Theory & Methods

To Fear or Love Multipolarity?

by Van Jackson | Aug 13, 2022 | Security, Theory & Methods, US Foreign Policy

The global distribution of material power changes from time to time. It’s something that happens, not something we should spend any amount of time pursuing or avoiding. I say this as someone who thinks the United States has done questionable good and much unquestionable harm with its former status as a unipolar power, so this is not a proxy argument about US foreign policy. You might be wondering who wants multipolarity, and the answer is lots of folks. ...

Talking Great-Power Competition in the Heart of Empires Past

by Dan Nexon | Jul 17, 2022 | Academia, Featured, Security, Theory & Methods, US Foreign Policy

It turns out that it’s hard to write a roundup of happenings at the Duck of Minerva when there aren’t many to speak of. Much of that’s on me. What’s my excuse? Well, the kid finally contracted...

Was anarchy always what states made of it?

by Dan Nexon | Jun 26, 2022 | Security, Theory & Methods

Like a lot of academics, I love Google n-grams, but not as much as the digitized archive Google uses to produce it. It’s a great warren of rabbit holes – even better than wikipedia – and I often...

Duncan Bell

by Brent Steele | May 17, 2022 | Featured, Hayseed Scholar, Theory & Methods

Professor Duncan Bell joins The Hayseed Scholar podcast. Duncan grew up in the Midlands in a rural area of England. He was interested in international politics from a fairly young age. Duncan chose...

More Theory & Methods Posts

Best Practices in Quantitative Conflict Studies

by Sooyeon Kang & Trey Billing | Apr 21, 2022 | Academia, Security, Theory & Methods

When it comes to quantitative data in conflict studies, standards for collection, reliability, ethics, and usage remain behind the curve. We discuss five things that scholars can do to address these gaps.

Was NATO expansion a mistake?

by Dan Nexon | Apr 20, 2022 | Security, Theory & Methods

Foreign Affairs ran a poll on the question. A few of us expressed skepticism about the debate itself.

Do Realists and Leftists Want the Same Thing?

by Van Jackson | Mar 30, 2022 | Theory & Methods, US Foreign Policy

Most versions of the left gain little and sacrifice much in accepting a realist epistemology. Theories of international relations are just tools for making sense of patterns and puzzles in the world; they don’t need groupies.

A Tale of Two Interviews: IR Theory and the Russian Invasion of Ukraine

by Jarrod Hayes & Adam B. Lerner | Mar 22, 2022 | Academia, Security, Theory & Methods

Two recent interviews in the New Yorker have received substantial attention in recent weeks. Unfortunately, taken together, they make the IR discipline look terrible. How can IR theorists demonstrate their discipline’s relevance in the face of rapidly changing historical events?

The Invasion of Ukraine is Russia’s Fault

by J. Patrick Rhamey Jr. | Mar 7, 2022 | Academia, Security, States & Regions, Theory & Methods, US Foreign Policy

For Mearsheimer “freedom” and “prosperity” are simply weapons of great power politics rather than aspirations sought by the Ukrainian people.

Conscious States in a World of Make Believe

by Adam B. Lerner | Feb 11, 2022 | Conscious States, Theory & Methods

I wrote the first draft of “What’s it Like to Be a State?” sometime in late 2017, during an unusual time in both my personal life and my research career. I was about halfway through my PhD at the University of Cambridge and was feeling both immensely homesick and quite bored—trapped in a small town that felt ripped from the Victorian era. I filled my free time watching large numbers of pre-recorded NBA games and, also, for some reason, reading philosophy of mind….

State Consciousness and Ontological Security

by Brent Steele | Feb 10, 2022 | Conscious States, Theory & Methods

I appreciate this opportunity to remark on Adam Lerner’s (hereafter, just ‘Adam’), excellent 2020 International Theory article on state consciousness. I recall first chatting with Adam about this paper when it was still in development, over a coffee in Prague at the 2018 European International Studies Association (EISA) annual meeting. Some of what I’ll mention here will be a rehashing – but also rethinking – of what I told him then. To cut to the chase, I still maintain my skepticism regarding how Adam’s article, and those like it, will be received in certain corners of International...

Someone needs to stop these violent psychopaths!

by Alexandria Innes | Feb 9, 2022 | Conscious States, Security, Theory & Methods

state takes precedence over their own lives. Focusing on states as persons distracts us from how violence travels across levels of analysis. States don’t do violence to one another. They inflict violence on actual living beings.

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