Experimental in IR - Research Paper Example

The of Experimental Research in IR: An Analytical Survey Background Experimental research is one of the most effective methods of conducting a social scientific investigation. Apart from placing variables to test cause and effect relationships, experiments also allow the researcher to have full control over the subject that is being observed. The use of experiments in the research area of international relations could be of great value. Firstly, its frequent use as a methodological tool will challenge the old ways of investigation in the field. Secondly, it will bridge the gap of inquiry between many subfields within this discipline. For example, experiments could bring new insights into public policy and its effect in foreign affairs. Apart from generating new knowledge into the field, it is also important to acknowledge the limitations that experiments pose in the research process. For instance, the generalizability of the results gained from it could be limited as the scope of research is usually conducted on a micro level (Halperin & Heath 2012: 197). Questions like if the results of a voting behavior in one province of a country can be generalized throughout many countries in the region. The article by Natalie Hudson and Michael Butler titled “The State of Experimental Research in IR: An Analytical Survey” firstly presents the scope of using experiment as a research methodology in social science and then evaluates the function that it plays in contributing to the field of international relations. To achieve this, the authors discuss its contribution as playing a role in searching for facts, testing or theory building and creating valuable knowledge for the exercise of foreign policy. Also, they provide an explanation of how the use of this research technique can build bridges not only between similar disciplines as such but also within similar sub fields and research methodologies like comparative research. As part of their conclusion, the authors predict the potential growth areas in the field of international relations with the help of experiments. For example, experiments could be used to determine whether and how rogue states would behave in a situation of crisis. The function then the experiment has is to uncover the cause and effect relationship leading to a pattern of social behavior. Research question Reflecting the usefulness and the limitations of experiments alongside evaluating the text of Hudson and Butler, the research question of this paper is “How can experiment as a research methodology fulfil the aims of social scientific investigation”. The rest of this paper will forge an analysis by reflecting on different issues in political research to answer the question. The question is significant in the field of international relations because it will not only open the discussion of whether experiments could be used as a mainstream method in international studies but will also help us look into the areas of research which has been insufficiently investigated (Halperin & Heath 2012: 133). Discussion One of the main aims of a social scientific inquiry is to produce knowledge and objective facts that will not only help to solve real world problems but will also produce other similar questions that will spearhead further political investigation. Similarly, the work of a social scientific inquiry is to also “further the goals of a scientific literature” (Halperin & Heath 2012). The subfields of international relations are constantly growing in areas like Cognitive Psychology, Anthropology, Socio-biology and comparative politics. The fact that international relations is constantly growing in an interdisciplinary manner provides the ground to use the experiment method to fulfil the ambitions of this issue area (Butler & Hudson 2010: 172). The rigorous technique of researching with experiments will not only provide a bridge but will also connect the knowledge gained within the research of its sub fields. For example, a political research guided by neo liberal institutionalism as a theoretical tool in finding out the role of multinational oil companies in climate change could be complimented by micro level experiments of the actual emission of green house gases in a laboratory setting (natural experiment) with many variables in place. To sum up this argument, experiments could compliment as strong evidence to the research results in the issue of international relations. In addition, analyzing the usefulness of a research methodology in the pursuit of a social scientific investigation, it is important to analyze the discussion that follows from the questions raised in the philosophy of science (ontological, epistemological and methodological). In determining the ways in which experiments could fulfill the aims of a social scientific investigation, it is noteworthy to first identify the shifts that took place from behavioral approaches of constructing knowledge towards post behavioral revolution and trace the role that experiment as a research methodology could play or has played in the process of studying the social world (Halperin & Heath 2012: 26). In doing so, an evaluation of the ontological and epistemological positions of the positivist and anti-positivist approaches will be instrumental in describing how experiment will fulfil the aims of a social scientific investigation. A social inquiry from a positivist position explains how the social world that social scientists aim to study on is not different from the natural world. According to the positivists, the social world is systematic, law governed and predictable as the natural world. Therefore, ontologically what exists as part of the component of the social world is similar to that of the natural world. Then, the kind of knowledge that is possible to obtain (epistemology) and the ways to derive that knowledge in line with the positivist approach is empirical, i.e., what we can know about the world is limited to what can be observed (Halperin & Heath 2012: 30). Experiments in social sciences are regular and systematic than other qualitative methodologies which increase the control of the researcher in the process of investigation. Because experiments can test a certain phenomena using numerous variables, it is one among the few methodologies in social science which can uncover the social laws that govern the social world as the positivists argue (Halperin & Heath 2012: 198). Then, with this argument if we can only obtain knowledge from what is observable in the social world and if the social world is governed by social laws, social experiments can play a vital part in fulfilling the imperative of a positivist research. The article by Hudson and Butler explain how experiments help to contribute to the questions faced by scholars in the field of international relations. In their own words, the authors state “searching for facts” as one of the function that an experimental method meets, which is valuable for the scientific literature. The discovery of facts (laws) that an experimental investigation leads to is helpful for foreign policies, international negotiation and to identify different forms of political culture. The laws that govern the realms of foreign policy for instance will help for political scholars to identify, generalize and predict future international events. The law searching function of this methodology as explained by the authors meet the essence of a positivist approach towards social investigation. This concept from the article also backs up the argument, which was posited before of how