This chapter describes case selection, which is a crucial component of designing social research. Its importance can hardly be overstated because the cases you choose affect the answers you get. However, how should researchers select their cases? A careful inspection of the research question, the study’s objective, should be the starting point. The research question typically anchors the study in a research area, specifies the universe of cases, and guides its engagement with theory. Ideally, case selection is solely driven by methodology; however, practicality and feasibility considerations frequently make adjustments to the design necessary. Such considerations concern, for instance, the costs of data collection. The chapter introduces a few commonly used case selection strategies as well as two hotly debated topics in the literature on case selection: selecting on the dependent variable and random case selection.
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C. Case Selection
Laura Gelhaus and Dirk Leuffen
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1. Making Sense Of Today’s World
This chapter introduces the concept of international relations (IR) theory. It highlights the importance of the historical context in understanding the different theories of international relations that have emerged over the years and why they fall in and out of favour. New theoretical perspectives are constantly coming to the fore and they tend to develop as a result of intellectual reasoning. However, quite often there will be practical consequences of implementing such intellectually grounded theories. The chapter then explores the interplay between international relations, international politics, and world politics and looks at the key concepts of ontology, epistemology, and methodology. It then provides an outline of a number of IR theories, such as liberalism and realism, before acknowledging that there is no right or best IR theory and it is important to keep an open mind.
