Chapter 2

Research Questions
and Research Design

Why questions?
undergraduate and graduate students of IR are expected to
produce research papers that go beyond simple descriptions or
rich anecdotal insights into particular event.
Students of IR are encouraged to pursue what can be described as
question-based research.
Question-based research is research in which the researcher poses
a question that typically attempts to explain an uncertain
relationship between two or more variables (empirical research) or
that problematizes our understanding of an existing variable
(interpretive research).

What questions?
In the field of IR, there are plural approaches to explaining and
understanding the world around us; thus, this means that there is
no single template for research questions.
Questions can assume many different forms, and different
questions can produce different kinds of knowledge for different
purposes

What questions?
Why do states go to war?
Causes of international conflict
Ways to prevent and mitigate the outbreak of conflict

How do international courts function in international

politics?
Functioning of international courts
The relations between strengthened international dispute
settlement mechanism and states conflict settlement
behaviors

Factors to be considered
In addition to understanding how your research question will be
locate your work along the empirical-interpretive spectrum, you
should keep in mind that your research question will also inform
what kind of research skills you will need to use during the
research process.
will your research question require you to interpret information
derived form large datasets?
will you be reading primary documents looking for changes in official
discourse over time?
will your research question require you to go out into the field and
access research sites in a foreign country?

Empirical research questions

One effective tool to arrive at an empirical research question is to
uncover the puzzle within your topic.
Usually something within your topic area puzzles or confounds you.
A relatively non-violent protest movement in Tunisia was able to send
Tunisias long-time autocrat, Ben Ali, into exile.
The Soviet Union collapsed.
The US and Vietnam have improved their bilateral relations.
Cambodia and China have built very close bilateral relations.
The US has turned their attention to Southeast Asia.
China has rose dramatically.
ASEAN has been expanded to include several non-democracy

Research question tips

In order to get from interest in a topic to a research question, you
need to attempt to decompose your topic into smaller parts that
lead themselves to empirical study.
One way to arrive of a research question is to think in terms of
countries and narrow down your area of interest to one or two
states. Then identify a particular issue area or debate that is of
interest. Finally, turn that interest into a research question
The role of social media in revolution debate (puzzle):
The social media played a crucial role in protest mobilization.
The role of social media is overstated.
What role did social media play in protest mobilization during the Tunisia
Revolution?

Research question and

hypothesis
if your interest is broader (you are looking to explain the caused of
revolution), your purpose is to observe a range of factors that have
been offered as potential explanatory variables instead of isolating
a single factor such as social media.
Because question-based research assumes that we will be able to
arrive to some sort of meaningful answer that will shed some light
on an apparent puzzle, we should articulate our research question
in a way that allows for us to most effectively test conjectured
relationships.

Research question and

hypothesis
I want to explain revolution -> what explains the Tunisia
Revolution?
In relation to this question, your hypothesis wont necessarily be
opposing position on the impact of single variable, but instead it
will constitute propositions about a number of variables that you
have selected as potential explanatory variables.

Multiple explanatory variables

What explains the Tunisian Revolution?
H1: Economic inequality causes the Tunisia Revolution.
H2: High levels of youth unemployment causes the Tunisian Revolution.
H3:..............................

Explanatory categories: The agentStructure Debate

Given the wide universe of potential explanatory variables, one way
to begin generating hypothesis that you can test in your research is
to begin thinking in terms of categories of explanation.
Long-term or structural explanations can be economic in nature
such as socio-economic inequality, or persistent high levels of
youth unemployment, or institutional structures such as a
kleptocratic political system, or a political party system.
The second type of explanation are explanations that put emphasis
on the role of particular individuals.

Research question and

hypothesis
what role did social media play in protest mobilization during the
Tunisian Revolution?
H1: Social media played a significant role in protest mobilization during the
2011 Tunisian Revolution.
H2: Social media did not play a significant role in protest mobilization during
the 2011 Tunisian Revolution.

Research question and

hypothesis
What explains the Tunisian Revolution?
The causes of the Tunisian Revolution were economic (socio-economic
disparity, youth unemployment).
The causes of the Tunisian Revolution were political (the inability of Ben Ali
to respond quickly to the demands of demonstrators, the role of the head of
the Tunisian Army).
The causes of the Tunisian Revolution were external (the US. support for
oppositions groups).

Interpretive research
questions
Interpretive research focuses on ideas, identities, norms, and
culture in international politics.
Interpretive research aims to illuminate social representations,
discourses and meanings that underlie events.
Because interpretive researchers turn to languages, and not
empirical observation, to provide answers to their questions, we do
not encounter datasets or testable hypotheses.

Comparison
Empirical research ques/ons

Interpre/ve research ques/on

Why did the US invaded Iraq in 2003?

(Explanation of the causes)

How did the US jus/fy its invasion of Iraq in

2003?
(the jus/ca/on and meaning of invasion)

What factors lead China to engage in South

China Sea disputes?

How does China view South China Sea?/

What is Chinas percep/on of South China sea?
(What does South China Sea mean to China?)

Empirical research design

From the perspective of an empirical researcher, theories lend
themselves to empirical testing and are falsifiable. There are two
broad strategies that empirical researchers can employ to test their
theories: observation and experimentation.
Regarding observation, you have two further choices: you can
observe a large number of cases, or just a few (large-n research
and case study).
Experimentation is less common in IR. In IR, we are unable to
easily experiment upon our objects of study.

Empirical research design

Thus when embarking on research design you will first revisit your
research question.
If your interest is in understanding the how and why of an event of
phenomena, cause study research is well suited to helping you
respond to your research question.
If on the other hand you are examining a wider category of events
such as what explains the outbreak of war, which has long been a
central question within the field, you will need to engage with a
large dataset that can help you observe correlations between
variables over a large number of cases.

Interpretive research design

Interpretive research often relies upon case studies that focus on the use of
particular discourse in a given context, or representations of particular individual
or events.
Interpretive research design does not aim at process-tracing or making some
form of causal inference.
A focus on narratives, or constructed memories of past events such as wars or
political struggles can be helpful in illustrating contested nations such as justice.
If your interest in the dispute between the international Criminal Court and the
African over the Courts exercise of jurisdiction over the continent, your interest
might not lie in explaining the relationship between the ICC and the AU, but
instead you might want to unpack the language of justice. (Does international
justice mean different thing in different social contexts?)

Interpretive research design

Because your focus is an understanding social meaning, tools
designed to explain relationships between variables, such as
quantitative research methods, will offer little insight into the types
of question asked.
Instead, qualitative research methods provide a rich array of tools
that you can use, such as discourse analysis that will allow you to
further investigate contested notions in IR

Research Proposal
In your research proposal, you are expected to present your
research topic, research question, and research design.
When crafting your proposal, you will start by demonstrating why
your research topic is of interest to the field of IR. In short, the first
few lines of your research proposal should be devoted to providing
some form of justification of your topic.
In your research proposal, you have to demonstrate that your
project is feasible within the timeframe you are expected to
complete your research and writing.