The document discusses various approaches to the study of international relations, highlighting how each perspective influences the understanding of global phenomena. It covers traditional, scientific, behavioral, post-behavioral, and systems approaches, detailing their methodologies and focus areas. Each approach offers distinct criteria for analyzing the behavior of states and international actors, contributing to the broader discourse on international relations.

1. Approaches to International Relations
Approach is a way of looking at and then explaining a particular
phenomenon. The perspective may be broad enough to cover a vast area
like the World as a whole or it may be very small, embracing an aspect of
local, regional, national or international politics. Besides, it may cover within
its fold every other thing related to the collection and selection of evidence
followed by an investigation and analysis of a particular hypothesis for an
academic purpose. In this way, an approach consists of a criterion of
selection criteria employed in selecting the problems or questions to consider
and in selecting the data to bring to bear. It consists of standards governing
the inclusion and exclusion of questions and data.
An approach is distinguishable from a theory. An approach is closely related
to a theory in view of the fact that it’s a very character determines the way
of generalization, explanation and prediction. An approach is transformed
into a theory if and when its function extends beyond the selection of
problems and data about the subject under study. There are several distinct
approaches to the study of International Relations, these include:
● Traditional Approach
● Scientific Approach
● Behavioral Approach
● Post Behaviouralist Approaches
● Systems Approach
Traditional Approach
In view of the complex variables influencing behavior of states, the
traditionalists focus on the observed behavior of governments. They explain
observable government behavior on the basis of concepts like balance of

2. power, national interest, diplomacy etc. Traditional realists try to understand
and resolve the clashing of interests that inevitably leads to war. This is an
approach to international relations that emphasizes the studying of such
disciplines as diplomatic history, international law, and philosophy in an
attempt to develop better insights.
Traditionalists tend to be skeptical of behaviouralist approaches that are
confined to strict scientific standards that include formal hypothesis testing
and, usually, the use of statistical analysis. Traditional theorists regard
international relations as a sub-discipline of history and political science.
There are historical, philosophical and legal variants to the traditional
approach.
Scientific Approach
Scientific scholars challenged the traditionalist, arguing that IR is too broad
and complex a field to be a sub-discipline of political science. They began
constructing conceptual frameworks and partial models of international
systems, and tried to collect and analyze data to refute or validate a
formulated hypothesis. Such theorists focus on statistical correlations
between variables like incidence of war and alliance policies for e.g. While
this approach has brought a methodological rigor to IR, it relies more heavily
on process analysis than on experimentation. Even obtaining data is difficult
in IR and the units of analysis vary (terrorism for e.g. is a relative term).
Behavioral Approach
In the 1960s and 70s, scholars began arguing that politics cannot be studied
factually without reference to values. Behavioral approach is informed by
socio-anthropological and psychological perspectives. It focuses on
understanding the reasons behind the action behavior of states and other

3. international actors. This approach has contributed to understanding how
people and organizations of different cultures interact, the effects of
propaganda and stereotypical views on conflict situations and international
relations.
It is difficult to determine the behavior of states, which is the aggregate
behavior of a large number of individuals and of superimposing authorities.
An approach to the study of politics or other social phenomena that focuses
on the actions and interactions among units by using scientific methods of
observation to include quantification of variables whenever possible. A
practitioner of behaviorism is often referred to as a behaviorist. Behaviorism
refers to the ideas held by those behavioral scientists who consider only
observed behavior as relevant to the scientific enterprise and who reject
what they consider to be metaphysical notions of "mind" or "consciousness".
Post Behaviourist Approach
In the 1980s, an attempt was made to combine normative and empirical
approaches to study IR. This approach can be used to test the validity of the
idealists’ hypothesis to see if democratic or authoritarian states are more
likely to be engaged in internal conflicts.
Systems Approach
This approach places more emphasis on the complex interaction between
and within states, while retaining a post-behavioural scientific orientation. It
does so by focusing on international systems which are interdependent and
interrelated. These systems range from small systems to intermediate and
large systems. The UN system, individual nations, ethnic groups, individual

4. voters, political parties, MNCs etc. can all be categorized into corresponding
systems to understand the complex nature of IR.