Abstract
The purpose of this contribution is to steer between the idiographic and nomothetic poles, and to present in action the method of structured, focalized and controlled comparisons that are liable to produce “contextualized” “intermediary” theories. I will outline the explanative potential of “chrono-logics” and specific contexts. The emphasis will at first be put on the merits and limits of “particularistic” conceptions of social phenomena, then on underlining the advantages and problems of “covering law,” an ambition of the dominant approaches. Finally, I will demonstrate the focalized and controlled comparison method and will show how it provides a way of analyzing international crises between times of war and peace without misrecognizing the particularity of “cases.”
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Notes
- 1.
Guillaume Devin, Sociologie des relations internationales (Paris, La Découverte, 2013).
- 2.
Colin Elman and Miriam Elman (eds), Bridges and Boundaries: Historian, Political Scientists and the Study of International Relations (Cambridge (Mass.), MIT Press, 2001).
- 3.
Robert Goodin and Hans-Dieter Klingemann (eds), A New Handbook of Political Science (New York (N. Y.), Oxford University Press, 1996), pp. 10–23.
- 4.
Matthew A. Baum and Philip B. K. Potter, War and Democratic Constraint. How the Public Influences Foreign Policy (Princeton (N. J.), Princeton University Press, 2015).
- 5.
The International Crisis Behavior Project is being conducted by Michael Brecher and the University of Maryland’s Center for International Development and Conflict Management. It collects data on international crises involving a risk of military conflict (all crises since 1918).
- 6.
Graham Allison and Philip Zelikov, Essence of Decision. Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis, (New York (N. Y.), Longman, 1999).
- 7.
Alexander George and George Bennett, Case Studies and Theory Development (Cambridge (Mass.), MIT Press, 2005).
- 8.
Pascal Vennesson, Les Chevaliers de l’armée de l’air (Paris, Presses de Sciences Po, 1997).
- 9.
Thomas Lindemann, Causes of War. The Struggle for Recognition (Colchester, ECPR, 2011), Thomas Lindemann and Maéva Clément, “Introduction. Les politiques de prévention des guerres dans les crises internationales,” Dynamiques internationales, 10, September 2015 (available at http://dynamiques-internationales.com/publications/numero-10-september-2015/).
- 10.
Jack S. Levy and John A. Vasquez, The Outbreak of the First World War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014).
- 11.
George and Bennett, Case Studies and Theory Development.
- 12.
Franca Loewener, “Unnegotiable Interests. The Moroccan Crisis of 1905,” Dynamiques internationales, 10, September 2015 (available at http://dynamiques-internationales.com/publications/numero-10-septembre-2015/).
- 13.
George and Bennett, Case Studies and Theory Development, pp. 205–232.
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Lindemann, T. (2018). Constructing Subjects and Comparison in International Relations Studies. In: Devin, G. (eds) Resources and Applied Methods in International Relations. The Sciences Po Series in International Relations and Political Economy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61979-8_2
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