Beyond the gap: relevance, fields of practice and the securitizing consequences of (democratic peace) research

Abstract

International Relations (IR) has cultivated the idea of a gap between the theory and

the practice/praxis of IR. This division into two different spheres of knowledge is

related to the predominant objectivist conception of science in IR, where the

scientist is said to be observing reality from a distance without affecting it.

Poststructuralists have denied that this distinction is meaningful and have even

argued that it is dangerous to be oblivious to the structuring effects science may

have on the social world. This article sets out to avoid further cultivation of the so-called

gap between theory and practice, and instead addresses the question of how

the theories of IR relate empirically to the practices of world politics. We suggest a

theoretical and empirical alternative based on practice theoretical thought. We

argue that researchers’ theories and policymakers practice ‘hang together’ and

require analytical attention. In order to give empirical flesh to the theoretical

discussions and to demonstrate the difference a practice theory approach makes, we

discuss the example of the democratic peace thesis. We lay out how US peace

researchers, the Clinton government and NATO participated in weaving a ‘web of

democratic peace practice’ and stabilizing the thesis as a ‘fact’. We argue that ‘ivory

tower scientists’, US foreign policymakers, and NATO politicians and bureaucrats

hang together in this web and use each other as a resource. As a consequence, the

academically certified version of the democratic peace led to a securitization of

democracy. We conclude that one way to cope with the complexity of science–

politics interactions is to foster reflexive empirical work on researchers’ own

practices.