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First establishment of the discipline (Liberalism)
As a reaction to the WW1 and to avoid wars : process of institutionalization of the International Relations in Europe --> teaching, research, think tanks, academic newspaper... -
Edward Hallett Carr, The Twenty Years' Crisis
The book had a massiv influence on the discipline. It critizes the liberal state system. The liberalism is here responsible for the crisis and is nothing but an utopie. -
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1st "Great Debate"
Ontological debate = What do we study ?
Debate between liberalism and realism (dominance of realism) -
Hans Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations
After E.H. Carr, realist critique of liberal internationalism
Very important text for the establishment of the discipline -
Second establishment of the discipline
The second establishment of the discipline comes with the Carr's and Morgenthau's texts as a critique of the dominant liberalism. What is the subject of the discipline ? The new answer is : international relations are about the distribution of power". -
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2nd "Great Debate"
This is epistemological debate between behaviourism and traditionalism. How to aquire knowledges ?
For behaviourists, economy can develop general laws to predict human behaviour. For traditionalists, the disciplin has to be more interpretative, more historical. -
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3rd "Great Debate"
This is an ontological debate, called the "inter-paradigme" or "neo-neo" debate between neo-realism, neo-liberalism and the ermeging neo-marxism.
Waltz, Keohane and Cox are the main thinkers representing those three theories.
--> The consensus about the nature of the discipline is now replaced by a larger spectrum of approaches. -
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4th "Great Debate"
This is an epistemological debate between rationalism (positivist approach) and constructivism; called the "post positivist debate". Which method to study International Relations is the most appropriate and efficient ?
It has produced central questions for the discipline : What theory is about and what its purposes are ?
