Causation in International Relations: Reclaiming Causal Analysis

by Milja Kurki

• ISBN13: 9780521709507
• ISBN10: 0521709504
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-06-02
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• More Book Details

Summary

World political processes, such as wars and globalisation, are engendered by complex sets of causes and conditions. Although the idea of causation is fundamental to the field of International Relations, what the concept of cause means or entails has remained an unresolved and contested matter. In recent decades ferocious debates have surrounded the idea of causal analysis, some scholars even questioning the legitimacy of applying the notion of cause in the study of International Relations. This book suggests that underlying the debates on causation in the field of International Relations is a set of problematic assumptions (deterministic, mechanistic and empiricist) and that we should reclaim causal analysis from the dominant discourse of causation. Milja Kurki argues that reinterpreting the meaning, aims and methods of social scientific causal analysis opens up multi-causal and methodologically pluralist avenues for future International Relations scholarship.

Table of Contents

Introduction: the problem of causation and the divided discipline of international relations

The Humean Philosophy of Causation and its Legacies

The Humean philosophy of causation and its legacies in philosophy of science

Controversy over causes in the social sciences

Humeanism and rationalist causal analysis in international relations

Reflectivist and constructivist approaches in international relations: more cases of Humeanism

Rethinking the Concept of Cause

Attempts to move beyond Humeanism: strengths and weaknesses

Rethinking causation: towards a deeper and broader concept of cause

Reconfiguring Causal Analysis of World Politics

Expanding horizons in world political causal inquiry

Reconceptualising causes, reframing the divided discipline

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