I N T E R N AT I O N A L
R E L AT I O N S
International relations is the study of the interaction of nation-states and non-
governmental organizations in fields such as politics, economics, and security.
[Link]
• international relations is
interdisciplinary in nature,
• blending the fields of economics,
history, and political science
• examine topics such as human
rights, global poverty, the
environment, economics,
globalization, security, global
ethics, and the political
environment.
• is concerned with the relationships between political entities (polities)
such as sovereign states,
inter-governmental organizations (IGOs),
international non-governmental organizations (INGOs),
other non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and
multinational corporations (MNCs), and
the wider world-systems produced by this interaction.
History
• Barry Buzan and Richard Little consider the
interaction of ancient Sumerian city-states,
(3,500 BC), as the first fully-fledged international
system.
• is generally traced back to the Peace of
Westphalia of 1648 in Europe, a stepping stone in
the development of the modern state system.
• Middle Ages, European organization of political
authority was based on a vaguely hierarchical
religious order.
• Treaty of Utrecht of 1713, thought to
reflect an emerging norm that sovereigns
had no internal equals within a defined
territory and
• no external superiors as the ultimate
authority within the territory's sovereign
borders.
• these underpin the modern international
legal and political order
• 1500 to 1789 saw the rise of
independent, sovereign states and the
institutionalization of diplomacy and
the military.
• French Revolution, contributed the
idea that the citizenry of a state,
defined as the nation, that were
sovereign, rather than a monarch or
noble class.
• A state wherein the nation is sovereign would thence be termed a nation-state, (as opposed
to a monarchy or a religious state);
• the term republic increasingly became its synonym;
• the Germans, alternative model of the nation-state was developed in reaction to the
French republican concept;
• Instead of giving the citizenry sovereignty, kept the princes and nobility,
• defined nation-statehood in ethnic-linguistic terms,
• establishing the rarely if ever fulfilled ideal that all people speaking one language should
belong to one state only.
• Today (Europe), few states conform to either definition of nation-state: many continue to
have royal sovereigns, and hardly any are ethnically homogeneous.
• European system supposing the
sovereign equality of states was
exported to the Americas, Africa, and
Asia via colonialism and the
"standards of civilization".
• contemporary international system was
finally established
through decolonization during the Cold
War.
• While the nation-state system is considered "modern", many states have not incorporated
the system and are termed "pre-modern".
• international relations theory was not developed until after World War I.
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