COMPARISON, HISTORY AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
THE COMPARATIVE METHODOLOGY FOR INTERNATIONAL ANALYSIS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12957/neiba.2025.91432Keywords:
comparison, history, international relations, methodologyAbstract
The aim of this article is to show that International Relations can benefit from a more diverse range of methodologies, focusing here on those that deal with comparative analysis, such as the Comparative Historical Method. Although research on methodology in International Relations has been open to a diversity of approaches in recent years, scholars have been less likely to formulate explicit methodological guidelines, especially in the form of practical guidance for comparative research projects. The article therefore aims to show innovative methodological possibilities for IR, outlining its analysis within a framework that frames History, comparison and the study of the international field. The article concludes by highlighting the importance of methodological innovation in IR, especially when it comes to approaches inspired by reflexivity, comparison and History.
References
Alejandro, Audrey (2020). “Reflexive Discourse Analysis: A Methodology for the Practice of
Reflexivity.” European Journal of International Relations. 27 (1): 150–74.
Alejandro, Audrey; Knott, Eleanor (2022). How to Pay Attention to the Words We Use: The
Reflexive Review as a Method for Linguistic Reflexivity, International Studies Review, Volume 24,
Issue 3.
Amoureux, J.L., & Steele, B.J. (2015). Reflexivity and International Relations: Positionality, Critique,
and Practice (1st ed.). Routledge.
Anderson, Benedict (1983). Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of
Nationalism. London: Verso. ———. 2016. “Frameworks of Comparison.” London Review of Books
38 (2): 15–8.
Bennett, A., & Elman, C. (2007). Case Study Methods in the International Relations Subfield.
Comparative Political Studies, 40(2), 170-195.
Berenskoetter, Felix (2017). Approaches to Concept Analysis. Millennium: Journal of International
Studies, 45 (2): 151–73.
Bilgin, Pinar (2016). ’Contrapuntal Reading as a Method, an Ethos, and a Metaphor for Global IR.
International Studies Review 18 (1): 134–46
Blaney, David l, and naeem Inayatullah (2002). Neo-Modernization? IR and the Inner Life of
Modernization Theory. European Journal of International Relations 8 (1): 103–37
Bloch, Marc (1928). Pour une histoire compare des sociétés européennes. Revue de synthèse
historique 46 (1928): 15–50.
Boswell, john, Corbett, Jack and Rhodes, R. (2019). The Art and Craft of Comparison. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Brubaker, Roger (2003). Beyond Comparativism: Theory and Research in Comparative Social
Analysis. E-Scholarship UCLA: 1–8.
Buzan, Barry (2014). An Introduction to the English School of International Relations: The Societal
Approach. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Chakrabarty, Dipesh (2007). Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical
Difference. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Charmaz, Kathy (2006). Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide through Qualitative
Analysis. London: SAGE.
Chernoff, Fred (2007). Theory and Metatheory in International Relations. Palgrave Macmillan New
York.
Cheesman, Nick (2021). Unbound Comparison. In Rethinking Comparison: Innovative Methods for
Qualitative Political Inquiry, edited by Simmons Erica and Rush Smith Nicholas, 64–83. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Chowdhry, Geeta (2007). Edward Said and Contrapuntal Reading: Implications for Critical
Interventions in International Relations. Millennium: Journal of International Studies 36 (1): 101–
16
Coulborn, Rushton (1969). A Paradigm for Comparative History? Current Anthropology 10, no. 2–
3; 175–78.
Cornish, Flora (2020). Communicative Generalisation: Dialogical Means of Advancing Knowledge
through a Case Study of an ‘Unprecedented’ Disaster. Culture & Psychology 26 (1): 78–95
Degler, Carl N (1968). Comparative History: An Essay Review. The Journal of Southern History 34,
no. 3; 425– 30.
Detlef F. Sprinz, Yael Wolinsky-Nahmias (2004). Models, numbers and cases. Methods for studying
international relations. University of Michigan Press.
Elman, Colin, and Miriam Fendius Elman (1997). Diplomatic History and International Relations
Theory: Respecting Difference and Crossing Boundaries. International Security 22, no. 1 (1997):
5–21.
Guzzini, S. (2013). The ends of International Relations theory: Stages of reflexivity and modes of
theorizing. European Journal of International Relations, 19(3), 521-541
Grew, Raymond (1980). The Case for Comparing Histories. The American Historical Review 85, no.
4; 763–78.
Hafner-Burton EM, Haggard S, Lake DA, Victor DG (2017). The Behavioral Revolution and
International Relations. International Organization.
Hamati-Ataya, I. (2012). IR Theory as International Practice/Agency: A Clinical-Cynical
Bourdieusian Perspective. Millennium, 40(3), 625-646.
