Analytic eclecticism and International Relations: Promises and pitfalls
| Author | Patrick James,Jérémie Cornut,Fred Chernoff |
| Published date | 01 September 2020 |
| Date | 01 September 2020 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0020702020959250 |
| Subject Matter | Scholarly Essay |
Scholarly Essay
Analytic eclecticism and
International Relations:
Promises and pitfalls
Fred Chernoff
Department of Political Science, Colgate University,
Hamilton, USA
J
er
emie Cornut
Department of Political Science, Simon Fraser University,
Vancouver, Canada
Patrick James
Department of Political Science and International Relations,
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA
Abstract
Some scholars in International Relations and comparative politics continue to debate
how to obtain the strongest explanatory theory whereas others hold that each
approach should be treated as its own area of research. Both of these groups tend
to agree that factors from across paradigms cannot be coherently combined with each
other. On the contrary, Sil and Katzenstein have argued for analytic eclecticism in
scholarship, which would not treat research traditions or paradigms as strict limitations
on theory construction. Inspired by pragmatism, they have made a compelling case that
considerations of usefulness and knowledge cumulation are more important than par-
adigmatic fidelity. This forum examines analytic eclecticism from the points of view of
neo-empiricism, feminism, and interpretive constructivism, followed by a reply by Sil. A
decade has passed since the publication of Sil and Katzenstein’s Beyond Paradigms,soit
seems appropriate to reflect upon the strengths and weaknesses of analytic eclecticism.
Corresponding author:
Fred Chernoff, Department of Political Science, Colgate University, 13 Oak Drive, Hamilton, New York
13346-1338, USA.
Email: fchernoff@colgate.edu
International Journal
2020, Vol. 75(3) 383–391
!The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/0020702020959250
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