- International Relations: refers to relations between nations and states. Includes every
aspect of their relations including political and economic relations.
- intergovernmental organizations: European Union, nato, united nations.
- international actors not formed by states: doctors without borders, peace corps,
terrorist organizations (can be sponsored by states), drug cartels,
- Look at different actors and how they affect international systems
- Foreign Policy: how states make policy, international conflict and negotiation
- Interdisciplinary Approach in IR: draws upon the fields of political science, economics,
law, sociology, game theory, and psychology
- The Purpose of IR Theory: provides a conceptual framework to analyze the world. Any
time we encounter an event, we have a ton of information to process
- Theories: Realism, Liberalism, Marxism, Social Constructivism
- Realist sees terrorists/non-governmental actors are not worth studying
because they do not have as much power as the states
- Liberalism: believe the non-governmental actors should be studied
because they have a good effect
- Marxists: study something else! The class struggle, the most important
actor in states and should be focused on. (economic classes, and the
relation from being the poor states and rich states)
- Social Constructivists: need to look at norms and institutions like human
rights and human law. Societies are important and people are important
but norms are the most important actor.
- Analyzing the world: a constant dialogue of three components
- Empirical Developments: what is actually happening in the world
- Theory: making sense of the complexities
- Value: core values and priorities that are reflected in what we pick to analyze
the world