Theory and Metatheory in International Relations : Concepts and Contending Accounts

The book is an introduction to new debates in international relations. It shows why anyone who wants the best answer to foreign policy problems, like how to deal with North Korea’s nuclear arms program, must look at debates in IR theory, and also debates in metatheory. The latter involve questions about whether IR is much or little like the natural sciences, whether prediction is possible, and the like. The book poses policy questions intended to motivate students to think critically about the assumptions and beliefs that underlay particular policy recommendations. It shows the specific links between those policy choices and principles of international relations theories and the further links to philosophical claims about how to choose the best theory. The book thus shows why it is important to examine and contrast the competing scientific-style rationalist foundations of social science theory with constructivist and postmodern positions, since each offers a different way of understanding what constitutes a good theory of international relations.

The book is an introduction to new debates in International Relations. By beginning with crucial foreign policy dilemmas faced by the US, the book will lay out the competing ideas as clearly as possible and to show why it is important to understand both them and the general IR context of which they are a part. The book thus motivates students to examine rationalist, constructivist and post-modern foundational positions, and gives students tools with which to analyze competing arguments. The book does so by working its way from disputes about which action or policy is best (in chapter 1); to the causal assumptions the policy-recommendations make (in chapter 2); to the theories that justify those policy-recommendations, i.e., that render them plausible solutions to the problem (in chapter 3); to the philosophical assumptions and perspectives of the different substantive theories (in chapter 4); finally, to a consideration of the criteria by which foundational theories are chosen (chapter 5).

This book uses three controversial contemporary American foreign policy problems to introduce students to the A"new debatesA" in international relations, in which the criticisms of constructivism, interpretivism, and postmodernism are presented against traditional positivist concepts of social science. The book shows that any reasoned decision on how to handle foreign policy toward Iraq, North Korea, or China must be based on theories of international relations, and the most appropriate theory can be selected only after one solves problems regarding the methods of critical analysis Front Matter....Pages i-x Introduction....Pages 1-6 Three Policy Dilemmas....Pages 7-33 Policy Decisions and Theories of International Relations....Pages 35-77 International Relations and Scientific Criteria for Choosing a Theory....Pages 79-130 Reflectivist Opposition to the Scientific Approach....Pages 131-178 Conclusion: Contending Approaches to the Study of International Relations....Pages 179-197 Back Matter....Pages 199-223