- 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.