IR scholarship in Poland: the state of the discipline 25 years after the transition to democracy Jacek Czaputowicz a and Anna Wojciuk b a Institute of European Studies, University of Warsaw, Nowy Świat 69, Warsaw, 00-046 Poland. E-mail: jacek.czaputowicz@uw.edu.pl. b Institute of International Relations, University of Warsaw, Zurawia 4, Warsaw, 00-501 Poland. E-mail: anna.wojciuk@ism.uw.edu.pl The paper discusses the state of International Relations (IR) in Poland. In the first part, it shows IR’s history, institutional conditions, and its level of internationalisation, particu- larly the influence of Polish scholars working in the West on the development of the dis- cipline. In the second part, it offers a systematic empirical analysis of IR articles published from 2007 to 2012 in Poland’s top seven IR and political science journals concerning the areas that IR scholars work in, the theories and methods they apply, and their geo- graphical areas of interest. The findings show that a descriptive approach dominates and that there are significant deficiencies in both the methodology (particularly quantitative methods) and the theory of IR. However, the Polish community of IR scholars is aware of these weaknesses and is undertaking organisational efforts aimed at improving the quality and status of IR scholarship in the country. Journal of International Relations and Development (2016) 19, 448–474. doi:10.1057/jird.2014.21; published online 28 November 2014 Keywords: international relations (IR); methodology; Poland; sociology of international relations; theory Introduction Over the last decade, there has been ever more discussion about international relations (IR) scholarship, the trends in its development, regional differences, and IR’s relation to the dramatic changes that the international system has experienced since 1989. Numerous research projects have been completed in order to document the state of the discipline in different regions and different countries (Jørgensen 2003; Jørgensen and Knudsen 2006; Tickner and Waever 2009; Drulák et al. 2009; Aalto et al. 2011; Lizée 2011; Šabič and Drulák 2012). The most general findings of these investigations indicate that there is a growing discrepancy between the United States and the rest of the world as far as theoretical, epistemological, and methodological approaches are concerned. Teaching, Research, and International Policy (TRIP) Journal of International Relations and Development, 2016, 19, (448–474) © 2016 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1408-6980/16 www.palgrave-journals.com/jird/