Methodological Poverty and Disciplinary Underdevelopment in IR

Abstract

This article begins with the premise that the International Relations (IR)disciplinary community in Turkey has a problem: namely, it has failed toappreciate the importance of methodology. Rather, efforts to develop thelocal discipline and, subsequently, training within IR departments, have bothemphasized ‘theory’, arguing that it constitutes the best route of elevating localdisciplinary scholarship and enabling true dialogue with the core discipline. Thisarticle argues that, unfortunately, this focus has at best succeeded in encouragingthe importation and assimilation of outside theories, and at worst, has helped tocreate a shell of a local discipline—ever increasing in size, but not in substance.It goes on to argue that only through development of students’ and scholars’methodological competence can Turkish IR gain greater value in the global IRscholarly community, because methodology, its tools and approaches and theexpertise needed to apply them in a competent and skilled manner, constitutesthe universal common language of an academic discipline, and thus allows forgenuine discussions and debates within a disciplinary community.