International Relations:

An Introduction
Dr. Abid Ghafoor Chaudhry
MSc Anthropology, MSc Political
Science, MSc International Relations,
PhD Anthropology
 What is the study of international
relations?
• International relations refers to a field of study
and practice focused on understanding the
unique relationships that exist between
various nations and cultures.
• These relationships can impact everything
from international politics, law,
and economics to security, diplomacy, and
governance.

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 How do you define international
relations?
• International relations, the study of
the relations of states with each other and
with international organizations and certain
sub-national entities (e.g., bureaucracies,
political parties, and interest groups).

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 What is the purpose of international
relations?
• International relations allows nations to
cooperate with one another, pool resources,
and share information as a way to face global
issues that go beyond any particular country
or region.
• Contemporary global issues include
pandemics, terrorism, and the environment.

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What are the subfields of international
relations?
1. International Politics;
2. Foreign Policy Analysis;
3. Diplomacy;
4. Strategic Studies;
5. International Organization and;
6. International Economic Relations.

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 Scope of IR
• International relations (IR) or international
affairs (IA)—commonly also referred to
as international studies (IS), global
studies (GS), or global affairs (GA)—is the
study of politics, economics and law on a
global level.

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 Scope of IR
• Depending on the academic institution, it is
either a field of political science,
an interdisciplinary academic field similar
to global studies, or an independent
academic discipline that examines social
science and humanities in an international
context.

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 What is the nature and scope of
international relations?
• International Relations is an important branch
of Social Science.
• The Scope of International relations is the
complex relations existing among the
sovereign states of the world.
• It is mainly concerned, among other things,
with the study in depth of all events and
situations affecting more than one state.

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 What is the nature and scope of
international relations?
• IR studies relations between states in their
political and economic prospects primarily.
• IR covers the realm of 'foreign affairs' in
all its dimensions.
• IR deals with the recording and studying of
International History with the aim to find out
the basis of states' relations in the past.

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Why do we need to study international
relations?
• Studying international relations is a great way
to gain a deeper understanding
of global issues.
• It's an intriguing and important subject which
places great emphasis on economics, culture,
education, and political science and examines
the impact they have on society.

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 What is international relations and its
importance?
• Why international relations is important, is
that it goes beyond peace and war, past
poverty and business; rather it explores the
key players in world politics, intrinsic political
patterns, and identifies the theories for how
resolution and cooperation can be reached.

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 What is the difference between international
relations and political science?
• Political Science is the study of government.
• International Relations is the study of
governments.
• The International Relations adds to students'
analytical skill set much in the same way that
a Political Science major does, while
maintaining a more international focus.

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 What are the 3 Cs of international
relations?
• Their actions are likely to decisively influence
global politics in the near- and medium-term.
• For decades, relations between China and
India have been oscillating between:
1. conflict,
2. competition and
3. cooperation—the three Cs.

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 In Focus

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 Study of History as Basis of IR
• Inquiry in international relations often begins
with history. Without any historical
background, many of today’s key issues are
incomprehensible.

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 Study of History as Basis of IR
• Thus, history provides a crucial background for the
study of international relations. History has been so
fundamental to the study of international relations that
there was no separate international relations subfield
until the early twentieth century.
• Before that time, especially in Europe and the United
States, international relations was studied under the
umbrella of diplomatic history in most academic
institutions. Having knowledge of both diplomatic
history and national histories remains critical for
students of international relations.

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 Study of History as Basis of IR
• History invites its students to acquire detailed
knowledge of specific events, but it also can
be used to test generalizations.
• Having deciphered patterns from the past,
students of history can begin to explain the
relationships among various events.

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 Example…
• For example, having historically documented the cases
when wars occur and described the patterns leading up
to war, the diplomatic historian can seek explanations
for, or causes of, war.
• The ancient Greek historian Thucydides (c. 460–401
BCE), in History of the Peloponnesian War, used this
approach.
• Distinguishing between the underlying and the
immediate causes of wars, Thucydides found that what
made that war inevitable was the growth of Athenian
power. As Athens’s power increased, Sparta, Athens’s
greatest rival, feared losing its own power. Thus, the
changing distribution of power was the underlying
cause of the Peloponnesian War.
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 IR in everyday Life
• The main reason why we should study IR is the
fact that the entire population of the world is
divided into separate political communities, or
independent states, which profoundly affect the
way people live.
• An independent nation or state may be defined
as an unambiguous and bordered territory, with
a permanent population, under the jurisdiction of
supreme government that is constitutionally
separate from all foreign governments: a
sovereign state.

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 IR in everyday Life
• Together, those states form an international
state system that is global in extent. At the
present time, there are almost 200 independent
states. With very few isolated exceptions,
everybody on earth not only lives in one of those
countries but is also a citizen of one of them and
very rarely of more than one.
• So virtually every man, woman, and child on
earth is connected to a particular state, and via
that state to the state system which affects their
lives in important ways of which they may not be
fully aware.
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 IR in everyday Life
• States are independent of each other, at least
legally: they have sovereignty.
• But that does not mean they are isolated or
insulated from each other.
• On the contrary, they adjoin each other and
affect each other and must therefore somehow
find ways to coexist and to deal with each other.
• In other words, they form an international state
system, which is a core subject of IR.
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 IR in everyday Life
• Furthermore, states are usually embedded in
international markets that affect the policies of
their governments and the wealth and welfare of
their citizens.
• That requires that they enter into relations with
each other.
• Complete isolation is usually not an option. When
states are isolated and cut off from the state
system, either by their own government or by
foreign powers, the people usually suffer as a
result.

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How international relations affect our
daily life?
• International relations touch our lives
daily as global markets, the World Wide Web,
and foreign travel stimulate a flood of people,
products, and ideas across national borders.
• The reality of an interdependent world is
brought home to us every day as national
economies respond to debt and instability
elsewhere.

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 What is international relations and its
importance?
• Why international relations is important, is
that it goes beyond peace and war, past
poverty and business; rather it explores the
key players in world politics, intrinsic political
patterns, and identifies the theories for how
resolution and cooperation can be reached.

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