The main purpose of this contribution is to reflect on the interdisciplinarity mantra. To that end, it first identifies the links between the initial motivations and the practice of interdisciplinary research, proceeds with an examination of the challenges that various types of interdisciplinary collaboration present, before concluding with a few remarks on the potential perverse effects of the interdisciplinarity injunction. Indeed, this approach must go beyond problem resolution and encompass a theoretical ambition as well. To that end, it must rest on strong disciplines which the need for an interdisciplinary perspective will nevertheless transform. Being defined less by its results that by a process, interdisciplinarity is only one of various research strategies rather than an end in itself.

Keywords: interdisciplinarity, international relations, theory, perverse effects