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The first “Great Debate.”
The first great debate erupted between the first two theoretical school, liberalism and realism. Emphasis was laid on outlawing war, disarmament, international law and
international organisations as basic problem-solving methods in world politics. Liberals sought to answer the question what ought to be done to avoid war, while the counterpart of the liberals, Realists wanted to understand the nature of power politics “as it is”. Thus the discipline was born in Aberystwyth, Wales. -
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The second “Great Debate.”
It was an epistemological debate between ‘behaviourism’ and ‘traditionalism’ in the 1950s and 60s. The question was: „what is the most appropriate way of pursuing and acquiring knowledge in international relations?”New academic departments and centres appeared and this period also
saw the rapid proliferation of approaches to the field. -
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The “third great debate.”
Neorealism and neoliberalism were engaged in dialogue and at the same time defend themselves against a variety of
„critical” theories.neo-Marxism. The debate
was an ontological debate concerning the subject matter of the discipline. On what should we focus to understand properly the nature of the international politics? This debate was called the neo-neo debate or the interparadigm debate. -
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The fourth “Great Debate.
New debates have arisen in IR addressing methodological as well substantial issues. In the 1990s a fourth debate was on its way, which challenged the established traditions in IR by alternative approaches. The new voice was identified as post-positivist approach. The fourth debate started as an epistemological debate. It was about how should we study IRs.
