UNDERSTANDING INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Sub-fields of IR; Theories;

Levels-of-Analysis.

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

• IR studies the relationships among the world’s governments.

• These relationships are closely connected with other actors, social structures, geographical and historical influences.

• IR is multidisciplinary.

SUB-FIELDS OF IR

International security studies

International political economy

THEORIES

• What is theory?

• IR scholars want to understand why international events occur the way they do.

• The answers to why questions can be:

Descriptive Theoretical

THEORIES

Three broad theoretical perspectives:

Conservatism

Liberalism

Revolutionary

Levels of Analysis

• Based on Kenneth Waltz’s Man, the State and War (1959).

Individual

State

Systemic (International)