Level of analysis approach Flashcards
define the idea in level of analysis approach
- based on methodological eclecticism, using multiple factors to explain a specific phenomenon
how does kenneth Waltz contribute to the level of analysis approach?
- his three images:
1. Human nature
2. Aggressive state behaviour
3. International anarchy + power competition
what did David Singer note about systemic and national levels of analysis?
- Both have advantages and disadvantages
(aim is to see the strength of each explanation and see which is the most likely)
- applicable to both physical and social sciences (choice is a central issue)
apply level of analysis to Brexit:
- Brexit as a security issue
- is brexit to do with UK government policy or systemic variables
Who makes the argument about combining factors from both levels of analysis?
- Jack Levy
- ‘it is logically possible and in fact usually desirable for explanations to combine variables from different levels of analysis’
What did Michael E. Brown place emphasis on in his analysis? (the international dimension of internal conflict)
- emphasis placed on neighbourhood and neighbourhood factors
What did David Smith see as important in influencing outcomes?
- international organisations as important players
What did Buzan and Waever say about regional security complex?
- “a regional security complex is always embedded in, and thus dependent on the constant reproduction of social identities at lower levels and often board up with regional global and occassionally inter regional relations”
- “define by relations among its units at the regional level and by the complex’s of external boundary”
when recognising the levels of analysis approach we can EXAMINE…
- causes and consequences of insecurity/security (war, state failure, TOC ect)
when recognising the levels of analysis approach we can WORK WITH…
- Different dependent and independent variables (poverty/repression - Crime/Conflict)
when recognising the levels of analysis approach we can
PICK AND CHOOSE…
- theoretical approaches (realism/liberalism/constructivism) and analysis (a war, country/region, macro-microeconomic social data)
exemplify how there can be conflict between systemic and state analysis:
- while we can predict the outcome of an attack on a nation , a description of processes and factors leading to it are more elusive despite the simplicity of the acts themselves
what does a systemic level of analysis allow for?
- study of the patterns that the system reveals and allows for generalisation surrounding phenomena like the creation and dissolution of coalitions
- frequency / duration of specific power configurations
- modifications in stablity
- responsiveness to changes in formal political institutions and theory it manifests as a societal system
what are the advantages and disadvantages of systemic level analysis?
- comphrensiveness but lacks detail
- observer is led into a position that exaggerates impact of system on national actors, conversely it also discounts the impact of actors on a system
- move away from notions implying much national autonomy and independence of choice toward a more deterministic orientation
- systemic postulates high degree of uniformity in foreign policy operational codes of national actors (to focus on single minded behaviour is damaging to theory and discrediting on the whole)
Morgenthau disavows the relevance of what?
- both motives and ideological preferences in national behaviour.
- which results in a very homogenised presentation of the international system
what is the problem with state level analysis?
- in emphasising the differences of other states, any descripton of national behaviour would be incomplete were it to ignore the causal link between external focus and general foreign policy behaviour
- even questionable the extent to which the dimension and characteristics of policy makers are empirically observable
sub systemic orientation is likely to produce?
- a richer explanation of IR from an empiricist POV. However the descriptive and explanatory advantages are achieved at a price of considerable methodological complexity
what bias may there also be in sub systemic level analysis
- scholars may be more interested in certain things, so will shift orientation according to research needs
