The last few decades witnessed the rise of new approaches or frameworks in the
study of International relations. These new approaches are called post positivism.
Most of these approaches share a common view regarding the positivist theories
which
dominated international relations and political science for more than sixty
years. The new directions criticize the methodology and the epistemological and
ontological assumptions of positivism. In this paper we try to evaluate the
contribution of the positivist theories in international relations and the arguments of
the new approaches, mainly Critical theory, post-modernism and social
constructivism.
