Chapter 2

Click on the following links – please note these will open in a new window

SJ-userguide.pdf

Article 1: Andreatta, F. & Koenig-Archibugi, M. (March 2010). Synthesis? Strategies of Theoretical Integration and the Neorealist-Neoliberal Debate. International Political Science Review 31(2). 207-227.

Questions to Consider:

1. Summarize the authors’ argument, focusing on how and why they attempt to synthesize neorealist and neoliberal explanations.
2. What criteria do they identify as being important for evaluating how different strategies of synthesis would work? How do they apply them to the cases they cover?
3. Consider the explanations given in the textbook for the causes of World War I. Which criteria could you apply to a synthesis of that case?

Article 2: Lebow, R.N. (June 2008). Learning from Contingency: The Case of World War I. International Journal: Canada’s Journal of Global Policy Analysis 63(2). 447-459.

Questions to Consider:

1. Lebow writes that “The view that our world is the world that had to be, or at least the most likely of worlds, has multiple and reinforcing causes.” (449) Describe those causes, and say what difference it makes that scholars tend to view past events as inevitable.
2. How can counterfactual reasoning help us understand “the causes and contingency”  (458) of events?