Why do we study international relations? What are the advantages to study international relations for our daily life? For me, international relations discipline provides us theoretical framework of thinking. We apply framework of thinking to analyze factual condition in international affairs. Theoretical framework constructs our standpoint so that we are able to understand the dynamic of international relations critically. At this point, John Lewis Gaddis[6] stated that we have to consider the subsequent things in evaluating international phenomena: First, we have to make clear the distinction between independent and dependent variables. Second, we should take into account for changes. Third, we draw on commensurate standards of measurement. Fourth, we should have objectivity.
One aim of studying a wide variety of international relations theories is to make international politics more intelligible and better understood. In other words, to make better sense of the institutions, events, and processes which exist in the contemporary world. According to Scott Burchill, the theories will involve testing hypotheses, proposing causal explanations, describing events, and explaining general trends and phenomena, with the aim of constructing a plausible image of the world.[7]
The enterprise of theoretical investigation is at its minimum one directed toward criticism: towards identifying, formulating, refining, and questioning the general assumptions on which the everyday discussion of international politics proceeds. At its maximum, the enterprise is concerned with theoretical construction: with establishing that certain assumptions are true while others are false, valid or invalid, and so proceeding to erect a firm structure of knowledge.[8]
Theories here provide intellectual order to the subject matter of international relations. They enable us to conceptualize and contextualize both past and contemporary events. They also provide us with a range of ways of interpreting complex realities and issues. Theories help us to orientate and discipline our minds in response to the bewildering phenomena around us. They help us to think critically, logically, and coherently. We should analyze what are the causal factors behind US invasion on Afghanistan and Iraq or think coherently the relation between mainland China and Taiwan. General theory in international relations, then, consists of dividing the human race into sections, noting the significant properties of each, examining the relationship between them, and describing the patterns formed by the relationships.
We need to examine our own background assumptions to reveal and explain our selections, priorities, and prejudices because all forms of social analysis raise important questions about the moral and cultural constitution of the observer. As a scholar, we are expected to build our own models to portray international phenomena coherently.
[6] John Lewis Gaddis, “ History, Theory, and Common Ground”, in Karen A. Mingst and Jack L. Snyder, Op. Cit., p. 13-14.
[7] Scott Burchill, et. al., International Relations: Theory and Practice. London: MacMillan Press, Ltd., 1996, p. 13.
[8] James Der Derian (ed.), International Theory: Critical Investigations. Basingstoke, 1995, p. 183-4.
The full version is at http://www.gsia.mcu.edu.tw/open_news.jsp?id=17
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