This essay argues that the field of international relations has exhibited “progress” of the sort found in the natural sciences. Several well-known accounts of “science” and “progress” are adumbrated; four offer positive accounts of progress (those of Peirce, Duhem, Popper, and Lakatos) and one evidences a negative assessment (Kuhn). Recent studies of the democratic peace—both supporting and opposing—are analyzed to show that they satisfy the terms of each of the definitions of scientific progress.
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Fred Chernoff (2004) studied this question.
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