New Directions for International Relations: Confronting the Method-of-Analysis Problem (Innovations in the Study of World Politics) - Softcover

This diverse and innovative collection of studies demonstrates that researchers engaged in the systematic study of international politics are continuing, after forty years of effort, to develop new approaches and to address contemporary issues. -- Philip A. Schrodt, University of Kansas An importnat contribution to International Relations scholarship.... will therefore be a useful and welcome addition to courses on methodology in international relations. * Millennium: Journal of International Studies * International relations scholars continue to produce inconsistent findings that impede scientific progress and have limited impact on policy makers. This volume provides a superb diagnosis of the problems involved and useful recommendations for overcoming them, along with some highly innovative and multi-method approaches to both new and old issues in the study of international relations. -- Jack S. Levy, Rutgers University

Why does the academic study of international relations have limited impact on the policy community? In New Directions for International Relations, Mintz and Russett identify differences in methods of analysis as one cause of problematic, unreliable results. They discuss the problem and set the stage for nine chapters by diverse scholars to demonstrate innovative new developments in IR theory and creative new methods that can lay the basis for greater consensus.