Towards a Second 'Second Debate'? History, Scientific Inquiry and Historical Sociology in International Relations
The 'second debate' in the historiography of the field of International Relations (IR) took place in the 1960s and focussed upon the relative merits of scientific and historical methods for understanding international politics. Science and history were taken to be two separate approaches, and the disciplinary divide that emerged from this debate has generally taken them to be incommensurable forms of knowledge.