Research Design in Politics and International Relations

This textbook offers the definitive guide to starting your research project in Politics and IR. It shows how methods come alive when applied to real political dilemmas and offers an accessible framework to help make intentional and considered choices across all stages of research—from formulating a question to selecting a design, collecting data, and analysing results.

Rigterink and Schomerus introduce seven core research designs – spanning discourse analysis and ethnography to quasi-experiments and process tracing – through contemporary political topics such as violent conflict, the environment and political protests.

What sets this book apart is starting with topics rather than methods, so you’ll learn how to research real-world issues like climate change, inequality, or war, and see how different research designs can help you understand them. It’s also honest about the challenges of research, offering practical strategies to overcome distractions, doubts, and demotivation.

Ideal for undergraduate and postgraduate students, this book is as much a practical manual as a conceptual map for navigating the terrain of political research that makes doing research manageable and enjoyable.

Anouk S. Rigterink is Associate Professor in Quantitative Comparative Politics, at Durham University, UK.

Mareike Schomerus is VP at Busara, a research institute headquartered in Kenya, and a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, USA.