¿Historia o coyuntura?: hacia una redefinición del análisis histórico en relaciones internacionales

In this essay, the author describes the general characteristics of two basic approaches to the study of international relations: historical research and the analysis of current situations. He establishes, on one hand, the difference between the analysis of history and historicism, and on the other, provides the grounds to criticize presentism, the tendency to focus only on current affairs. The author understands this as an attitude that implicitly rejects the study of history to seek the general laws of human development. The author describes the scope and the limits of both methods, and makes the point that as opposed as they may seem, these approaches actually complement one another, in the effort to understand international relations as an object of study.