Systemist International Relations

Abstract Systemist international relations (SIR) is put forward as a potential solution to short- and long-term problems faced by the discipline of international relations (IR). SIR responds to the immediate difficulties that stem from an impasse between advocates of analytic eclecticism and skeptics who prefer paradigmatic research. The more sustained challenges posed by the size and complexity of IR also can be met through implementation of SIR, which entails a graphic turn. Along those lines, the Visual International Relations Project (VIRP) is creating an archive of one-page graphic summaries for cause and effect as conveyed in respective publications. The VIRP aims toward an improved state of communication in the field based on such visual representations.