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Most Read This Week In International Relations

International relations (IR) or international affairs, depending on academic institution, is either a field of political science, an interdisciplinary academic field similar to global studies, or an entirely independent academic discipline in which students take a variety of internationally focused courses in social science and humanities disciplines. In all cases, the field studies relationships between political entities (polities) such as sovereign states, inter-governmental organizations (IGOs), international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), other non-governmental organizations (NGO International relations (IR) or international affairs, depending on academic institution, is either a field of political science, an interdisciplinary academic field similar to global studies, or an entirely independent academic discipline in which students take a variety of internationally focused courses in social science and humanities disciplines. In all cases, the field studies relationships between political entities (polities) such as sovereign states, inter-governmental organizations (IGOs), international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), other non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and multinational corporations (MNCs), and the wider world-systems produced by this interaction. International relations is an academic and a public policy field, and so can be positive and normative, because it analyses and formulates the foreign policy of a given state.

As political activity, international relations dates from the time of the Greek historian Thucydides (c. 460–395 BC), and, in the early 20th century, became a discrete academic field (no. 5901 in the 4-digit UNESCO Nomenclature) within political science. In practice, international relations and international affairs forms a separate academic program or field from political science, and the courses taught therein are highly interdisciplinary.

For example, international relations draws from the fields of: technology and engineering, economics, communication studies, history, international law, demography, philosophy, geography, social work, sociology, anthropology, criminology, psychology, gender studies, cultural studies, culturology, and diplomacy. The scope of international relations comprehends globalization, diplomatic relations, state sovereignty, international security, ecological sustainability, nuclear proliferation, nationalism, economic development, global finance, as well as terrorism and organized crime, human security, foreign interventionism, and human rights, as well, as, more recently, comparative religion. ...more

Most Read This Week Tagged "International Relations"

Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology

Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company

The Power of Geography: Ten Maps That Reveal the Future of Our World

Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare

The End of the World Is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization

The Future of Geography: How Power and Politics in Space Will Change Our World

Iran's Grand Strategy: A Political History

House of Huawei: The Secret History of China's Most Powerful Company

The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America's Invasion of Iraq

Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit

Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy

How the World Ran Out of Everything: Inside the Global Supply Chain

The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History

Tomorrow Is Yesterday: Life, Death, and the Pursuit of Peace in Israel/Palestine

Things Are Never So Bad That They Can't Get Worse: Inside the Collapse of Venezuela

We Are Bellingcat: Global Crime, Online Sleuths, and the Bold Future of News

Zbig: The Life of Zbigniew Brzezinski, America's Great Power Prophet

How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them

The New China Playbook: Beyond Socialism and Capitalism

The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War

Why Taiwan Matters: A Short History of a Small Island That Will Dictate Our Future

Leadership : Six Studies in World Strategy

The Myth of American Idealism: How U.S. Foreign Policy Endangers the World

New Cold Wars: China's Rise, Russia's Invasion, and America's Struggle to Defend the West

Nuclear Folly: A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis

The Loom of Time: Between Empire and Anarchy, from the Mediterranean to China

The Lumumba Plot: The Secret History of the CIA and a Cold War Assassination

After the Fall: Being American in the World We've Made

The Tragic Mind: Fear, Fate, and the Burden of Power

Adriatic: A Concert of Civilizations at the End of the Modern Age

To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement

The Hidden Globe: How Wealth Hacks the World

The Long Game: China's Grand Strategy to Displace American Order (Bridging the Gap)

Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

The Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and the Fragility of U.S. Power

Degrade and Destroy: The Inside Story of the War Against the Islamic State

Red Line: The Unraveling of Syria and America's Race to Destroy the Most Dangerous Arsenal in the World

The Avoidable War: The Dangers of a Catastrophic Conflict between the US and Xi Jinping's China

Offshore: Stealth Wealth and the New Colonialism

How Sanctions Work: Iran and the Impact of Economic Warfare

Collisions: The Origins of the War in Ukraine and the New Global Instability

Blood Money: Why the Powerful Turn a Blind Eye While China Kills Americans

Backfire: How Sanctions Reshape the World Against U.S. Interests (Center on Global Energy Policy Series)

Overreach: How China Derailed Its Peaceful Rise

By All Means Available: Memoirs of a Life in Intelligence, Special Operations, and Strategy

Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine

The Struggle for Taiwan: A History of America, China, and the Island Caught Between

Not One Inch: America, Russia, and the Making of Post-Cold War Stalemate

The Arc of a Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Fate of the Jewish People

Spin Dictators: The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century

The Revenge of Power: How Autocrats Are Reinventing Politics for the 21st Century

American Kompromat: How the KGB Cultivated Donald Trump, and Related Tales of Sex, Greed, Power, and Treachery

Beijing Rules: How China Weaponized Its Economy to Confront the World – An Urgent Analysis of Economic Coercion's Threat to Liberal Democracy

How the West Brought War to Ukraine: Understanding How U.S. and NATO Policies Led to Crisis, War, and the Risk of Nuclear Catastrophe

China and Russia: Four Centuries of Conflict and Concord

Judgment at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia

The Good American: The Epic Life of Bob Gersony, the U.S. Government's Greatest Humanitarian

Spies, Lies, and Algorithms: The History and Future of American Intelligence

Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win

The Weaponisation of Everything: A Field Guide to the New Way of War

China's World View: Demystifying China to Prevent Global Conflict

Our Man in Tokyo: An American Ambassador and the Countdown to Pearl Harbor

Revolution and Dictatorship: The Violent Origins of Durable Authoritarianism

The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War

To Run the World: The Kremlin's Cold War Bid for Global Power

Spies: The Epic Intelligence War Between East and West

Against the World: Anti-Globalism and Mass Politics Between the World Wars

World on the Brink: How America Can Beat China in the Race for the Twenty-First Century

Aftershocks: Pandemic Politics and the End of the Old International Order

Master of the Game: Henry Kissinger and the Art of Middle East Diplomacy

Oceans of Grain: How American Wheat Remade the World

A Stranger in Your Own City: Travels in the Middle East's Long War

The Ghost at the Feast: America and the Collapse of World Order, 1900-1941 (Dangerous Nation Trilogy)

The Two Michaels: Innocent Canadian Captives and High Stakes Espionage in the US-China Cyber War

After the End of History: Conversations with Francis Fukuyama

The Spectre of War: International Communism and the Origins of World War II

The Russian Understanding of War: Blurring the Lines between War and Peace

The Triumph of Broken Promises: The End of the Cold War and the Rise of Neoliberalism

Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century

The Newspaper Axis: Six Press Barons Who Enabled Hitler

Among the Braves: Hope, Struggle, and Exile in the Battle for Hong Kong and the Future of Global Democracy

The World That Wasn't: Henry Wallace and the Fate of the American Century

The Age of the Strongman: How the Cult of the Leader Threatens Democracy around the World

Wireless Wars: China's Dangerous Domination of 5G and How We're Fighting Back

Oil, the State, and War: The Foreign Policies of Petrostates

Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy

NATO: From Cold War to Ukraine, a History of the World’s Most Powerful Alliance

Liberalism in Dark Times: The Liberal Ethos in the Twentieth Century

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Quotes Tagged “International Relations”

“ Far too many people—many of them academics, many politicians—continue to jabber about a supposed 'special relationship' between our two countries. I used to think that no such thing existed. Recently, I have become convinced that it does, and that it is in fact a Specially Bad Relationship. ...more ”
― Peter Hitchens

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