Can Academic Study and Research Contribute to the Conduct of International Relations?

• Author: Fonseca, Gelson

To answer the question, a few preliminary remarks are necessary. A diplomat in a modern Chancery is no longer a self-sufficient actor, taking his cue from an abstract definition of raison d'Etat as he negotiates his way through complex security issues involving neighbouring States. In dealing with "new themes", such as the environment, transnational corporations, human rights, international crimes and so on, the contemporary diplomat must be more directly responsive to social needs and demands. The present international agenda reflects the decisive influence of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), social and economic groups and the scientific community in shaping the formulation of foreign policy. The methods and the actors involved are different for each subject. And barriers that used to exist between national and international questions have almost entirely vanished.

The classical approach of the realist school in the study of international relations, while still important for the analysis of strategic problems, has shown itself less relevant in tackling the difficult and pressing choices concerning humanitarian assistance, human rights violations or the depletion of the ozone level that confront us today. However, the feeling shared by practitioners of international relations that theory in this field is somehow "underdeveloped", compared to other areas such as economics, cannot be entirely accounted for by the shortcomings of the traditional realist school. Even when we deal with more sophisticated models (the neo-realist variant, the liberal or neo-liberal approaches, the institutionalist analysis), we are often left with an after-taste of disappointment.

Thus, for example, the concept of globalization seeks to encompass the multiple aspects of these new international realities. Yet, from an analytical perspective and despite its interesting descriptive virtues, this concept remains too unfocused to provide an all-embracing tool for understanding this novel scenario. The same is true, although in a different way, of "interdependence", "regimes" and other notions that are usually associated with the effort to provide alternative theoretical approaches to hard-boiled realism. We are forced to acknowledge that theoretical solutions for the interpretation of our complex contemporary intemational world have yet to find adequate roots in practical reality.

But does this mean that academic research is irrelevant to the conduct of foreign...