Exploring Past Confrontations between Russia and Other States

INTL699 – METHODOLOGY PAPER
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INTL699 – Methodology Paper
Methodology Paper
The research methodology will adopt the qualitative research process where the research aim defines the research design, which in turn influence data collection and data analysis methods. This study aimed to explore existing evidence (qualitative data) on past confrontations between Russia and other states, with particular focus on the USA and Ukraine. The research process will be guided by Saunders research onion, a version of the research methods tree created by Saunders to describe the various stages of implementing an operative research methodology. Saunders’ research onion comprises of six different layers including the research philosophy, research approach, research strategy, research choices, time horizons, and research procedures. Beginning with the outermost layer, the study will be underpinned by the interpretivism research philosophy, which incorporates human interest into the research process. Interpretive researchers are keen on understanding reality through social constructions like shared meanings, language, consciousness, and instruments.[Dino Schwaferts, “Applying Saunders Research Onion,” 2014, /skripten/Saunders_Research_Onion.pdf.] [Pranas Žukauskas, Jolita Vveinhardt, and Regina Andriukaitienė, Philosophy and Paradigm of Scientific Research, (IntechOpen, 2018), /chapters/58890.]
An interpretivist approach is appropriate for those studies that stress qualitative analysis over quantitative analysis. Besides, informational warfare entails social, cognitive, as well as physical layers, and understanding the nature of past confrontations between Russia and other states requires a philosophy that emphasizes a naturalistic approach to data collection and analysis. The next layer of the research onion model is research approach: the study employed the inductive approach where the data collected is analyzed to inform the development of theories towards the end of the study process. Inductive research entails the search for hypotheses and theories from the research process: meaning is generated from the information gathered. The study will start with specific observations of information warfare as pertains to past confrontations between Russia and other states and then proceed to identify themes and patterns in the qualitative data gathered. Moreover, induction, subjectivity, and meaning are all terms associated with qualitative methods that tend to be open-ended and process-oriented.[John Dudovskiy, “Interpretivism (Interpretivist) Research Philosophy - Research-Methodology,” Research-Methodology, 2009, https://research-methodology.net/research-philosophy/interpretivism/.] [John Dudovskiy, “Inductive Approach (Inductive Reasoning) - Research-Methodology,” Business Research Methodology, 2011, https://research-methodology.net/research-methodology/research-approach/inductive-approach-2/.]
The methodological choice, as the next layer of the research onion, that will be used in the study will be the multimethod qualitative type. This research study will employ two types of qualitative data collection methods to gather data: interview...