The Duck of Minerva

New Duck of Minerva Working Paper: “I CAN HAS IR THEORY?”

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by Dan Nexon

8 January 2013, 1427 EST

There’s been significant interest in Steve Saideman’s criticisms of Mearsheimer’s and Walt’s working paper, “Leaving Theory Behind: Why Hypothesis Testing Has Become Bad for IR.” Indeed, there are many comments in a discussion that harkens back to older posts at the Duck. Given this, it strikes me as appropriate to add PTJ’s and my paper (PDF)–solicited for the same special issue as Mearsheimer’s and Walt’s–to the Duck of Minerva Working Papers series.

Our take is a bit different. If you’ve heard our podcast (m4a/mp3) on the subject, what we have to say will sound pretty familiar. For slides on the subject, see here and here.

Anyway, let us know what you think.

 

 

Daniel H. Nexon is a Professor at Georgetown University, with a joint appointment in the Department of Government and the School of Foreign Service. His academic work focuses on international-relations theory, power politics, empires and hegemony, and international order. He has also written on the relationship between popular culture and world politics.

He has held fellowships at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation and at the Ohio State University's Mershon Center for International Studies. During 2009-2010 he worked in the U.S. Department of Defense as a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow. He was the lead editor of International Studies Quarterly from 2014-2018.

He is the author of The Struggle for Power in Early Modern Europe: Religious Conflict, Dynastic Empires, and International Change (Princeton University Press, 2009), which won the International Security Studies Section (ISSS) Best Book Award for 2010, and co-author of Exit from Hegemony: The Unraveling of the American Global Order (Oxford University Press, 2020). His articles have appeared in a lot of places. He is the founder of the The Duck of Minerva, and also blogs at Lawyers, Guns and Money.

5 Comments

  2. Alex
    Alex on 9 January 2013 at 12.12 EST

    is there an mp3 version of the podcast or is the m4a all we’ve got? I can’t get the m4a to play on my phone.

    • Dan Nexon
      Dan Nexon on 9 January 2013 at 12.21 EST

      I aim to transcode all of the old podcasts from m4a to mp3. I’ll try to do that one by tomorrow.

    • Dan Nexon
      Dan Nexon on 9 January 2013 at 12.42 EST

      Done.

  3. Dan Tdaxp
    Dan Tdaxp on 9 January 2013 at 22.22 EST

    Why the use of scare quotes around “neopositivist” and “scientific”?