Confronting Bias in International Relations

In: International studies perspectives: a journal of the International Studies Association, Band 2, Heft 4, S. 416-437

Abstract

Presents a debate on political bias among social scientists, particularly as it affects the teaching of undergraduates. Following a general overview of the problem by Robert A. Denemark on behalf of the editors of this journal, David N. Gibbs offers Social Science as Propaganda? International Relations and the Question of Political Bias, in which he criticizes the continuing political bias in mainstream US scholarship for its endorsement (both subtle & overt) of the dominant political ideology & norms. As illustration, the example is offered of how scholars have depicted covert operations practiced by the US military & intelligence services & agencies in Iran, Nicaragua, Zimbabwe, & Cuba. In Farewell to "Old Thinking": A Reply to Gibbs, Robert S. Snyder responds to Gibbs's criticisms of his article, "The U.S. and Third World Revolutionary States: Understanding the Breakdown in Relations" (1999). Gibbs's charges of bias in international relations studies, particularly those of US foreign policy, are challenged as overly dogmatic, radical, & structuralist. 85 References. K. Hyatt Stewart