Broadening the Horizons of the “International” by Historicizing it: Comparative Historical Analysis

Year 2019, Volume: 8 Issue: 2, 307 - 325, 01.07.2019

Mustafa Serdar Palabıyık

https://doi.org/10.20991/allazimuth.477305

Cited By: 2

Abstract

This article intends to analyze the use of comparative
historical analysis (CHA) in the discipline of International Relations (IR).
After describing the historical evolution and fundamental premises of CHA, the article
continues with the classification of CHA. Then the strengths and weaknesses of
the method as well as its utilization by various theories of IR are discussed.
The second part of the article deals with the employment of CHA by the author
of this article in his own research design, in order to give an idea that how CHA
might contribute to a better understanding of the “international”. In doing
that, the advantages and disadvantages of the method are revisited in a way to
show the contributions provided as well as the difficulties encountered in
practice. The article concludes that CHA might contribute to the study of IR by
enhancing interdisciplinary approaches and by adding a socio-historical depth
to the ‘international’, which helps to overcome historicism and presentism at
the same time. 

Keywords

Comparative historical analysis, international relations, history, method

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