Approaches to International Relations

There are several distinct approaches to the study of IR, these include: the traditional approach,
the scientific approach, the behavioural and post-behaviouralist approaches, and the systems
approach.

Traditional Approach

In view of the complex variables influencing behaviour of states, the traditionalists focus on the
observed behaviour of governments. They explain observable government behaviour on the basis
of concepts like balance of power, national interest, diplomacy etc. Traditional realists try to
understand and resolve the clashing of interests that inevitability leads to war.
This is an approach to international relations that emphasizes the studying of such disciplines as
diplomatic history, international law, and philosophy in an attempt to develop better insights.
Traditionalists tend to be skeptical of behaviouralist approaches that are confined to strict
scientific standards that include formal hypothesis testing and, usually, the use of statistical
analysis. Traditional theorists regard international relations as a sub-discipline of history and
political science. There are historical, philosophical and legal variants to the traditional approach.

Scientific Approach

Scientific scholars challenged the traditionalist, arguing that IR is too broad and complex field to
be a sub- discipline of political science. They began constructing conceptual frameworks and
partial models of international systems, and tried to collect and analyze data to refute or validate
a formulated hypothesis. Such theorists focus on statistical correlations between variables like
incidence of war and alliance policies. While this approach has brought a methodological rigor to
IR, it relies more heavily on process analysis than on experimentation. Even obtaining data is
difficult in IR and the units of analysis vary (terrorism for e.g. is a relative term).

Behavioural Approach

In the 1960s and 70s, scholars began arguing that politics cannot be studied factually without
reference to values. Behavioural approach is informed by socio-anthropological and
psychological perspectives. It focuses on understanding the reasons behind the action behaviour
of states and other international actors. This approach has contributed to understanding how
people and organizations of different cultures interact, the effects of propaganda and
stereotypical views on conflict situations and international relations. It is difficult to determine
the behaviour of states, which is the aggregate behaviour of a large number of individuals and of
superimposing authorities. A practitioner of behaviorism is often referred to as a behavioralist.
Behaviorism refers to the ideas held by those behavioral scientists who consider only observed
behavior as relevant to the scientific enterprise and who reject what they consider to be
metaphysical notions of “mind” or “consciousness”. Behavioral Approach specifies the
behaviour of persons and social groups rather than events, structures, institutions ideologies. It
stresses the mutual interdependence of theory and research and tries to develop vigorous research
design and to apply precise methods of analysis to political behaviour problems.

Post-Behaviouralist Approach

In the 1980s, an attempt was made to combine normative and empirical approaches(Empirical
political theory focuses on the observation and explanation of political phenomena and involves
formulating and testing hypotheses through experimentation. Normative political theory focuses
on what ought to be and explores the values and ideals of a political system) to study IR.
This approach can be used to test the validity of the idealists‟ hypothesis to see if democratic or
authoritarian states are more likely to be engaged in internal conflicts.

Systems Approach

This approach places more emphasis on the complex interaction between and within states, while
retaining a post-behavioural scientific orientation. It does so by focusing on international systems
which are interdependent and interrelated. These systems range from small systems to
intermediate and large systems. The UN system, individual nations, ethnic groups, individual
voters, political parties, MNCs etc. can all be categorized into corresponding systems to
understand the complex nature of IR.

Marxist Approach: Basically different from the liberal view of international politics, the
Marxists regard politics as a struggle for power hinging on the basis of class interests. In the
domestic sphere, politics signifies a continuous fight between the two contending classes. The
dominant class having control over the means of production, distribution, and exchange and the
dominated one that becomes the victim of exploitation and oppression at the hands of dominant
class. The same fact finds its extension in the international sphere where capitalist states fight for
economic exploitation and political subjugation of the weaker states of the world. With a view to
establish their monopolistic hold, they fight against each other for the partition of the globe as a
result of that world war occurs.