Puchala, Donald J. Theory and History in International Relations.

• Author: Morris, Terry R.
• Position: Book Review

Puchala, Donald J. Theory and History in International Relations. New York: Routledge, 2003. 271 pages. Paper, $24.95.

Donald J. Puchala, Charles J. Jacobsen professor of political affairs at the University of South Carolina, is convinced that, for much of the past twenty years, his discipline--international relations--has been following an unproductive course. Instead of developing from the historically informed theoretical basis of its past, it has attempted to become a quantitative-based social science. Throughout the work, Puchala tries to show both what is wrong with this approach (chapters 1-3), and, for much of the text (chapters 4-10), why he thinks the theoretical-historical is a preferable methodology for his discipline to follow. The final chapter is an attempt to bridge the gap between the two.

Puchala's primary criticism of the quantitative social science approach, the "twenty-year detour" (p. 160) as he terms it, is that humans and human societies are simply too complex to be reduced to any sort of quantitative model. In his judgment, the fruits of the last two decades of this sort of research have been paltry at best. It has offered very little that might be deemed helpful insights into the international situation, nor can it be expected to do so in the future.

Much of this work (chapters 4-10) represents an effort to demonstrate a better way, based upon theory informed by history. For his analysis, Puchala draws from a range of theoretical models without being a slave to any particular one. He recognizes value in linear as well as cyclical models. He is closer to Samuel P. Huntington than Francis Fukuyama in his outlook. Huntington, in The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of Worm Order (1996), envisages a post-Cold War world in which civilization zones, rather than ideological outlooks, will prevail. He suggests that conflicts are more likely to arise in areas where two civilization zones intersect (i.e., the Balkans). Fukuyama, in The End of History and the Last Man (1992), argues that the post-Cold War world is likely to be one where liberalism, namely economic conservatism and democracy, triumphs. Puchala attacks Fukuyama, among other things, for his amateurish, somewhat Hegalian psychology (p. 201). Yet, in the chapter titled "Myth, History, and Morality" he also takes issue with Huntington by suggesting that there are moral universalisms such as ideas about justice, benevolence, and tolerance that could help...