How to change the world, theoretically International Relations Theory, its eternal debates, and how Critical Theory can help us to never resolve them

Annette Freyberg-Inan lays out her view of the field of International Relations Theory and reflects on the role of Critical Theoretical scholarship. She addresses the questions why granting sufficient room for theorizing is quintessential for scientific progress; why International Relations is a field defined by its grand theories and the debates between them; why these debates are functional for the field without ever being resolved; and how Critical Theory is well-positioned to navigate the resulting epistemological tensions and maintain both problem-solving and critical capabilities. She argues that progress in the Social Sciences in general, and the field of International Relations in particular, depends vitally on the development of theories to inspire and enable empirical research. The disciplinary identity of the field of International Relations is structured around debates between meta-theoretical positions. That is often criticized as unproductive, but Freyberg-Inan argues that it is helpful, precisely because those debates are never resolved. They serve as constant reminders of the dilemmas with which scholars in this field have to work and thus as guideposts to steer them away from over-confidence, dogmatism, and resignation. Critical Theory as a scholarly approach is particularly well-suited to maintaining the necessary distance from the poles in these debates and to enable scholarship that is both keen to the realities of power and productive in inspiring progressive change.