The Historian and the Study of International Relations

Craig, Gordon A.

doi:10.2307/1869342

Cited by 14 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…This approach has often been criticized for being too static and too statist, particularly following the emergence of new non-state actors in the post-Cold War era, including non-governmental organizations (NGOs), intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), and multinational corporations (MNCs). In addition, while "traditional" questions of war and peace continue to dominate much of the diplomatic arena, the international community also faces challenges from "newer" challenges such as terrorism, migration, global warming, and pandemics, which not only defy national boundaries but also require diplomatic cooperation between state and non-state actors (Craig 1983;Puchala 1995;Hocking 2004). In the face of this reality, traditional approaches to diplomacy seem somewhat redundant: the rigid conceptual focus on formal structures of diplomacy has not only hampered efforts to theorize the field, but it can also be blamed for a certain failure to "deliver" policy results in a complex world by the imposition of such an autonomous and exclusive attitude to world affairs and other practitioners of diplomacy Constantinou 1993;Langhorne 1998;Riordan 2003;Elman & Elman 2003).…”

Section: Defining Diplomacymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Meaning of Diplomacy

Hart

Siniver

2020

Int. Negot.

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This article draws on interviews with 198 state ambassadors and applies an interpretivist lens to provide a more nuanced conceptualization of diplomacy. In doing so, we seek to project a closer fit between scholarly definitions of the term and how diplomacy is understood by practitioners. We contribute to the literature by proposing a more refined understanding of the term, presented here as five distinct (though not mutually exclusive) ‘meanings’ of diplomacy: (1) The actors taking part in modern diplomacy; (2) the objectives of diplomacy; (3) the mechanisms of diplomacy; (4) diplomacy as a skill; and (5) diplomacy as a profession. We find that drawing on the full range of the diplomatic experience is particularly important given the growing challenges to negotiation as the primary agency of diplomacy.

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Section: Defining Diplomacymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Meaning of Diplomacy

Hart

Siniver

2020

Int. Negot.

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“…66 Such approaches go a little against the grain of the historian's engrained ideographic inclinations, against 'our congenital distrust of theory and our insistence upon the uniqueness of the historical event'. 67 Even so, perhaps '[h]istory is too important to be left to the historians' alone, as Christopher Thorne once argued. The pursuit of history ought to involve 'border crossings' -the title of one of Thorne's books -intellectual journeys across the lines of demarcation between various cognate disciplines of the humanities and social sciences.…”

Section: IVmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Inner Circle: What is Diplomatic History? (And Why We Should Study it): An Inaugural Lecture

Otte

2020

History

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The debate about the purpose (and uses) of studying diplomatic and international history are as old as the subject itself. This article traces the origins and development of diplomatic history as a specialized field within history as a wider discipline, before exploring more recent challenges to it. The article seeks to highlight both the scope for, and the opportunities to be found in, cross‐fertilization with ideas derived from cognate disciplines. At the same time, it also seeks to show the conceptual and methodological pitfalls of recent attempts at innovation in the field. It concludes by reasserting the essential importance of politics as the core of international history and by underlining its potential for guiding current policy as well as its limitations in that respect.

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“…A concern with the past based on the present is not in and of itself a problem. Many political scientists and historians are regularly motivated to study the past based on some problem in the present~e.g., Craig, 1983;Puchala, 1995;Haber, Kennedy, and Krasner, 1997!, yet a failure to take into account contingency and chance in the way historical events unfolded to produce the present may indicate a biased view of history. A third lesson, related to the second, is to be wary of historians claiming to be simply reporting the facts.…”

Section: Biasmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Pragmatic Guide to Qualitative Historical Analysis in the Study of International Relations

Thies

2002

Int Studies Perspectives

113

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Researchers using qualitative methods, including case studies and comparative case studies, are becoming more self-conscious in enhancing the rigor of their research designs so as to maximize their explanatory leverage with a small number of cases. One aspect of qualitative research that has not received as much attention is the use of primary and secondary source material as data or evidence. This essay explores the potential problems encountered by political scientists as they conduct archival research or rely on secondary source material produced by historians. The essay also suggests guidelines for researchers to minimize the main problems associated with qualitative historical research, namely, investigator bias and unwarranted selectivity in the use of historical source materials. These guidelines should enable advanced undergraduates and graduate students to enhance the quality of their historically minded political science scholarship.

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The Historian and the Study of International Relations

Cited by 14 publications

References 0 publications

The Meaning of Diplomacy

The Meaning of Diplomacy

The Inner Circle: What is Diplomatic History? (And Why We Should Study it): An Inaugural Lecture

A Pragmatic Guide to Qualitative Historical Analysis in the Study of International Relations

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