Debating Causal Inquiry in International Relations : A Response to Jackson

We are grateful to Patrick Jackson for his detailed engagement with Causal Inquiry in International Relations (2024). He lucidly maps the field and the position of our book within it. He also provides a cogent summary of our central argument that there is a deep logic to causal inquiry that emerges out of the relationship between ‘concrete’ and ‘abstract’ causal statements. In many respects, we and Jackson are exploring common ground. In this response, however, we focus on Jackson’s main concern: his doubt about the robustness of our account of the logic of causal inquiry and especially about its capacity to make sense of the messiness of causal investigations as practised in everyday contexts. While we push back strongly against some of Jackson’s contentions, we also welcome the opportunity to elaborate on some important issues that we did not discuss in detail in Causal Inquiry in International Relations .