International Relations

Abstract

Abstract“International relations” refers to relations that cross national boundaries, especially political relations among states. At the root of international relations is international politics, though social, cultural, economic, and geographic considerations increasingly occupy thinking on international relations. One concept, realism, has dominated theory and practice of foreign policy and international politics since 431 BCE when the Second Peloponnesian War began and was chronicled by Thucydides (400 BCE). In that war, Athens besieged and conquered the previously independent island of Milos. Athens, in turn, was conquered by Sparta. In each case, first Athens over Milos and then Sparta over Athens used superior force to achieve its goal. To this day, realists argue that leaders of each state should exercise power to act in the state's own interests with respect to other states, all existing internationally in a condition of anarchy by virtue of a lack of governance apparatus that transcends the sovereign state. Realists recognize that in the seemingly anarchic absence of a political structure above or mediating existing states, successful international or interstate politics depends upon power and its exercise. This power may take many forms, usually material (economic or military) or ideological. While realism may be considered as much a theory of foreign policy as a theory of international relations (Morgenthau 1972; Barkin 2010), these themes have endured for 2500 years and continue to shape the trajectory of international relations into the epoch of globalization.