ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the methodological deficit of political discourse theory, introducing 'retroduction' as a possible way out. A retroductive and articulatory methodology has implications for the whole research process on regional interventions. The chapter introduces coding as the technique for analysing a huge amount of text data on regional interventions. It focuses on difficult assembling of text data on regional interventions into Burundi and Zimbabwe. The communiqués issued by the Regional Peace Initiative on Burundi were one of the most important text sources on regional intervention politics. The text corpus on Zimbabwe includes 185 single documents: texts produced by the Southern African Development Community (SADC); statements, speeches, and interviews given by regional heads of state and other government officials; and, infrequently, texts issued by the African Union. The chapter also presents the coding scheme as employed with respect to the analysis of these two instances of regional intervention.
