Taking Stock of the State of IR Theorizing

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Session Description

A full decade after the "End of IR Theory?" symposium appeared in EJIR, we invite another round of reflection to consider the state of IR theorizing. Over the past few years, developments in causal inference, machine learning, data access, and qualitative formalization, among other shifts, have placed new pressures on studying the international in particular ways. How has IR theorizing, broadly construed, responded? What is the status of theoretical approaches rooted in interpretive and historical research? Should we still maintain grand/meso/micro levels of analysis in teaching theoretical foundations? What counts as theoretical or atheoretical work in IR today?

For this roundtable, we assemble a group of senior and junior scholars who are variously situated in these debates to take renewed stock of the state of IR theorizing in 2024. We pay special attention to including a mix of scholars who have at different times in their works advanced descriptive (e.g., Jurkovich, Lerner, Subotic) and causal (e.g., Lee, Schmidt, Srivastava) inferences from both neopositivist and interpretive methodologies. Many share interests in historical research as well as relational ontologies, which we view as important to include for vibrant disciplinary conversations.

Sub Unit

• Division 60: International Relations Theory

Chair

• Jelena Subotic Georgia State University

Presenters

• Swati Srivastava Purdue University

• Melissa M. Lee University of Pennsylvania

• Michelle Jurkovich University of Massachusetts Boston

• Adam Lerner University of Massachusetts Lowell

• Sebastian M. Schmidt Johns Hopkins University

• Jennifer Mitzen Ohio State University