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: interviews and personal observation. The researcher will rely on the information provided by several informative individuals, over and above, personal observations of the interviewees to acquire insights on the nature of information warfare between Russia and other states. The next layer of the research onion is the research strategy, where the grounded theory will guide the process of developing new theories or hypotheses. This research strategy involves discovering or generating theory from data that has been systematically gathered and analyzed. The grounded theory methodology is appropriate for this study because it requires the application of inductive reasoning to identify emerging ideas and then grouping these into broader concepts that form the basis of new hypotheses or theories. As relates to time horizon as the next inner layer, the study will use the cross-sectional time horizon owing to time and resource restrictions.[Alexandra Sbaraini et al., “How to Do a Grounded Theory Study: A Worked Example of a Study of Dental Practices,” BMC Medical Research Methodology 11, no. 1 (September 9, 2011), https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2288-11-128.] [Ylona Chun Tie, Melanie Birks, and Karen Francis, “Grounded Theory Research: A Design Framework for Novice Researchers,” SAGE Open Medicine 7, no. 1 (January 2, 2019): 205031211882292, https://doi.org/10.1177/2050312118822927.]
Finally, the last layer of the research onion deals with research techniques and procedures such as the study population, the sampling method, the data collection approaches, along with other considerations critical to the study. This layer is covered in the subsections below:
Target Population
The study will focus on ten informative individuals with extensive knowledge on Russia’s conceptualization of informational warfare. Russia’s approach to non-military operations is quite different from that of America and its European allies. As a result, the study will focus on those persons with extensive background knowledge of the body of Soviet work, including Marxist-Leninist philosophy, that continues to guide foreign dealings between Kremlin and Western countries. The researcher will source for information warfare specialists with a deep understanding of Russia’s hybrid warfare of “reflexive control” as well as how it has applied it in past confrontations with other nations, especially the USA and Ukraine.
Sampling Method
Since the study relies on the informativeness of the respondents more than anything else, purposive sampling will be used to select research participants. The investigator will look for helpful interviewees from the Congressional Research Service, the Marine Corps University, the U.S. Naval Institute, and The Brookings Institution, among other military education institutions and foreign policy think tanks. Purposeful sampling is a useful sampling technique for qualitative studies that require information-rich respondents to investigate the phenomenon of interest.[Lawrence A. Palinkas et al., “Purposeful Sampling for Qualitative Data Collection and Analysis in Mixed Method Implementation Research,” Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research 42, no. 5 (November 6, 2015): 533–44, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-013-0528-y.]
Data Collection Methods
The study will employ interviews and personal observations as the primary methods of data collection. Owing to c...