2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Discovering 'contortions' in Japanese International Relations research and their implications: An approach from the perspective of 'observational criticism

Research Project

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Project/Area Number	18K18557
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Review Section	Medium-sized Section 6:Political science and related fields
Research Institution	Nagoya University
Principal Investigator	Yamada Takahiro 名古屋大学, 環境学研究科, 教授 (00247602)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	赤星聖関西学院大学, 法学部, 准教授 (20795380)
Project Period (FY)	2018-06-29 – 2023-03-31
Keywords	国際政治理論 / グローバル国際関係論
Outline of Final Research Achievements	This research has attempted to empirically ascertain whether International Relations (IR) theories and methods originated in the Anglophone “center” have been accepted by the non-Anglophone “periphery” as they are by constructing the data set regarding Japanese IR practices and comparing it to those of other countries. Its findings are: (1)Japanese IR is characterized by low theoretical orientation; (2)its low theoretical orientation is associated with the dominance of area studies and diplomatic history in the field; and (3)by comparison, the IR scholarship in equally non-Anglophone Germany tends to be more theoretically oriented owing to its effort to depart from the path of diplomatic history, and also more integrated into the Anglophone “center.”
Free Research Field	国際関係論
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	本研究の最大の学術的な意義は、国際関係論（IR）の知識がIR 研究の「中心」から「周辺」へと伝播する際に、その知識に「ゆがみ」が生じるかどうかに関して、日本のIR研究を事例に定量的に実証した点にある。理論的志向性が低く、歴史的な記述を主たる方法論とする日本のIR研究の特色は、米国や欧州のIRとは大きく異なり、そのことはIR研究の多様性を示唆しているからである。しかし、その反面、日本の異質性が他国のIR研究者との対話を妨げているとする本研究のもう一つの知見は、日本におけるIR研究の未来を考える上で重要な示唆を与え、その意味において本研究の社会的な意義は大きいと言えよう。