Skip to main content
header search
ahihi OpenLearn
OpenLearn
Menu
sticky search

About this free course

Become an OU student

Download this course

Share this free course

Course content Course content
Concepts and theories in international relations
Concepts and theories in international relations

Start this free course now. Just create an account and sign in. Enrol and complete the course for a free statement of participation or digital badge if available.

More free courses

1 Concepts and theories in focus

Terms like ‘concepts’ and ‘theories’ are used quite routinely when explaining why we think what we think about a particular topic, but they also have a more technical meaning when it comes to the study of IR. If we want to set aside partisan interpretations to build up a comprehensive picture of the complex web of reasons behind events and issues in international relations, then these more technical understandings of ‘concepts’ and theories’ can be very useful.

Put simply, concepts are the general ideas and terms that can be used to categorise observations about international relations, whereas theories are the simplifications of the world that can be used to interpret the relationship between key actors, issues and events.

Activity 1

Timing: Allow approximately 25 minutes

Watch the following two videos, which will give you an overview of what concepts and theories mean in the study of IR. Once you have watched the animations, complete the task that follows.

Download this video clip.Video player: Video 1
Show transcript | Hide transcript

Transcript: Video 1 Concepts in International Relations

SPEAKER:
A concept is a general or abstract idea or term. International relations scholars use concepts to categorise what they observe in the international environment. There are many concepts in international relations-- justice, the state, accountability, power, security, identity, and gender, to name just a few. They use these concepts to connect the subjects of their research to more general political phenomena to draw conclusions.
The precise meanings of these concepts aren't fixed and are the subject of much debate. They gained layers of meaning over time and in different cultures and contexts. Even the concept of concepts is up for debate.
Scholars such as Andrew Heywood distinguish between descriptive concepts and normative concepts. Descriptive concepts are seen as value-free descriptions of observable phenomena, concepts like power or the state, for example. Normative concepts are seen as having value-free judgements within them, as they imply a commitment to certain values, concepts like justice and equality, for instance. In reality, all concepts tend to have both descriptive and normative aspects.
Some concepts can have very different meanings, making it almost impossible for scholars to agree on a single definition. We call these essentially contested concepts.
Security is a good example. Some scholars say security only concerns a military threat to a state. Others argue a military conception of security ignores common threats, like climate destruction and gender-based violence. This makes security an essentially contested concept. It's due to this ambiguity that academic articles have to define exactly how they are using key concepts.
Critical IR scholarship from people, including Edward Said, Cynthia Enloe, and Ayse Zarakol, have argued that many of IR's core concepts are shaped by Western-centric, capitalist, patriarchal, and colonial systems. They argue concepts need to be reinterpreted to understand the experiences of women, the working classes, and societies of the non-Western world. So concepts are used to categorise the international environment. But the precise meaning of these concepts is in a constant state of debate and development.
End transcript: Video 1 Concepts in International Relations
Download
Video 1 Concepts in International Relations
Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).
Download this video clip.Video player: Video 2
Show transcript | Hide transcript

Transcript: Video 2 Theories in International Relations

NARRATOR:
Broadly speaking, theories are simplifications of the real world. Scholars use theories to simplify the relationships between concepts, factors, and processes in international relations. There are a wide range of very different theories of IR. These theories are systems for understanding events and developments in the world, setting out the factors and processes that matter most and how they're connected.
Now, there's more than one way to simplify the world. There are therefore many theories of international relations, each based on a different set of assumptions and beliefs. One of the biggest distinctions is between positivist and post-positivist theories. For positivists, scholars can observe the world around them and use scientific methods to achieve objective knowledge. For post-positivist, all such knowledge is subjective as it's filtered through scholar's beliefs and interpretation. This has to be acknowledged and accounted for with qualitative and interpretive methods.
There is also a difference between what each theory sets out to do, whether the theory seeks to explain, understand, critique, or even transform the international environment. Explanatory theories aim to give generalisable accounts of why certain things happen. They may be the broad and simple explanations of the positivists, or the more complex interpretive explanations of post-positivist. Some theories focus on understanding the richer details of a given case.
Critical theories seek to interrogate the existing patterns of international relations to uncover the power structures that are maintaining unfair practices. Normative theories do this too, but with the explicit intention of transforming those power structures. So theories provide a framework for our research, setting out a notional relationship between different concepts, factors, and processes. Each of the many IR theories are based on different assumptions and beliefs about the purpose of theory, the nature of the world, and how to make sense of it.
End transcript: Video 2 Theories in International Relations
Download
Video 2 Theories in International Relations
Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).

For each of the statements shown below, correctly determine whether it describes the notion of a concept or theory in IR by clicking the relevant pink ‘Concept’ or green ‘Theory’ button. For non-mouse users, use ‘Numpad 1’ to select ‘Concept’ and ‘Numpad 2’ to select ‘Theory’. The correct answers will be revealed when you have assigned all of the statements. If you select a category in error, you can use the ‘Reset’ button to clear your answers and begin again.

Active content not displayed. This content requires JavaScript to be enabled.
Interactive feature not available in single page view (see it in standard view).

Comment

Concepts and theories are often spoken about in everyday life, as part of explanations for how the world works. Now, you have a clearer idea of the more technical ways in which these terms are used in the study of International Relations, it is worth thinking about how a more refined understanding of ‘concepts’ and ‘theories’ can help you think more about how they relate to one another. Indeed, various different concepts might be used within theories of International Relations to help produce more comprehensive explanations of real-world events and the myriad of factors that feed into them.

As you will find out as you progress through this course, different theories might treat the same key concepts in deeply divergent ways. On the other hand, theories might rest upon entirely different sets of concepts.