Responsible Scholarship in International Relations: A Symposium

Abstract

The theme of the 2007 annual meeting of the ISA in Chicago, Politics, Policy, and Responsible Scholarship , encouraged participants to reflect on their ethical responsibilities as scholars and teachers. International relations (IR) scholars hold very different views on the purposes of their research—whether it should be motivated by policy-oriented problem solving within existing power structures or structurally transformational. The conference theme statement suggested consideration of the following questions. For IR scholars, how much involvement with the policy world is desirable? Do we bear responsibility for how our ideas are understood and used outside our immediate social and academic contexts? How do we make choices about what to study? Should we risk professional costs by raising questions that are rarely asked because of the disciplinary boundaries of our discipline and by answering them using unconventional methodologies that are not always rewarded in our field? What ethical standards should inform our research? Some IR scholars see themselves as scholar activists while others strive for scientific detachment. Social scientific aspirations about objectivity and universalism are often disputed, both within and outside western IR. Western IR is often seen as hegemonic and unconcerned with other knowledge traditions. What kind of projects should we engage in if we are interested in producing knowledge sensitive to multiple global realities? How can we contribute to a sustained dialog across disciplinary and international boundaries? What might be the principles upon which scholars in different parts of the world could agree? While many of these questions can never be fully resolved, the discussions that took place and the papers that were presented at the 2007 ISA annual meeting made important contributions to this ongoing dialog. This symposium consists of a sampling of papers on these various topics delivered at the meeting. We have included papers that seek to …