Research and Writing in International Relations

Laura Roselle, Joel T. Shelton, Sharon Spray

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780429822582
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Research & Methodology
• Index: Social Sciences

Research and Writing in International Relations, Third Edition, offers the step-by-step guidance and the essential resources needed to compose political science papers that go beyond description and into systematic and sophisticated inquiry.

This book provides concise, easy-to-use advice to help students develop more advanced papers through step-by-step descriptions, examples, and resources for every stage of the paper writing process. The book focuses on areas where students often need guidance: understanding how international relations theory fits into research, finding a topic, developing a question, reviewing the literature, designing research, and last, writing the paper.

Including current and detailed coverage on how to start research in the discipline's major subfields, Research and Writing in International Relations gives students a classroom-tested approach that leads to better research and writing in introductory and advanced classes.

New to the Third Edition:

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• A new first chapter that gives an overview of the relationship between international relations theory and research in international relations, demonstrating how theoretical frameworks shape the concepts utilized, topics selected, and questions posed in international relations research.

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• Revised topic chapters that include updates to the scholarly literature and data sources

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• Revised descriptions of the areas of study that incorporate new research topics (like global inequality)

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• Additional perspectives from international relations theory.

PART I

The Research and Writing Process

There is nothing simple about the relationships among states in the international system. States differ in their structures of government, their levels of economic prosperity, their ethnic compositions, and their cultures. No two instances of conflict are ever the same, and cooperation among nations is often tenuous. Levels of international power shift, domestic political structures change, and the wealth of nations fluctuates. Whether it is the democratic election of a new president or a military coup, domestic leadership changes can transform regional and international dynamics in a single day.

International relations cannot be understood merely as the interactions of states or the decisions of world leaders. The power of nonstate actors, such as the World Bank, the United Nations, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), influences the actions of nations. Even events unrelated to individual governments – natural disasters, international terrorism, the spread of human disease – can alter international relations. To the casual observer of international politics, it might seem as though one could never make predictions, draw comparisons, or develop theories about international relations. But this is not the case.

Political science is the systematic study of politics. Political scientists, like other social and natural scientists, have developed numerous methodologies to help us study politics and to better understand the complex political world we live in. But unlike people working in the natural sciences, political scientists cannot conduct laboratory experiments to isolate which circumstances produce specific outcomes. Every situation we study in political science is slightly different from the one we studied before. Yet political science research moves well beyond just describing the circumstances of isolated political events or social conditions to answering interesting questions about political change and political outcomes.

Most students have written many descriptive papers; in this text we focus instead on what we refer to as international relations research projects or original research studies at the college level. Descriptive papers (which often contain an argument or thesis) are generally explorations of topics or events. This type of paper expands personal knowledge but does not necessarily expand our general understanding of political phenomena or contribute new information. Original research studies at the college level increase our knowledge base about politics by examining very specific cases, events, and questions about political phenomena. You may think about the distinction between descriptive papers and original research studies as the difference between being well-informed about a topic and being a scholar. It is about moving beyond the inquiry stage where you cultivate general knowledge about a topic to a stage where you can dissect a complex phenomenon, identify what scholars know and do not know about a topic, and judge the strength of various explanatory theories.

This may sound complicated, but it is not. You can construct an original research project – one that will broaden our understanding of international relations. Although this type of research takes time, planning, and patience, it can be intellectually stimulating and highly rewarding. The key to conducting research is to be systematic in your approach to studying an event or process and to place the conclusions reached from any individual research project within a broader context of what we already understand about politics. Our knowledge of international relations is based on the assembly of multiple pieces of information. Expanding knowledge is like putting together a puzzle; the outcomes of multiple studies are the pieces that collectively provide a larger picture of our political landscape. The ability to place a narrowly defined study that answers a specific question within a broader context of international relations scholarship is a distinguishing feature of research and a skill this book will help you learn.

Here is an example of what we are talking about when we suggest there are distinct differences between descriptive papers and original international relations research papers.

Topic for a descriptive paper:	Neotropical deforestation
Topic for a research paper:	What factors best explain differences in deforestation rates among the countries of Central America?

Notice in this example that the descriptive paper topic does not suggest any conclusion. It would yield only a topical overview, much like an encyclopedia entry. The college research paper requires not only reviewing the topic but also, more importantly, answering a question of interest to international relations scholars, students, and policy makers. To develop the college research paper, the researcher must first acquire general knowledge about the topic. This is why we often point out that original research at the college level begins at the point where most descriptive papers end.

