International Relations, Overview

Abstract

International relations is both the practice and the study of the relations of nation-states and other entities in the international system. This chapter reviews both of these. Traditionally, international relations focused primarily on state-to-state relations, but today the field focuses as well on other actors such as intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), multinational corporations (MNCs), and even individuals. Thus today these interactions and their study are often termed global politics or world politics. While international relations as a field of study originated largely within political science and remains centered there, it is also an interdisciplinary field, encompassing the study of economic, social, and cultural interactions as well. While international relations has tended to be dominated by those who term themselves realist theorists, liberal or idealist theories continue to abound, constructivism has become an important theory, and radical and critical theories of many varieties also exist. While international relations began as a field largely in the United States, today it is studied widely all over the world in different ways.