• knowledge of methodological tools in the study of international relations;
• knowledge of theoretical and methodological approaches, research methods and techniques of international relations;
• the ability to identify key concepts, theories and methods in the study of international relations, logically and intelligently lay out their contents;
• the ability to plan and organize research;
• the ability to reasonably adequately select and apply methods.

• Prerequisites: The Basics of Scientific Research, International Relations Theory.
• Co-requisites: Current Issues of Ukraine's Foreign Policy and International Relations.

The traditional (classical) approach to the study of international relations. Modernist (scientific) approach: positivism role in the development of the methodology of the international relations theory. Post-positivist "revolution" in the study of international relations. Rationalism vs. reflectivism. The problem of theory-empiria correlation in scientific research. Inductive strategy of scientific research. Deductive strategy of scientific research. The role of theory in the study of international relations. The problem of relations concepts and theories. The leading role of concept in building of theory. Building principles of scientific concepts (criteria of theory’s scientificity). The language and concepts and categories of the international relations theory. Systems approach to the study of international relations. The ‘levels-of-analysis’ problem in international relations theory. The history of international relations through the prism of nomothetic and idiographic sciences. Historicization of international relations studies in neorealism. Neo-Marxist historical sociology of international relations. The comparative method: the essence and principles. Comparative historical study of international relations. Universal comparisons of world politics. Applied analysis of textual information on political issues. Text as the main form of information. The applied analytical methodics. Content analysis in studies of political situations and processes. Event analysis in studies of political situations and processes. Cognitive mapping in studies of political situations and processes. Expert methods in political studies. Modeling as a method. Types of models. Logical and intuitive and formalized modeling. Computer modeling of international relations.

1. Dobronravova, I. S. Filosofia i metodolohia nauky: Pidruchnyk / I. S. Dobronravova, L. I. Sydorenko. – K.: Vydavnycho-polihrafichnyi tsentr „Kyivskyi universytet”, 2008. – 223 s.
2. Teoria mizhnarodnykh vidnosyn: Terminolohichnyi slovnyk / [Hetmanchuk M. P., Ivakhiv O. S., Kukartsev O. V., L. O. Kuchma ta in.] : za zah. red. Hetmanchuka M. P. – Lviv: Natsionalnyi universytet “Lvivska politekhnika”, 2011. – 368 s.
3. Approaches, Levels and Methods of Analysis in International Politics: Crossing Boundaries / Edited by Harvey Starr. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. 360 pp.

• current control (40%): recitation, speeches at seminars, review writing;
• final control (60%): exam (three-level testing).