On the Relationship between “Paradigm” and “International Politics”—Centered on “The Clash of Civilizations and the Reconstruction of the World Order”

Abstract

Regarding the research of international political issues, one of the most important ways to innovate the research is the research of “paradigm construction”, and in essence, international political research is a kind of paradigm construction research. And because of the disciplinary nature of social science, paradigms have differences in explanatory power. The construction of a paradigm can only be a research perspective, so a paradigm that is as perfect as possible can only explain most international political issues. In the final analysis, a paradigm can only be a partial view of the entire international political issue. However, in order to pursue the lenient explanatory power of a paradigm, scholars can only sacrifice the explanation of some international political phenomena, and finally form a simplified international political paradigm (theory). Therefore, when scholars construct paradigm models of international politics, they do not consider a paradigm that covers all explanations, but a paradigm with as broad an explanatory power as possible. Therefore, the interpretation of international political phenomena can start from a variety of paradigms, in order to grasp the truth of international political issues as much as possible. Only when the existing international political paradigm cannot explain the relevant international political phenomenon or the explanatory ability is weakened, the innovation of the international political theory will be produced with the improvement of the new old paradigm and the construction of the new paradigm. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between a “paradigm” and “international politics”, in order to solve the current academic problems of international political theory innovation and international political research methods and related problems.