All the World's a Stage: The Theater of Political Simulations by Hemda Ben-Yehuda

Author:Hemda Ben-Yehuda [Ben-Yehuda, Hemda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: International Relations, Education, Political Science, Higher, General
ISBN: 9781351603669
Google: XWr0DwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 52975831
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2020-09-16T00:00:00+00:00

Case Studies and Counterfactual History

The study of important events in history, like Munich 1938 or other case studies described in Chapter 6, is an important part of the world politics curriculum. These case studies are also vital tools for the application of theoretical concepts and testing of theories. Whether your course focuses on theoretical topics, a particular region as an area study or a given period of remarkable salience and transformation, case studies are a handy microcosm of world politics, used to study core questions on how, when and why processes occur. Case studies serve as the easiest way to make the study of politics tangible and to help explain theoretical issues effectively. Many different examples come to mind as interesting cases for study, such as the spread of communism in Eastern Europe, at the height of the Cold War, the crises and wars that followed the establishment of an Islamic regime in Iran under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979, or the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s marking adjustments to new regional power configurations in Europe and beyond.

Case studies usually imply cause–effect relations between events and outcomes. The study of history or current events can take the form of checking action–reaction chains along a given timeline, integrated with learning about multiple aspects that can affect these sequences. Such aspects include the politics that characterize a unit, a state, NSA or IGO, its leadership, regime and resources, as well as norms and goals that shape behaviors within the entity and in contact with other entities in world politics. Other aspects, like geography, technology, climate, religion, society and culture, also mingle with politics and affect complex action–reaction timelines.

The starting point for any study, even the core narrative on ‘Δ’ and ‘Ο’, is a collection of basic facts about the most simple rivalry structure with only two actors. Though realities are usually more complex, in any case you choose, start by finding out who are the counterparts of ‘Δ’ and ‘Ο’. Then go on to the details, and consider possibilities that could have happened, namely event-chains and counterfactuals.

Beyond knowledge of what really happened, learning history also involves counterfactual analysis. Black and MacRaild define counterfactual history as a study of ‘what did not happen or what might have happened, in order to understand what did happen’ (2000: 124–25). In pointing to debates between traditional and new historiography, the book teaches us that serious scholarship may result in different interpretations of facts related to a case study. More specifically, the definition of counterfactual history shows that the consideration of counterfactuals is an inseparable part of learning case studies and understanding their dynamics.

Frequently, most historians agree on a set of accepted event sequences in a given case, though the importance of some events and their consequences may be debated, especially after new documents are revealed or new theories emerge. The well-known Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 comes to mind in this respect, when Graham Allison in Essence of Decision (1971),

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