In Pursuit of a Model

Abstract

In this chapter, after attempting a definition of a model in the context of international relations theory, I shall review the models other than game theory at present in stock, that is, those that have been put forward or seem to be implicit in recent theoretical writings as capable of representing short-term international situations — crisis, conflict, negotiation, bargaining. First, then, for the definition. A model is a deductive system whose elements, and the relations between them, correspond to certain identified elements, and the relations between them, of the system under study (in this case the international system). All that is necessary to set up the model is to define the correspondences.