国際関係論におけるシステム思考 -分析レベルからコンプレックス・システムへ-

グローバル・システムの変容

抄録

The aim of this article is to make preliminary consideration for introduction of “international society as self-organization system” to international relations theory. Scholars of international relations have endeavoured to explain international relations by using the concept of system. This task was too difficult and complex because in natural science as well as in social science the concept of system was not quite definite. But recently, in 1980s, some theorists have argued that system is not to be studied as a substance discovered by empirical observations but used as a perspective to perceive objects. This attitude of using system as a perspective is called “system thinking”. By this we can improve the method of analysis of international relations.
In the first section, we shall examine the nature of system thinking as a scientific method. Following this, we shall make a definition of system in a general manner. In the secound section we shall criticize some models of international systems theorists: Kenneth N. Waltz, and Hedley Bull. They have formed controversial models of international system. In addition, we shall refer to the problem of level-of-analysis in international relations, which was posed by J. David Singer: “Are international system and nation-states adequate tools for the analysis of international relations?” In last section we shall introduce the concept of complex system. Complex system is a precondition of introduction of self-organization to international relations theory.