Events Data and the International Affairs Expert: Toward a Synthesis?

Since the mid 1960s, two major perspectives have dominated the academic organization of international relations. A considerable amount of theory and research effort has been devoted to either the foreign policy or the international system perspective. Concepts and propositions have been developed, data have been gathered, new methods have been introduced, and hypotheses have been tested. Despite all of the excitement, work, and innovation of the past one and a half decades, little has been ac9omplished to merge the two perspectives into a single, coherent whole. The field of international relations remains fragmented; adherents of the major perspectives cling adamantly to their beliefs.