Within the field of foreign policy analysis, especially, its application to the foreign policy and intervention behaviour of African states, scholars have argued that more than one IR approach is required to fully explain their FP and intervention behaviour. The question then is, how many approaches should be employed, if it is true that one approach is insufficient? Should we simply add more and more perspectives to get a fuller view with each step? Or is there an epistemological outer limit of applying a multi-perspective eclectic approach when analysing these FP and intervention behaviours ?
Dear Colleague Olumuyiwa Amao,
In terms of rhetoric, there may be a requirement to explain methods. Before writing, you might ask yourself what the goal of the study is. When you have the goal firmly fixed in your mind (what readers take away), then ask which theories will most clearly make this desired final or overall impression upon the reader.
If you wish to use more than one or two approaches, then it may be best to explain why to the reader in your introductory paragraph. What does each approach add specifically to the view of this complex topic that would otherwise be missed?
In science, this method of showing from many different points is called the parallax view. No one view or method has all the capabilities of explaining FP and intervention, so you need to look at it from different points on the compass just as scientists look at a new asteroid to plot its course from a number of points. No astronomer' sighting is "better' than another, because they all add needed correction and mapping.
I hope this helps,
Gloria
Thank you for your intervention @Gloria Lee Mcmillan. In sum, what determines the number of theories to be added is a function of the phenomenon under investigation and the need to appyly the 'doctrine of reasonability' in the theory selection process. Makes reasonable analytical sense to combine 2 or at most 3 theories to analyse a country's FP and intervention behaviour when there are grounds for such combinations, but applying 4 or more may defeat the essence of theorising itself.
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