What do we call principles or laws that apply only under certain conditions?

The term that describes principles or laws that apply only under certain conditions is "contingencies." In international relations and other fields, contingencies refer to the idea that specific outcomes or behaviors may only occur if certain specified conditions are met. This concept is crucial in understanding complex systems where outcomes are not deterministic but rather dependent on various factors.

For example, in international relations, a contingency might involve a scenario where a state's action depends on the response of another state; if that response changes, the originally predicted outcome may not hold. This highlights the importance of context and conditionality in analyzing and predicting behaviors in international contexts.

Other options like generalizations, hypotheses, and propositions do not convey the same meaning of conditional applicability. Generalizations suggest broad statements applied universally, hypotheses refer to testable predictions that may not account for specific conditions, and propositions imply statements that assert something but do not necessarily imply conditional relationships. Therefore, recognizing the nature of contingencies is essential for accurately understanding the dynamics of international relations.