The Construction And Cumulation Of Knowledge In International Relations

by Geller, Daniel S.; Vasquez, John A.

• ISBN13: 9781405132459
• ISBN10: 1405132450
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-08-05
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

Within international relations inquiry today there is a debate over both the substance and nature of knowledge. Can there be a "cumulation" of objective knowledge as in the physical and biological sciences or are the social sciences better seen as "constructing" reality through dominant concepts and theories? This volume brings together works of those who defend the quest for objective knowledge and its achievements and those who dissent from the way knowledge has been conceived in the modern era. The Construction and Cumulation of Knowledge in International Relations engages this issue from a variety of perspectives -- constructivism, feminist theory, empirical science, and computer simulation -- with a focus on the subject of global conflict and peace. The volume begins with a discussion of the contending views of how knowledge is developed within the field, reviews the cumulation of knowledge within various subfields, and concludes with contributions that use social science knowledge to address important policy questions.

Author Biography

Dr. Daniel S. Geller is Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science at Wayne State University and a consultant with the U.S. Department of State, Office of Technology and Assessments. He conducts research and teaches in the areas of International Politics, Defense Policy, and Foreign Policy. For 2001-03, he was a Principal Investigator on an NSF grant to the Correlates of War (COW) Project involving the expansion of the militarized interstate dispute database. During 2003, Professor Geller served as Program Chair for the 44th Annual Convention of the International Studies Association. He has published extensively in books, journals, and edited collections on such subjects as nuclear weapons and the escalation of interstate crises, conventional capability balances and the outbreak of war, and the power status of states and patterns of international conflict.

John Vasquez holds the Harvey Picker Chair in International Relations at Colgate University. He has published over a dozen books, including The War Puzzle, The Power of Power Politics: From Classical Realism to Neotraditionalism, What Do We Know about War? (editor), Classics of International Relations (editor), In Search of Theory: A New Paradigm for Global Politics (co-authored with Richard Mansbach), and most recently, Realism and the Balancing of Power: A New Debate (co-edited with Colin Elman). His scholarly articles have appeared in the International Studies Quarterly, American Political Science Review, World Politics, British Journal of Political Science, Security Studies, Journal of Peace Research, International Organization, Journal of Politics, International Political Science Review, and Conflict Management and Peace Science among others. He has been president of the Peace Science Society (International) and the International Studies Association.

has been president of the Peace Science Society (International) and the International Studies Association.

Table of Contents

The Construction of Knowledge

Knowledge, Foundations, Politics

The House of IR: From Family Power Politics to the Poisies of Worldism

The Cumulation of Knowledge

Escalation: Competing Perspectives and Empirical Evidence

Politically-Motivated Opposition to War

Territoriality and War in International Crises: Theory and Findings, 1918-2001

Pacifism and Fightaholism in International Politics: A Structural History of National and Dyadic Conflict, 1816-1992

Policy Application

The Consequences of an Indo-Pakistani Nuclear War

Integrating Theory and Policy: Global Implications of the War in Iraq

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