Państwa, organizacje międzynarodowe i partnerstwa strategiczne: teoretyczne podstawy modelu idealnego

Abstract

drawing on the critical literature review from the previous chapter, this chapter sketches the minefield of theorizing an escapable phenomenon – strategic partnerships in world politics and IR theory. It first outlines the theory-building rationale and strategy, epistemological considerations and ontological standing; then it justifies why building of a „heuristic model” was chosen as a way of studying the phenomenon. The chapter develops a realist-constructivist approach to the study of strategic partnerships, according to which strategic partnerships can provide states and non-state actors with a form of foreign-policy assertiveness, special bilateral relations and alignment, as well as a form of structured international engagement. The theoretical and methodological discussions within this chapter are completed by five main hypotheses, a qualitatively-driven mixed-method methodological framework, including the description of main variables, their operationalization and measurement methods, data collection and research sampling.