PYQ Vault · Paper 2 · Approaches to International Relations
Critically examine the functional and system approaches to the study international relations.
How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Flow snapshot — how the answer moves
Intro routes
R1 both products of the behavioural turn → push IR past human nature → one to Intro routes cooperation, one to structure R2 two modern reactions against realism → institutions vs structure as the new lens
Body flow
Mitrany, "form follows function" → technical tasks build institutions + peace → Body flow loyalty-transfer assumption fails (nation-state legitimacy) → Haas neo-functionalism + spillover → ECSC – political integration → limits: European-only, Westphalian state persists, Eurocentric → systems approach: structure shapes units → Kaplan's models (BoP / bipolar / universal / hierarchical / unit-veto) → critics: Bull (intellectual exercise), Lieber (testability)
Counter-view
both remote from power, domestic politics, agency → systems too abstract and Counter-view untestable; functionalism idealises cooperation and stays Eurocentric
Conclusion routes
Rk! neither sufficient alone → functionalism reads cooperation, systems reads Conclusion routes structure R2 complement both by restoring power, history and agency
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
