Concept
International relations
Overview
International relations (IR, and also referred to as international studies, international politics, or international affairs) is an academic discipline. In a broader sense, the study of IR, in addition to multilateral relations, concerns all activities among states—such as war, diplomacy, trade, and foreign policy—as well as relations with and among other international actors, such as intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs), international legal bodies, and multinational corporations (MNCs).
International relations is generally classified as a major multidiscipline of political science, along with comparative politics, political methodology, political theory, and public administration. It often draws heavily from other fields, including anthropology, economics, geography, history, law, philosophy, and sociology. There are several schools of thought within IR, of which the most prominent are realism, liberalism, and constructivism.
While international politics has been analyzed since antiquity, it did not become a discrete field of study until 1919, when it was first offered as an undergraduate major by Aberystwyth University in the United Kingdom. The Second World War and its aftermath provoked greater interest and scholarship in international relations, particularly in North America and Western Europe, where it was shaped considerably by the geostrategic concerns of the Cold War. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent rise of globalization in the late 20th century have presaged new theories and evaluations of the rapidly changing international system.
In 2024, the United Nations Office at Geneva facilitated 8,505 meetings at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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The meaning of the term was then extended to the government of that great family, the State. To distinguish these two senses of the word, the latter is called _general_ or _political_ economy, and the former domestic or particular economy. The first only is discussed in the present discourse.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The social contract & discourses
States what International relations is; the author is tied to International relations in the knowledge graph.
This body, as a whole, considered in relation to its members, is called the prince, and considered in its actions it is called the government. If we consider the action of the whole body upon itself, that is to say, the relation of the whole to the whole, of the sovereign to the state, we can compare this relation to that of the extremes in a proportion of which the government is the middle term. The magistrate…
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile
States what International relations is; the author is tied to International relations in the knowledge graph.
The scope of the Great War furnishes an urgent as well as convenient starting point for the discussion. The extent of that war is unparalleled, because the conditions involved in it are so new. The dynastic conflicts of the seventeenth century are called by the same name: we have only one word, “war.” The sameness of the word too easily conceals from us the difference in significance.
John Dewey, The public and its problems
States what International relations is.
Philosophers who discussed International relations
Related ideas
- The Prince
- Francisco de Vitoria
- Washington, D.C.
- French Revolution
- Francis Fukuyama
- Florence
- Geneva
- Classical Athens
- Indology
- Philosophy
- Human rights
- Anno Domini
- Immanuel Kant
- Academic discipline
- Interdisciplinarity
- Japan
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- John Locke
- Idea
- Harvard University
- Sociology
- Middle Ages
- Geography
- Leviathan (Hobbes book)
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Communism.