Hobson, John M (2002). What’s at Stake in ‘Bringing Historical Sociology Back into International
Relations’? Transcending ‘Chronofetishism’ and ‘Tempocentrism’ in International Relations.” In
Historical Sociology of International Relations, edited by Stephen Hobden and John M. Hobson, 3–
41. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kocka, Jürgen and Heinz-Gerhard Haupt (2009). Comparison and Beyond: Traditions, Scope and
Perspectives of Comparative History. In Transnational History: Central European Approaches and
New Perspectives, edited by Heinz-Gerhard Haupt and Jürgen Kocka, 1–32. New York: Berghahn
Books.
Krishna, Sankaran (2001). Race, Amnesia, and the Education of International Relations.
Alternatives: Global, Local, Political 26 (4): 401–24
Lai, Daniela (2024). Reimagining Comparisons in International Relations through Reflexivity.
International Studies Review.
Lange, Matthew (2013). Comparative-Historical Methods. London: Sage.
Lamont, C (2022). Research Method in International Relations, Sage Publications, London, 2022.
Lawson, George (2019). Anatomies of Revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Levine, Philippa (2014). “Is Comparative History Possible?” History and Theory 53; 331–47.
Mahoney, James, and Dietrich Rueschemeyer (2003). Comparative Historical Analysis:
Achievements and Agendas. In Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences, edited by
James Mahoney and Dietrich Rueschemeyer, 3–38. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Palabıyık, Mustafa Serdar (2019). Broadening the Horizons of the “International” by Historicizing
it: Comparative Historical Analysis, All Azimuth V8, N2, 307-325.
Palabıyık, Mustafa Serdar. (2014). Comparative Narratives of ‘Catastrophe’: Ottoman Perception
of Balkan Wars and Greek Perception of Asia Minor Campaign.” In 100. Yılında Balkan Savaşları
(1912–1913): İhtilaflı Duruşlar, Vol. I, edited by Mustafa Türkeş, 477–92. Ankara: Türk Tarih
Kurumu Yayınları.
Said, Edward w (1994). Culture and Imperialism. New York: Vintage Books.
Sewell, Jr., William H (1967). Marc Bloch and the Logic of Comparative History. History and Theory
6, no. 2; 208–18.
Schaffer, Frederic c (2015). Elucidating Social Science Concepts: An Interpretivist Guide. London
and New York: Routledge.
Skocpol, Theda, and Margaret Somers (1980). The Uses of Comparative History in Macrosocial
Inquiry.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 22, no. 2; 174–97.
Siegrist, Hannes (2006). Comparative History of Cultures and Societies: From Cross-Societal
Analysis to the Study of Intercultural Interdependencies. In Comparative Methodologies in the
Social Sciences: Cross-Disciplinary Inspirations. Special issue, Comparative Education 42, no. 3;
377–404.
Smith, Thomas W (1999). History and International Relations. London and New York: Routledge.
Stanford Friedman, Susan (2011). Why Not Compare? PMLA 126 (3): 753–62.
Steinmetz, George (2004). Odious Comparisons: Incommensurability, the Case Study, and ’Small
N’s’ in Sociology. Sociological Theory 22 (3): 371–400
Steinmetz, George (2014). Comparative History and Its Critics: A Genealogy and a Possible
Solution. In A Companion to Global Historical Thought, edited by Prasenjit Duara, Viren Murthy
and Andrew Sartori, 412–36. West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, 2014.
Stoler, Ann Laura (2001). Tense and Tender Ties: The Politics of Comparison in North American
History and (Post) Colonial Studies. The Journal of American History 88 (3): 829–65
Tilly, Charles (1984). As Sociology Meets History: Studies in Social Discontinuity. New York:
Academic Press, Big Structures, Large Processes, Huge Comparisons. New York: Sage.
Tucker, Karen (2018). Unraveling Coloniality in International Relations: Knowledge, Relationality,
and Strategies for Engagement.” International Political Sociology 12 (3): 215–32
Watson, Adam (1992). The Evolution of International Society. London: Routledge.
Werner, Michael, and Bénédicte Zimmermann (2006). Beyond Comparison: Histoire Croisée and
challenge of Reflexivity. History and Theory 45 (2006): 30–50.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
The Copyrights of articles published in Revista Neiba, Cadernos Argentina-Brasil belong to their respective author (s), with the first publication rights assigned to Revista Neiba, Cadernos Argentina-Brasil, with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License, which allows sharing the work with acknowledgment of authorship and initial publication in this journal. Due to the fact that they appear in Revista Neiba, Cadernos Argentina-Brasil, the articles are free to use, with mandatory attribution of authorship, for use in educational and non-commercial applications, according to the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License adopted by this journal.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
