Causes and Consequence in International Relations

This work is an account of how we do and should explain and understand the problems of international relations and in particular the over-riding problem of war. While the argument is set in the context of general philosophy of the social sciences, the discussion is in terms of examples taken from the discipline of international relations. The book argues for the need for a firmly empiricist approach to the social sciences if we are to alter social behaviour in a way which will reduce the incidence of war. Thus, Hartley argues that we must continue to develop sets of testable hypotheses and theories which can be confronted with evidence. The issues of whether we can test and what constitutes evidence are analyzed and an empiricist approach is justified against the older criticisms of Winch and the more recent attacks on such approaches by the postmodernists.