Should International Relations be studied as a Natural Science (positivist) or a Social Science (non-positivist)? Why?

International relations

International relations

The study of relationship between countries is commonly known as international relation or sometime referred as international studies. International relation or IR studies different dynamics of international politics mainly the diplomatic ties between countries along with state role, MNCs (multinational corporation), IGOs (inter governmental organizations) and INGOs (international non-governmental organizations).This filed has not only limited to the academia but also covers public policy and can be either normative or positive. IR seeks to perform dual action one international relation experts perform the analysis of foreign policy as well as it provides a pathway for the formulation of the foreign policies. IR is a broad field and to many it touches every aspect of international politics. This study in connection to this broad spectrum of this field is going to perform an assessment that will help in furnishing the answer that should international relations be studied as a natural science (positivist) or a social science (non-positivist) and will also furnished facts in relation to international theories.

International relation as positive or natural sciences

The science of international relations so far failed to develop a single, structured and widely accepted theoretical explanation of phenomena and processes. Instead as in many other social sciences there are many trends and research shots which force one to believe that international relation can also be considered as part of the natural sciences. The discoveries of the biggest role of IR are realism, liberalism and constructivism; explanation of which will help in the development of the understanding shall IR be considered as natural or social science. Each of the concepts has a lot of variety and it professes that researchers often agree only in the most general questions. Those involved in international relations are called the participants or actors. In IR the most commonly accepted classification of the four main types of participants or key roles are allocated to:

Nations

State

International organizations

The structure and strength of transnational

Methodological debates

A slightly different look at the issue of the science of international relation has developed the concept of this subject. The increasingly international cooperation and behavior beyond the nation-state in the focus of research interest for non-governmental organizations (NGOs), international organizations and states are therefore in an area of international communication or interaction. The contents of the discipline can be divided in two ...