiques-internationales.​com/​publications/​numero-10-september-2015/​).
 
10
Jack S. Levy and John A. Vasquez, The Outbreak of the First World War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014).
 
11
George and Bennett, Case Studies and Theory Development.
 
12
Franca Loewener, “Unnegotiable Interests. The Moroccan Crisis of 1905,” Dynamiques internationales, 10, September 2015 (available at http://​dynamiques-internationales.​com/​publications/​numero-10-septembre-2015/​).
 
13
George and Bennett, Case Studies and Theory Development, pp. 205–232.
 
Literature
Allison, Graham. 1971. Essence of Decision. New York: Little Brown.
Baum, Peter, and Philip Potter. 2015. War and Democratic Constraint. How the Public Influences Foreign Policy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRef
Devin, Guillaume. 2013. Sociologie des relations internationales. Paris: La Découverte.
Elman, Colin, and Miriam Elman, eds. 2001. Bridges and Boundaries: Historian, Political Scientists and the Study of International Relations. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
George, Alexander, and George Bennett. 2005. Case Studies and Theory Development. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Goodin, Robert, and Hans-Dieter Klingemann, eds. 1996. A New Handbook of Political Science, 10–23. New York: Oxford University Press.
King, Gary, Robert O. Keohane, and Sidney Verba. 1994. Designing Social Inquiry. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Levy, Jack S., and John A. Vasquez. 2014. The Outbreak of the First World War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRef
Lindemann, Thomas. 2011. Causes of War. The Struggle for Recognition. Colchester: ECPR.
Lustick, Ian. 1996. History, Historiography, and Political Science. American Political Science Review 90 (3): 605–618.CrossRef
Vennesson, Pascal. 1997. Les Chevaliers de l’air. Paris: Presses de Sciences Po.
Metadata
Title
Constructing Subjects and Comparison in International Relations Studies
Author
Thomas Lindemann
Copyright Year
2018
Book
Resources and Applied Methods in International Relations

Print ISBN: 978-3-319-61978-1

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-61979-8

Copyright Year: 2018

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61979-8_2