International Relations in the Liberal Arts

Abstract

The international relations subfield within political science does some of the same work in furthering the liberal arts that the other subfields do, and it does some unique work. Like other political science courses, international relations courses teach competing explanations for the same event or process. Indeed, international relations courses are about the way in which the relevance of acts depends on assertions and assumptions about causation, as well as the way a problem is framed. International relations is also uniquely positioned to raise questions about political circumstances that the other subfields of political science take for granted. Because international relations is defined in terms of anarchy, without a sovereign or legitimate center, its processes lack the prima facie legitimacy of political processes within countries. The nature and enforcement of law, the autonomy of institutions, the distribution of wealth and opportunity: when posed from outside the state, elements of political life that are taken for granted within the state become variables, and are relativized. Because its subject matter is elemental and its “units” so varied, international relations cannot avoid foregrounding the interrelationship of assumptions, categories, and facts. It is, therefore, well suited to the liberal arts.