Self-study: MA Subject of International Relations

To who are not subject specialists, the International Relations (IR) may be confined to be the relationships between the world's national governments, conducted by politicians at the highest level. However, the subject of International Relations is something much more complicated than that, the academic subject of International Relations is interdisciplinary, reminding you and me of many related issues, which are, but not limited to, economics, politics, security and history. So IR is not as quite simplistic and narrow as the above definition.

The question you are likely to raise in your mind is whether the IR subject is important for our world. I can not tell you exactly how important it is in our world, however, it includes many internationally concerned issues such as the world peace and war, the traditional and non-traditional security matters, the international co-operation or competition, the relationships between and among two nations. Hereafter, some issues should be mentioned as a part or a related part of International Relations:
- Economics - more specifically, International Political Economy (IPE), what we are studying here is the politics of economic relationships. This involves considering and understanding the trade and financial relations between nations, regions, organizations and North-South issues such as economic dependency and debt, oversea AIDS and investment. The economics or others within IR are not a single matter, it should be considered in a more complicated relationship and they are always interconnected closely with each other. E.g.: The gas transaction between Russia and Ukraine is an international trade matter if considered in the normal perspective, but the recent gas cut is another problem in the International Relations.
- Politics - within the field of IR this covers the political relations between nations and the rising number of international organizations such as UN, EU, NATO, ASEAN, SCO... And now the world is entering a new stage of development where countries are interdependent, therefore, we should look at a political relation between any two or more countries and organizations in a larger context where every relationship is inter-related.
- Security - this involves the traditional IR issues such as war, peace and diplomacy but now increasingly covers many more areas and issues such as economic and environmental security. Especially, after the 11th September terrorist event, countries in the world mention more security issues which even we have never heard before, e.g.: food security, maritime security, container security, air security, terrorism, natural disasters or in short, we can say non-traditional security issues.
- History - in many ways, understanding the main events in international history is integral to the study of IR. Regional and international conflicts were highlighted in the twentieth century, making this period of time unforgettable in the world history and the question is whether or not this trend will continue into the twenty first century. Why is the history still relevant to the understanding of international relations? Simply, it is a basic foundation as in the cause-and-effect relations you should understand first before you go further.

The world is now facing many serious challenges and problems which the subject of International Relations has to deal with, but the most important and also the most controversial issue is the national sovereignty. It is clear that the national sovereignty is the one that countries have taken care of the most and the national sovereignty is forever immutable or untouchable in the International Relations. The first principle in IR is about the national sovereignty. Whatever countries want to do with each other may be OK, but the first exception, among others, is SOVEREIGNTY. It is sensitive enough to be the first to understand when you are studying the subject of International Relations.

In the next few years, the world will change dramatically as it is changing now and of course, the relations within it will be changing as well. Geographical map will be considered with some more key players such as Russia, India, Japan and maybe EU as a united block. Multi-national companies will play a part in the International Relations as the company mergence is becoming a clear trend. The financial crisis which broke out in the United States will be deepened in 2009 and a number of following years, this will cause serious consequences for the world with many more jobless and homeless people. The war and peace continue to be mentioned in the international fora, especially some hot spots such as the Gaza strip, Middle East, Korea peninsula, the South China Sea and maybe the Taiwan Strait will be discussed in many important international conferences. International co-operation will be an important key to success; therefore, no countries should stay alone while the globalization process continues. The mentioned above characteristics will shape our world in the next few years and basically, the IR will develop more or less with them. In short, the subject of International Relations is developing continuously from time to time, dependent on the context and our will.

For further study, please have a look at websites of The Foreign Policy Centre, IMF, Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, International Institute for Strategic Studies, International Monetary Fund, International Relations Theory, International Security Policy & Military Affairs information sources, World Bank, US Army Foreign Military Studies Office, US Institute of Peace, Institute of International Strategic Studies...

And you can read some books: "The Middle East in International Relations: Power, Politics and Ideology" by Fred Halliday; Social Theory of International Politics by Alexander Wendt; Understanding the International Relations by Christ Brown; Introduction to International Relations: Theories and Approaches by Robert Jackson; The Globalization of World Politics: an Introduction to International Relations by John Baylis; World Politics: Trend and Transformation by Charles Kegley.