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The first Great Debate: REALISM/ LIBERALISM
Basic assumption, running thorough many liberal writings was that human beings are rational, and when they apply reason to international relations, they can set up organisations for the stabilization of international politics.Representative of liberals was Woodrow Wilson. On contrary, Edward Hallett Carr argued that liberalism is on ofˇ"utopia", he emphasized on new theory. New theory emerged to explain the continuing presence of war and conflicts: Realism. Great debate was ontological debate. -
Second Great Debate: ‘TRADITIONALISM/ BEHAVIOURALISM’
It was epistemological debate. The scientific approach wants to emulate the methods of the natural sciences in its attempts to explain international politics. The „traditional” approach is interpretive, more historical and better attuned to normative judgments. Economics used a sophisticated methodology drawn from the natural sciences to test specific hypotheses, develop general laws and predict human behavior. -
Third Great Debate: NEOREALISM/ NEOLIBERALISM
Ontological debate.Kenneth N. Waltz’s neo-realist: international economic relations, international law,.. are interesting phenomena but they must be ignored by IRs. ‘Neo-liberals: the economic and technological development required new forms of international political cooperation (Robert O. Keohane, John Burton, Ernst Haas). Neo-Marxists Robert Cox and Immanuel Wallerstein: theory of International Relations has to deal with social forces if it is to understand the nature of world order. -
Fourth Great Debate: RATIONALISM/ REFLECTIVISM
It was identify as post-positive approach, started as epistemological debate.Positivist approaches: science in IRs could be objective and measurable like natural sciences, rational based on self-interest. Constructivism insists that facts in social sciences are not objective. Facts are constructed by society. The most important representative of the constructivist approach is Alexander Wendt, his book “Social Theory of International Politics” initiated the fourth debate.
