Des contradictions dans la perception du système mondial

Emphasizing divergences in the perception of the main characteristics of the world System, this paper concentrates on five main issues: 1) whether the System is getting more integrated or more disintegrated; 2) whether ideology is coming to an end or coming back ; 3) whether the System is multipolar or bipolar ; 4) what are the bases of different poles ; and 5) what help social theory can offer to find the "right" answer. Quantitative data are presented to support the different contentions. The paper's thesis is that even the available data are interpreted differently by different researchers, and this shows the primacy of epistemology, the researchers' basic premises, and the importance of relating the analysis of international relations to issues in philosophy of science

Futur des relations internationales ou relations internationales du futur?

This last paper in the volume tries to pull the threads together and to detect trends of evolution in the analysis of international relations. The discussion is limited to three issues deemed basic to this evolution: 1) the increasing g importance of technology and its impact on the world System, and especially on one of its basic components: the nation-state ; 2) contents and characteristics of the new industry of futurology ; and 3) the rise of political economy as a basic approach to the study of international relations. It is suggested that we are growing beyond such simplistic divisions as "High" and "Low Politics", and obsession with methodologism per se, and that we are increasingly putting rigor and interdisciplinarity in the service of analysing "substantial" issues of international relations

Un, deux, ou quatre… : Les écoles de relations internationales

The thesis of this paper is that despite the so-called breakthrough in the study of International Relations following the behavioral revolution of the 1960s, this field is still Anglo-saxon, particularly American-centered. The paper's emphasis then is on the widening of International Relations as a field of analysis and the bringing in of differing approaches so that this field becomes truly universal as its name indicates. To review the evolution of this field, the paper is divided into two main parts of unequal length. The short part one review s Kuhn's scheme concerning the different stages in the evolution of science. The long part two applies this scheme to the study of International Relations and characterizes it as in a state of crisis, because of its lack of a consensual paradigm to guide analysis and research. It emphasises that the division between schools is not only methodological, but especially epistemological and ideological. Consequently, the paper analyses in detail the different arguments of four schools : Realism, Behavioralism, Marxism, and Neo-Marxism and Dependencia