When looking at the question posed in our example, you may ask, “Why focus the question so narrowly?” Why not ask, “What factors best explain differences in neotropical deforestation?” One reason is that the broader the question, the more difficult it is to answer with any specificity or confidence. Even though we would likely find some general explanations, conclusions from focused studies are often more reliable and, in the long run, more useful to understanding political behavior than an overly broad generalization of a broader topic that is not carefully and systematically explored. Think about how much more precisely you could answer this question if each person in your class looked at a different country and then you compared your findings. Your ability to draw an overall conclusion would ultimately be more reliable.

On occasion, criticism is lodged at research that is too narrowly focused – often suggesting that researchers may be losing track of the big picture by looking too closely at single events and phenomena. Granted, a single study is merely anecdotal unless it can be placed within a larger context of information. But focused studies provide the foundation for our broader understanding of politics. Think of it this way: natural scientists often repeat experiments over and over before developing theories about behavior. Repetition leads to greater confidence in a researcher’s ability to theorize or predict future outcomes. Since international relations scholars cannot hold the same election over and over, or replicate a war, we must develop our theories and hypotheses about politics and political behavior by looking at research that is similar or related to our own inquiry. Only then can a single study be used to understand politics as a whole. This is why all good political science research builds on the work of others and why the research process described in this text teaches you how to conduct this type of research.

Whether we start with a narrow research question and explain how it fits within our broader understanding of international politics or start with a broad understanding of an area of international politics and narrow the focus to a single question, our research should augment the research completed by others. This book teaches you how to begin with a broad topic and then narrow your focus to a manageable level. It will help you develop a question of importance that will enhance our understanding in the field of international relations.

Every discipline has a distinctive set of conventions and practices that guides the structure of research within the field. The field of international relations is no different. While there are multiple approaches to research (e.g., qualitative, quantitative, case studies, etc.), there are several fundamental components to most international relations research papers. These components include a question designed to expand knowledge within the field (sometimes referred to as an original research question); connections to existing research (literature review); a description of the specific research approach used in the project (methodology); a section that discusses the systematic analysis of the data, evidence, or observations; and usually a summative conclusion.

Learning to conduct question-based research will forever make you think about international relations differently. Each time you put together a research project, you will better understand the complexity of political phenomena and the importance of looking beyond the obvious for causal explanations.

Overview of Part I

Part I of this text explains how to conduct research and write a question-based research paper in international relations. It begins with a discussion of the role of international relations theory in research, then focuses on how to choose a topic and develop an initial research question, and finally moves through each step in the research process, including how to write the final paper.

Chapter 1 links the study of international relations theory to the development of a research project, and suggests the ways that theory is linked to research. This chapter will help you to ground your research in theory, to be mindful of your own assumptions about how the world works, and to think about international politics in new and unfamiliar ways.

Chapter 2 covers choosing a topic, developing a question, and understanding cause-and-effect relationships in international relations. Questions drive new research, and here we explain how to develop your own.

Chapter 3 covers how to place your research within a context. Conducting a literature review that covers how international relations scholars have studied your topic and what they have found is important in this process. This chapter explains how to find, read, and understand scholarly research in academic journals and other publications.

Chapter 4 sets out a framework or design for your research, explaining how a case-based approach works well for many students. The chapter suggests how to pick cases, how to use variables, and how to collect evidence or data in a systematic way.

Chapter 5 explains how to present your research in a written form. It gives suggestions for paper sections and examples as well.

Overall, Part I will guide you step-by-step in the process of writing an original international relations research paper.

Grounding Research in Theory

1

Whether you are a first time researcher or have written research papers before, developing a research project in international relations may at first feel like an overwhelming task: It’s a big, messy world out there, and making sense of the activities of a range of international actors – nation-states, intergovernmental organizations, transnational corporations, nongovernmental organizations, terrorist groups, civil society organizations, social movements, and flows of goods, investment capital, and people – can seem a mind-numbing prospect for even the most experienced scholar. What matters, and what doesn’t? What do I really want to know? What does it mean? And why should anyone care?

What student researchers often overlook is the connection between the nearly endless complexity of world politics and the class time that they have spent learning about international relations (IR) theory, sometimes called international political theory. The good news is that political scientists and social theorists working in this area have already developed some useful understandi...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Part I The Research and Writing Process
• Part II Project Resources
• Part III Writing Resources
• References
• Index