International Studies Methodology

In today’s world, International Relations have become one of the hottest topics of discussion and a growing course of study in academics. Its importance has reached such a level that, whether it is war and peace, or any other discussion, its research requires an organized and systematic approach to be able to identify each and everything and view it from several different perspectives. There are three different methodologies that have been used to do the research in international relations; case study, quantitative and formal methods. Methodology is basically the system of methods used to test theories. If we task the question which is the best methodology to study International Relations, there is no one method. The better approach is looking

One of the major benefits of case studies is its ability to achieve construct validity. This means that it is able to measure the indicators that describe the theoretical concept we intent to examine. What happens is that various variables which researchers want to examine are difficult to measure as some concepts and procedures are democratic in one context and undemocratic in the other. So then it is important to carry out proper comparisons that solve the issue of equivalence. For this, contextual variables need to be examined in detail which cannot happen in statistical studies. Secondly, another example of case studies is that they are able to generate new theories. They can identify new variables and build new hypotheses. This happens through deviant cases as well as by other methods like interviewing participants. When interviewing participants, they might be asked about some variables ‘x’ or ’y’ and they give the answer ‘z’ so this will help researchers develop some new hypotheses through the added variable. Even this cannot happen when using statistical approach because they usually analyse already coded data and there are very few chances of identifying new variables like this. Another advantage of using case studies is that they sometimes explore historical cases and give an

One of the biggest dis-advantages of it is of the case selection and confirmation bias. Researchers choose the cases which they want to study and one which is of their interest. And secondly, the confirmation bias even has a very damaging effect which occurs because when both dependent and independent variables change as the case hypotheses want them to and any contradicting theory is being discarded. Another major dis-advantage of case studies is that is does not represent a wider population and that it lacks representativeness. Case studies usually examine why some events occurred and what were the mechanisms through which thy occurred. Case study researchers are more interested in identifying the variables in different theories and these types of cases often lack representing a wider