International Relations Commons^™

Analysis And Application Of The Offense-Defense Theory: Russia, Ukraine, And History., Kirby Ballard

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

Political scientists and government advisors have long sought to understand what influences conflicts and how to predict them. Despite constant war, a commonly used empirical theory that can answer this question has not emerged. The majority of theories created are either conflict-specific or not empirically testable. Considering these factors, I sought out a theory that would help me better understand Russia's choice to invade Ukraine in the spring of 2022. I selected the offense-defense theory due to its many attempts to explain territorial conquest, the likeliness of conflict, and overall losses. The main focus of the theory is to explain …

Three Pluralisms: Theories, Methodologies, And Levels Of Analysis In The Study Of World Politics, Lucas M. Dolan

Departmental Honors Projects

For much of its history, the discourse of International Relations (IR) has been characterized by clashes between paradigms, exclusion of non-positivist research methodologies, and the marginalization of various subfields. Since the fourth debate “pluralism” is rapidly becoming a buzzword within the literature, but without serious conceptual analysis “pluralism” risks becoming another intellectual fad given lip-service but not engaged with in a way that could produce positive change within the discipline. This project examines three varieties of pluralism: theoretical, methodological, and pluralism of level of analysis. A brief intellectual history of pluralism in international relations is outlined, culminating in the works …

The Future Of American Foreign Policy In The Persian Gulf: How The Study Of Past Presidential Foreign Policies May Predict The Future, Cindy Walters

M.A. in Political Theory Theses

This thesis will argue that future U.S. foreign policy in the Persian Gulf will be neither realist nor idealist, but a combination of both. The thesis will reveal a trend through thirty three years of presidential administrations toward a more integrated approach of international relations. Future foreign policy will likely blend the idealist and realist positions, as well as the postmodernist approach.

Grand Strategy Analysis: A Proto-Theoretical Approach, Patrick Magee

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

International relations scholarship begins and ends with assumptions—about human nature; about human interaction; about starting points, relative information, and outcomes. Such assumptions are necessary to further the intellectual coherence and development of scholarly work. However, they restrict the applicability of scholarly research to those situations that parallel the work's underlying assumptions.

This work argues the body of international relations scholarship as a whole would benefit from the development of a pre-theory state, absent any assumptions about international relations, from which observers can identify those works of scholarship that are most effective in explaining perceptive states and the strategic decisions taken …