Hirl 115

• International relations (IR)


  Also referred to as international affairs (IA), international studies (IS), global studies (GS), or global affairs (GA)
• International relations


  The study of interconnectedness of politics, economics and law on a global level
• International relations


  Political activities and other kinds and aspects of interactions among two or more states
• Academic field of international relations

  • A branch of political science concerned with the study of relations between states, the foreign policy of nation-states, and the mechanisms and institutions through which states interact
• Subjects studied in international relations

  • International and regional peace and security
  • International organizations
  • Nuclear proliferation
  • Globalization
  • Human rights
  • Economic development
  • Intervention
  • International financial relations
  • International trade relations
• Interaction of ancient Sumerian city-states considered the first fully-fledged international system


  3,500 BC
• Peace of Westphalia, a stepping stone in the development of the modern state system


  1648
• Treaty of Utrecht reflects an emerging norm of sovereign states with no internal equals and no external superiors


  1713
• Centuries 1500-1789


  • Rise of independent, sovereign states, institutionalization of diplomacy and armies
• French Revolution


  • Introduced the idea that the citizenry of a state, defined as the nation, should be sovereign
• Nation-state


  A state in which the nation is sovereign, as opposed to a monarchy or a religious state
• Few states today conform to the definition of a nation-state
• Contemporary international system


  • Established through decolonization during the Cold War
• Levels of analysis


  A way of looking at the international system, including the individual level, the domestic state as a unit, the international level of transnational and intergovernmental affairs, and the global level
• IR theory was not developed until after World War I
• Works that inspired realist theory

  • Sun Tzu's The Art of War
  • Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War
  • Chanakya's Arthashastra
  • Hobbes' Leviathan
  • Machiavelli's The Prince
• Works that inspired liberal theory

  • Kant
  • Rousseau
• Early accounts of universal human rights

  • Francisco de Vitoria
  • Grotius
  • John Locke
• Marxism has been a foundation of international relations in the 20th century
• Scope of IR


  • Initially the study of diplomacy, later expanded to include international law, international organizations, and the study of political actors and groups
• IR is heavily dependent on other disciplines and has failed to develop a coherent body of knowledge
• IR is in its infancy as a science, still a mixture of philosophy and history with unstable theories
• Importance of IR


  Understanding the motives of individual states and problems faced by the world, demonstrating that traditional sovereignty is outdated, and teaching that peace can only be achieved by solving global problems
• Idealism


  An approach that holds that old, harmful modes of behaviour like war and violence should be abandoned in favour of new ways determined by knowledge, reason, compassion and self-restraint
• Idealist approach


  • Advocates morality and moral values as the means for securing the objective of making the world an ideal world, free from war, inequality, despotism, tyranny, violence and force
• Realism


  • Regards politics as a struggle for power, seeks to explain international relations with factors like power, security and national interest, and sees prudence as the guide in politics
• IR is broader than just the study of diplomacy, and includes a wide variety of political, non-political, official and unofficial, formal and informal activities and relations