Causation In Ir

Causation in International
Relations

World political processes, such as wars and globalisation, are engendered
by complex sets of causes and conditions. Although the idea of causation
is fundamental to the field of International Relations, what the concept of
cause means or entails has remained an unresolved and contested matter. In
recent decades ferocious debates have surrounded theidea of causal analysis,
some scholars even questioning the legitimacy of applying the notion of cause
in the study of International Relations. This book suggests that underlying
the debates on causation in the field of International Relations is a set of
problematic assumptions (deterministic, mechanistic and empiricist) and that
we should reclaim causal analysis from the dominant discourse ofcausation.
Milja Kurki argues that reinterpreting the meaning, aims and methods of
social scientific causal analysis opens up multi-causal and methodologically
pluralist avenues for future International Relations scholarship.
m i l ja k u r k i is a lecturer in the Department of International Politics at
Aberystwyth University. Her research on the concept of cause in International
Relationstheory has been awarded prizes by the British International Studies
Association and the Political Studies Association.

CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: 108

Causation in International Relations
Editors
Christian Reus-Smit
Nicholas Wheeler

Editorial Board
Tom Biersteker Phil Cerny Michael Cox A. J. R. Groom
Richard Higgott Kimberley Hutchings Caroline Kennedy-Pipe
SteveLamy Colin McInnes Michael Mastanduno Louis Pauly
Ngaire Woods
Cambridge Studies in International Relations is a joint initiative of Cambridge University Press and the British International Studies Association
(BISA). The series will include a wide range of material, from undergraduate textbooks and surveys to research-based monographs and collaborative volumes. The aim of the series is topublish the best new
scholarship in International Studies from Europe, North America and
the rest of the world.

CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

107 Richard M. Price
Moral Limit and Possibility in World Politics
106 Emma Haddad
The Refugee in International Society
Between sovereigns
105 Ken Booth
Theory of world security
104 Benjamin Miller
States, nations and the greatpowers
The sources of regional war and peace
103 Beate Jahn (ed.)
Classical theory in international relations
102 Andrew Linklater and Hidemi Suganami
The English School of international relations
A contemporary reassessment
101 Colin Wight
Agents, structures and international relations
Politics as ontology
100 Michael C. Williams
The realist tradition and the limits of internationalrelations
99 Ivan Arregu´n-Toft
ı
How the weak win wars
A theory of asymmetric conflict
98 Michael Barnett and Raymond Duvall
Power in global governance
97 Yale H. Ferguson and Richard W. Mansbach
Remapping global politics
History’s revenge and future shock
96 Christian Reus-Smit
The politics of international law

Series list continues after index

Causation in
International RelationsReclaiming Causal Analysis

m i l ja k u r k i

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo
Cambridge University Press
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Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521882972
©Milja Kurki 2008
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of
relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place
without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published in print format 2008

ISBN-13 978-0-511-39508-6

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978-0-521-88297-2

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