History, Science, and the Study of Rivalry in International Relations

Abstract

The distinction between history and social science is longstanding, if at times overstated and occasionally outright misunderstood. In the study of international relations and international security, there is an increasing recognition that history is indispensable, as both content and method. This paper engages with this debate, highlighting the practical benefit of incorporating historical inquiry and relaxing certain unproductive and rigid methodological assumptions, while simultaneously maintaining a commitment to systematic and rigourous research. In this direction, the paper introduces a practical research program based on the concept of ‘international rivalry’ – a concept which is inescapably historical (as it is predicated on repeated and compounded encounters between states) but also accessible to systematic comparison. Ultimately, rivalry offers a conceptual and theoretical edifice within which an historical approach can be the primary mode of inquiry, while subsequently allowing qualified and contextualized comparisons between cases in order to build our generalized knowledge about world politics.