UPSC CSE Prelims 2024

Systems approach in IR

  • Intro- Systems approach in IR seeks to analyse international relations as a system of interactions of states which are interdependent and interrelated. It is a product of behavioural revolution in IR

  • Morton A Kaplan.-work- systems and processes in International politics
    • Wanted to build a grand theory of international politics which can explain past, present and future of international politics
    • Most suitable for study of international politics because it requires interdisciplinary approach. Also it is non-normative ,value neutral and free from biases
    • Approach takes international politics as an overarching idea and not as a sum of foreign policies.




  • Critical evaluation by traditionalists like Robert J Lieber:
    • Criticised as model building exercise rather than theory building.
    • Many models are hypothetical
    • Just a general explanation of international politics. No analysis
    • Ignore importance of domestic factors, personality factors
    • do not help in making predictions
    • Stanly Hoffmann- strange parlour game that has absolute zero analytical value.
    • Ernst Haass criticises the approach for not including sub national factors

  • Kenneth Boulding suggests that the effort is certainly more than giving fancy names even though it has pigeonholes.


  • Conclusion:  systems theory has helped understand the structure of IR in a more scientific and analytical way that is still used by scholars for their analysis of the contemporary world order.

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