The study of the ways that people and nations interact across borders. It is a broad and wide-ranging discipline that includes research in economics, history, philosophy, law, political science, sociology, anthropology, and geography, as well as the traditional study of government and international affairs. It also includes a variety of subfields such as comparative politics, foreign policy analysis, and political methodology.
The dominant theories in this field are realism, liberalism, and institutionalism. Realists view the world as a series of power struggles between sovereign states. The goal of these struggles is to realize state interests by coercion or consent. The international arena is a place of anarchy in which the state’s survival is the norm. Realists assume that the actions of Great Powers will largely determine events in the global arena.
Liberal IR theory is based on the belief that cooperation is possible between states if they are motivated by the desire to pursue peace. It is also based on the assumption that individuals, private parties, international organizations, and multinational corporations play important mediating roles in world politics that are too often overlooked by realists.
In a world where nationalism is strong, it is not likely that the global economy or other large issues will be resolved by states alone. However, we must continue to try to create cooperative structures that will allow us to deal with such challenges as global warming or terrorism. This may mean forming alliances between nations that can pool their resources or coordinate action. It may also mean allowing some countries to retain their sovereignty while sharing governance of other areas such as the European Union or North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
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