Baik, Seukhoon (2022) A positivist theory of international politics : the cause of war. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

The objective of this thesis is to construct a theory of international politics. Because all extant theories of international politics are untestable, they cannot be regarded as scientific in terms of the nomological-deductive (Popperian scientific) method or supported by observations. Although several existing auxiliary theories provided by neorealists and neoliberals are testable, they cannot be considered truly scientific since they are neither consistent nor logical. Given that no extant theory meets the criteria for science of the method, a novel theory is needed. Thus, this thesis proposes a scientific theory in terms of the method. That is, the theory put forward in this work is firstly testable or capable of being supported by empirical evidence. Secondly, because the theory transforms the idea derived from game theory, a branch of mathematics, into the universal law of international politics, it is also consistent and logical by the virtue of mathematics. This research suggests the following general law: States in a given situation are restricted to behave in certain ways by the situational logic defined in terms of their preference orderings over the available situational outcomes. Accordingly, a crisis escalates into war since states involved are led to go to war by the logic of the crisis situation. To test the theory, this thesis applies the law to three Balkan crises and compares the application to the actual happenings. The result of the case studies is as follows: Two of the crises did not develop to war as the interested states were driven to settle the crises peacefully by the logic of the crisis situations, whereas the other crisis escalated into war since the relevant states were forced to go to war by the situational logic. Therefore, this theory is empirically supported by the historical cases, and thus, at least temporarily acceptable.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	J Political Science > JC Political theory J Political Science > JX International law J Political Science > JZ International relations U Military Science > U Military Science (General)
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	World politics, Positivism, International relations, Conflict management, War
Official Date:	April 2022
Dates:	Date Event April 2022 UNSPECIFIED
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Politics and International Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Format of File:	pdf
Extent:	iv, 231 pages
Language:	eng

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