Genres > Political Science > International Relations

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

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

Politics On the Edge: A Memoir From Within

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

Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare

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

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

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

Iran's Grand Strategy: A Political History

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

Leadership : Six Studies in World Strategy

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

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

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

Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine

The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History

Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit

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

The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War

Ghost Nation: The Story of Taiwan and Its Struggle for Survival

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

How the World Ran Out of Everything: Inside the Global Supply Chain – An Award-Winning Economic Journalist's Account of How Our Supply Chain Became a Crisis Waiting to Happen

The New China Playbook: Beyond Socialism and Capitalism

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

Allies at War: How the Struggles Between the Allied Powers Shaped the War and the World

Our Dollar, Your Problem: An Insider's View of Seven Turbulent Decades of Global Finance, and the Road Ahead

Offshore: Stealth Wealth and the New Colonialism

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

Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy

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

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

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

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

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

Nuclear Folly: A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis

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

Peacemaker: U Thant and the Forgotten Quest for a Just World

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

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

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

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

Spies: The Epic Intelligence War Between East and West

Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

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

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

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

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

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

The Party's Interests Come First: The Life of Xi Zhongxun, Father of Xi Jinping

The Hidden Globe: How Wealth Hacks the World

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

Personality and Power: Builders and Destroyers of Modern Europe

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

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

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

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

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

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

Revolution and Dictatorship: The Violent Origins of Durable Authoritarianism

Spies and Lies: How China's Greatest Covert Operations Fooled the World

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

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

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

The Long Game: How the Chinese Negotiate with India

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

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

Great Power Diplomacy: The Skill of Statecraft from Attila the Hun to Kissinger

Deterring Armageddon: A Biography of NATO

No More Napoleons: How Britain Managed Europe from Waterloo to World War One

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

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

How Sanctions Work: Iran and the Impact of Economic Warfare

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

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

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

Oceans of Grain: How American Wheat Remade the World

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

China and Russia: Four Centuries of Conflict and Concord

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

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

How States Think: The Rationality of Foreign Policy

Overreach: How China Derailed Its Peaceful Rise

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

Russia's War on Everybody: And What it Means for You

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

Related Genres

Politics
Political Science
Humanities
Public Policy

Diplomacy
International Development
Polítics

Featured News & Interviews

Discover a New Author with These 47 Fall Debut Novels

Read »

Quotes Tagged “International Relations”

“ More broadly, it is vital for leaders to work across international boundaries to minimize the number of people who feel the need to leave their home countries in the first place. That requires building healthy democracies, fostering peace, and generating prosperity from the ground up. However, success in that endeavor demands a way of looking at the world that recognizes the humanity we share with one another, and the interests that nations have in common. Those who are content to look inward, a ...more ”
― Madeleine K. Albright, Fascism: A Warning

4 likes

“ It is the duty of the United Nations, is to make every international border a garden, a place of art and cultural festival. ”
― Amit Ray, Nuclear Weapons Free World - Peace on the Earth

24 likes

More quotes...