David Hume famously stated that ‘there is no question, which on account of its importance, as well as difficulty, has caus'd more disputes both among antient and modern philosophers, than this concerning the efficacy of causes, or that quality which makes them follow'd by their effects’. The contestation over the meaning of the idea of cause that Hume refers to, however, has escaped many IR theorists, who have unwittingly worked within the confines of an influential but also a rather narrow discourse of causation initiated by Hume's philosophy of causation. This book seeks to reclaim contestation over the concept of cause and also advances an approach to causation that goes beyond the Humean approach. Development of an alternative post-Humean discourse of causation in IR, however, necessitates that we first deal with some important preliminary questions such as ‘what is Humeanism?’, ‘what exactly is its role in philosophy of science and in IR?’ and ‘what are the consequences of adherence to Humeanism?’ The first part of the book seeks to address such questions.

The first task we are presented with is that we must understand what the Humean approach to causation consists of, and how it fits within wider philosophical disputes over the meaning of causation. To this end, chapter 1 aims to examine the context, the core assumptions and the influence of the Humean perspective on causation in philosophy of science.