experiments could be used as a tool to discover laws and understand social phenomena (Hudson & Butler 2010: 174). Similarly, a scientific realist approach views the nature of the social world being similar as the natural world. Ontologically, it is similar to the positivist approach so the use of experiment as a research technique is instrumental in researching into the observable aspect of the social realm. Epistemologically, a scientific realist approach not only limits knowledge creation to what could be observed but also to the unobservable social phenomena. The unobservable social phenomena could be theoretical entities which the experiment as a methodology could test or even build with the result that it develops (Halperin & Heath 2012: 35). The application of experiment as a research technique could then act as a common arrangement for researchers from both the positivist and scientific realist traditions. Moreover, it could act as a type of method that solves the epistemological debate between the two by acting as a tool to achieve the aims of what constitutes a social scientific investigation. Analyzing the historical progression of the debates of different traditions in the field from the development of positivist to anti positivist theories like scientific realism will help to better understand of how experiments in social science research could be that common linking thread between different approaches over time. Then, if the concept of social scientific investigation has changed with the development of new approaches, experiment as a method stands as the technique which remains to be valid for both the research traditions (Halperin & Heath 2012: 48). According to the authors in the article titled “The State of Experimental Research in IR: An Analytical Survey”, another function of the experimental research is “Speaking to theory” where the result that this research methodology generates is directly relevant in criticizing, elaborating and advancing the collective knowledge base (Hudson & Butler 2010: 171). In that respect, it fulfills the aim of creating knowledge through unobservable entities alongside the observable ones. “Studies falling within this category, however, are oriented not around the testing of observed regularities but instead probing the larger theoretical claims often produced by those regularities” (Hudson & Butler 2010: 171). Again, this function as explained in the article works as an evidence to support of how experiments could work towards striving the goal of a scientific investigation as scientific realists suggest. Thirdly, an interpretivist approach of studying social phenomena assumes that the nature of social world is quite different from the natural world and instead of arguing how laws govern social behavior; it should be acknowledged that it is subjectively created. Epistemologically, it is subjective meanings and reason that lead to the creation of scientific knowledge. One of the core arguments of this position of thought is how social behavior cannot be predicted on the basis of law like generalizations like that of the positivist and the scientific realist position. Therefore, experiment as a research methodology does not fulfill the aim of an interpretivist tradition of what constitutes a social scientific investigation. Since, the procedures and the nature of result that experiments generate are different from what this philosophical tradition demands, it does not seem to play a part in fulfilling the aim of a social investigation (Halperin & Heath 2012: 41). However, the result that experiments generate could be helpful in bringing about another puzzle that could be scientifically investigated. According to the authors in the article, the last function of the results from “experiment” as a research method is to provide policy guidelines for negotiation and international peacemaking and peace building (Hudson & Butler 2010: 172). Though the research methodology has positivist roots of examination, the findings from the study will encourage further investigation that is only possible through subjective research. For example, an experimental research in the field of peace building might point out to the fact that the social and cultural values of political leaders might increase or decrease the prospects of peace. To verify such assumptions generated by studies undertaken through experiments, a qualitative research from an interpretivist approach is necessary. Even though experiment as a research methodology does not seem to fulfill the aims of a social inquiry it could still fuel it with research puzzles. The need to find out the level of political bargaining by countries in climate treaties because of increasing level of chlorofluorocarbons in the atmosphere of the earth is another example of how it still being more of a natural science technique feeds puzzle for a social investigation. Similarly, an evaluation of how the changes in scientific revolution take place could explain how experiment could play a role in fulfilling the aims and rigors of a scientific investigation. Analyzing Kuhn’s concept of paradigm shifts, it could be argued that the phase where anomalies build that lead to crisis towards the development of a new paradigm could actually happen because of the use of an experimental methodology. Breakthrough in the creation of new paradigm could be possible by the procedure in which social experiments are carried out. According to Kuhn, new paradigms keep on developing with the evolving crisis in the field of scientific knowledge and every time that happens, the role of experiment as a methodology will become vital. The authors in the article state how international relations has progressed over time by accepting and adding valuable knowledge base from other sub fields of social science. These shifts taking place through the addition of knowledge that have taken place over time shows, how experimental methodology has witnessed, and in some ways helped for this transformation. With this argument, it could be said that with the constant evolution of international relations as an academic discipline, the prospect of using experiments often and more rigorously is highly possible (Halperin & Heath 2012: 61). Conclusion Experimental research has a huge potential of harnessing growth in the study of international relations. The research question of the paper was “How can experiment as a research methodology fulfill the aims of a social scientific investigation”. In trying to answer the question, three approaches namely scientific realism, positivism and interpretivism were discussed in the content of the article and with the questions within philosophy of science (ontology and epistemology). As an answer to the research question, the use of experiment as a method of scientific investigation in many way fulfills the aim of a social inquiry, sometimes through theory building, through formulating social laws and by contributing to the exercise of foreign policy in international affairs. As an evolving discipline, the use of experimental methods in international relations will open new avenues not only in the creation of scientific knowledge but also to constantly check and question underlying assumptions. In short, as a method of investigation, experiment will play a huge role in developing the discipline. List of References Halperin, S., & Heath, O.(2012). Political Research: Methods and Practical Skills. OUP Oxford. Hudson, N. F., & Butler, M. J. (2010). The state of experimental research in IR: An analytical survey. International Studies Review, 12(2), 165-192. Read More