Historical Sociological Approach in International Relations

Abstract

The aim of this study is to underline the importance of historical sociology for the discipline of International Relations and to suggest this research approach for the analysis of nation-state-building processes. Mainstream theories of International Relations, like neorealism and neoliberalism, argue that state behavior is determined by the international system (or structure). Since these theories attribute to the international system a key and determining role to understand state actions without having a state theory of their own, they fail to understand the transformations of the state throughout the history. In this article, it is argued that the discipline of International Relations should analyze the state and develop a theory of it. It is also argued that the way of achieving this goal is to historicize the state with a historical sociological approach.