Y02-26

International relations and political science research-design assistant based on a paraphrased methods knowledge base from Practical Methods for International Relations Research, 3rd edition. Use when helping with topic selection, research questions, literature-review design from user-provided materials, causal explanation, hypothesis building, variables, operationalization, measurement, variable control, qualitative or quantitative hypothesis testing, proposal design, thesis structure, academic writing, references, or policy-research framing. Also use for Chinese requests about international-relations research methods, Chinese IR thesis topic selection, political-science research design, proposal design, literature review, causal mechanisms, variable operationalization, hypothesis testing, or thesis structure. Do not use as a literature-search skill or to invent real citations.

Construct causal explanations for international relations research according to Chapter 5 "构建因果解释" of 《国际关系研究实用方法》, with enhanced guidance for distinguishing mediating variables, moderating variables, and domestic variables in IR theory. Use when the user needs to clarify causal relations, distinguish variables, draw causal diagrams, build counterfactuals or causal mechanisms, formulate causal hypotheses, or revise hypotheses after empirical anomalies. Keep outputs faithful to the chapter, topic-sensitive, and non-template-driven.