Metodologija nauke o međunarodnim političkim odnosima u Jugoslavenskoj teoriji
Methodology of the Science of International Political Relations in Yugoslav Theory

Summary/Abstract: Parallel to the study of the fundamental issues underlying the establishment of the science of international relations, political scientists in Yugoslavia have been concerned also with its methodological facets. A number of Yugoslav theorists have critically appraised the methodology employed by Western authors in the study of international phenomena, pointing to their positivistic, practicistic, partial and one-sided approach. Efforts were made, at the same time, to work out a method that would permit an integral interpretation of phenomena investigated in that scientific field. It was found that the science of international political relations was, almost to an equal extent, an empirical discipline, relying on the examination of the dynamism of specific international developments, as well as a theoretical science, requiring the study of distinctly theoretical concepts and the identification of the laws prevailing in this field. The conclusion made by Yugoslav authors was that the method of historical and dialectic materialism is the only one capable of meeting the demands made by this scientific discipline. Being a general and fundamental method, historical and dialectic materialism involves the complex analysis of international phenomena for the purpose of identifying relevant laws, viewed within the context of overall social and economic trends at a given level of the development of productive forces and production relations, illuminating, at the same time, their class character and origin. In the specific investigations of the dynamism of international relations, this general method can be combined with a series of various auxiliary methods, procedures and techniques, used by other social and natural sciences. It is, however, necessary in this to remain within the terms of reference of the method of dialectic and historical materialism and its fundamental concepts.

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