International politics: The continuing search for theory

Abstract

The decline of the search for a general theory of international politics during the past two decades is generally conceded by scholars. Disillusionment with the search developed out of the conviction that the ambitious efforts of the 1950's proved to be inadequate and unsatisfactory in explaining the complexity of international politics. In recent years scholarly interest has shifted to the development of inductive approaches involving the increasing use of quantitative methods and techniques as an aid to the understanding of international behavior. These efforts have also prompted criticism and dissatisfaction but they continue to dominate research. To correct or reverse this trend and to revive interest in explicit theorizing, Kenneth Waltz in Theory and International Politics has attempted the formulation of a systems theory of international politics using a philosophy of science approach. His purpose is to indicate the relative influence of international system and state forces on international behavior, the variation of causes and effects in different types of international systems and the specification of the elements of international systems. A critical examination of Waltz's work reveals that he has achieved only the last objective primarily because of a pronounced tendency to neglect or minimize the influence of states on the international system and to attribute too much influence to international systems on the behavior of states. The result is at best a theoretical framework but not a rigorously developed systems theory. The writer has modestly attempted a reformulation of Waltz's framework taking into account the increasing importance of the regional level in systems theory. Hypothetical relationships between the global system, regional systems, and states are suggested to draw attention to the interrelationship of levels of analysis in the study of international politics in an effort to promote theoretical coherence if not a general theory of international politics.