ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the more basic questions as they relate to Soviet foreign policy studies. It also focuses on what positivism is and the role of deductive theory in it; what holism is, and its relation to positivism; the shortcomings of holism; the shortcomings of positivism; and the use of hybrid methods to repair the shortcomings of positivism. The chapter discusses the potential disadvantages of importing a deductive research program of this kind into the Soviet field: its ethnocentrism, its monolithic character, and the questionable applicability of the special skills of Sovietologists to the research program it proposes. Harry Gelman's argument about the role of Soviet leadership politics in promoting an opportunistic, expansionist approach to detente illustrates the problem of logical underdetermination. In order to minimize the danger of ethnocentrism, holists suggest analyzing the Soviets' behavior in terms of the Soviets' own categories and concepts.
