Issues in International Relations

International relations has a number of concerns and equally varied perspectives which

seek to make sense of the world around us. From its formal establishment in 1919 to

the present day, we see it is occupied by debates and contentions relating to the subject

matter that should be within our remit and to the nature and legitimacy of our theories

about this subject matter.

Global interactions are highly complex and now involve a number of different actors and

issues, and may occur at our doorstep and in distant lands. How we provide a coherent

image or set of images which reflects this complexity has been the defining problem in

the discipline since its inception.

It could initially be stated that the study of international relations may refer to relations

between states, between nations or peoples, between cultures, or international

institutions such as the European Union or the United Nations. Reminded of business or

charitable connections, to include firms and humanitarian organizations among our

growing list of those we see as being involved in global interactions. What we see as

the actors or units of our investigations greatly informs and differentiates the different

perspectives that dominate the discipline.

Considered in relation to the primacy of the state, international politics come to be

defined in terms of interactions between states in an international system of states

where these are ‘sovereign’ entities, territorially bound, and independent ultimately of

any external authority. The ‘international’ is hence structurally differentiated from the

‘domestic’ in that where the former, according to this ‘realist’ perspective, is defined as
‘anarchical’, the latter is hierarchical. State sovereignty comes to be the defining

element in the study of international relations, even where other perspectives challenge

the primacy of the state.

If it is recognized that lived experience is influenced by global firms, international

institutions, or non-governmental organizations, International Relations seek to expand

the remit of our investigations in order to account for the diversity of actors and forms of

interactions which take place in global politics. In doing so, however, who come face to

face with one of the most challenging and contentious issues in the history of the

discipline, namely the question of power, its definition, and how it translates to influence

in the global arena. Theorizing the international is hence not only concerned with the

definition of the actors implicated, but with underlying assumptions relating to the

primacy of the state as opposed to and in comparison with other entities.

Another issue of International Relations is how globalization influenced the relations

betweens nations today. Rapid increasing globalization is forcing us to re-examine our

prior understandings about the role of the state, the non-state actors such as non-

governmental organizations (which also includes but is not limited to multinational

corporations), as well as individuals, along with themes such as international political

economy, economic global trade, development, human rights, and so on.