一些学者对“范式战争”感到遗憾,特别是在(新)现实主义和(新)自由主义之间。杰克·S·利维(Jack S. Levy)辩称,尽管现实主义-自由主义辩论“对混乱的领域施加了某种秩序”,但这种区分忽略了两个阵营中每个阵营的多样性,并抑制了试图进行综合的尝试。列维建议改为专注于做出可检验的预测,而将“一个特定的方法是否适合于知识史学家的问题放在一个自由主义还是现实主义的问题上”。比尔·布劳默勒(Bear F. Braumoeller)同样提出,将现实主义和自由主义分开的“暂时的理论便利”被“转化为僵化的本体论”,从而抑制了理论综合的尝试。社会化还导致一种情况,“主要试图在一个范式内工作并试图(将范式结合)的学者可能会因理论上的不纯而受到谴责”[12]。
期待范式的统一。这种观点认为,社会科学需要一套严谨的和明确界定的科学方法,以构成可以解决理论争论的框架,因此“范式战争”只是一种暂时现象,最终学科会形成统一的研究模式。持这种观点的人希望方法的统一最终会导致理论的会聚。正如加里·金、罗伯特·基欧汉和希德尼·维巴对卡尔·皮尔逊( Karl Pearson,1857~1936) 观点的引述,即“所有科学的统一只在于它的方法”[18]。随着运用科学方法产生的知识的稳步积累,最终社会科学就能建立在与自然科学认识论相同的基础之上。持这一主张的人未必反对多元化,但认为多元化只是手段而不是目的。他们之所以容忍理论的多样性,是因为这种多样性乃是存在于统一的视野之中[19]。
^Ken Booth, Michael Cox, Timothy Dunne,The eighty years' crisis: international relations 1919-1999, Issue 1, p1: "The story of international relations is conveniently told in a series of 'great debates'.
^LM Ashworth, Did the Realist-Idealist Great Debate Really Happen? a Revisionist History of International Relations,International Relations, Vol. 16, No. 1, p31 (2002)
^Hedley Bull; Benedict Kingsbury; Adam Roberts. Hugo Grotius and International Relations. 1992.
^Wilson, P. (1998) ‘The Myth of the “First Great Debate”’, Review of International Studies, 24: 1–15.
^Ashworth, L. M. (2002). "Did the Realist-Idealist Great Debate Really Happen? a Revisionist History of International Relations". International Relations, 16(1), 33–51. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047117802016001004 (页面存档备份,存于互联网档案馆)
^Peter Wilson (1998). The myth of the ‘First Great Debate’. Review of International Studies, 24 , pp 1-16
^LM Ashworth, Did the Realist-Idealist Great Debate Really Happen? a Revisionist History of International Relations,International Relations, Vol. 16, No. 1, 33-51 (2002)
^Ken Booth, Michael Cox, Timothy Dunne,The eighty years' crisis: international relations 1919-1999, Issue 1, p1
^Vigneswaran, Darsha, International relations’ first great debate : context and tradition.ISBN0 7315 3133 7, p5
^Guzzini, Stefano (1998) Realism in international relations and international political economy: the continuing story of a death foretold, New York: Routledge, P. 32
^Weaver, Ole,The rise and fall of the Inter-paradigm debate, International theory: positivism and beyond, Steve Smith, Ken Booth, Marysia Zalewski, p151
^Y Lapid, The third debate: On the prospects of international theory in a post-positivist era, International Studies Quarterly (1989) 33, 235–254
^Smith, Steve (2007) "Introduction" in T. Dunne. M. Kuki, and S. Smith (eds.) International Relations Theories: Discipline and Diversity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 10