Research project VP/03 (Research action VP)
This project aims to develop a model accounting for the dynamics and prevention of international conflicts and a method for analysing the origins, development, and resolution of these conflicts.
The period spanning the years 1945-1990 appears particularly fertile in this area.
Existing studies, however, are tainted by univocal interpretations and value judgements. As for the investigation methods used, moreover, they tend to sink into para-journalistic description or into abstract theorising with the relation to reality. Because science advances through conjecture and refutation, the research will be based on a body of theory and on empirical analysis.
The project thus involves interdisciplinary research based on the confrontation of theories developed in the field of the sociology of international relations and of comparative historic studies on the dynamics of conflicts.
This implies :
1 establishing a body of theory on the dynamics of international conflicts;
2 an empirical study of post-1945 international conflicts;
3 systematic analysis and confrontation of the theoretical models with the factual data;
4 production of a final report including an attempt to analyse and model conflicts.
