163-400: In international relations , aid (also known as international aid , overseas aid , foreign aid, economic aid or foreign assistance ) is – from the perspective of governments – a voluntary transfer of resources from one country to another. The type of aid given may be classified according to various factors, including its intended purpose, the terms or conditions (if any) under which it
326-457: A gift , a grant , a low or no interest loan, or a combination of these. The terms of foreign aid are oftentimes influenced by the motives of the giver: a sign of diplomatic approval, to reward a government for behaviour desired by the donor, to extend the donor's cultural influence, to enhance infrastructure needed by the donor for the extraction of resources from the recipient country, or to gain other kinds of commercial access. Aid given
489-563: A natural disaster or a man-made disaster . The provision of emergency humanitarian aid consists of the provision of vital services (such as food aid to prevent starvation ) by aid agencies, and the provision of funding or in-kind services (like logistics or transport), usually through aid agencies or the government of the affected country. Humanitarian aid is distinguished from humanitarian intervention , which involves armed forces protecting civilians from violent oppression or genocide by state-supported actors. The United Nations Office for
652-480: A bit naïve when we take these reverse flows into account. It becomes clear that aid does little but mask the maldistribution of resources around the world. It makes the takers seem like givers, granting them a kind of moral high ground while preventing those of us who care about global poverty from understanding how the system really works. Jeffery Sachs and his collaborators argue that in order for foreign aid to be successful, policy makers should "pay more attention to
815-580: A discrete field until 1919, when it was first offered as an undergraduate major by Aberystwyth University in the United Kingdom . The Second World War and its aftermath provoked greater interest and scholarship in international relations, particularly in North America and Western Europe , where it was shaped considerably by the geostrategic concerns of the Cold War . The collapse of
978-798: A distinct field of study began in Britain . IR emerged as a formal academic discipline in 1919 with the founding of the first IR professorship: the Woodrow Wilson Chair at Aberystwyth , University of Wales (now Aberystwyth University ), held by Alfred Eckhard Zimmern and endowed by David Davies . International politics courses were established at the University of Wisconsin in 1899 by Paul Samuel Reinsch and at Columbia University in 1910. By 1920, there were four universities that taught courses on international organization . Georgetown University 's Walsh School of Foreign Service
1141-508: A few years. While conventional wisdom holds that casualties have increased in recent times due to technological improvements in warfare, this is not generally true. For instance, the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) had about the same number of casualties per capita as World War I , although it was higher during World War II (WWII). That said, overall the number of casualties from war has not significantly increased in recent times. Quite to
1304-670: A focus on the history of IR in the early modern , colonial , and Cold War periods. The first university entirely dedicated to the study of IR was the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies , which was founded in 1927 to form diplomats associated to the League of Nations . In 1922, Georgetown University graduated its first class of the Master of Science in Foreign Service (MSFS) degree, making it
1467-508: A general feature of animal social behavior. Some proponents of the idea argue that war, while innate, has been intensified greatly by developments of technology and social organization such as weaponry and states. Psychologist and linguist Steven Pinker argued that war-related behaviors may have been naturally selected in the ancestral environment due to the benefits of victory. He also argued that in order to have credible deterrence against other groups (as well as on an individual level), it
1630-427: A given issue-area". Not all approaches to regime theory, however, are liberal or neoliberal; some realist scholars like Joseph Grieco have developed hybrid theories which take a realist based approach to this fundamentally liberal theory. (Realists do not say cooperation never happens, just that it is not the norm; it is a difference of degree). The constructivist framework rests on the fundamental assumption that
1793-591: 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. An alternative model of the nation-state was developed in reaction to the French republican concept by the Germans and others, who instead of giving the citizenry sovereignty, kept the princes and nobility, but defined nation-statehood in ethnic-linguistic terms, establishing
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#17327649763121956-469: A noble cause is a contributing factor towards war, few wars have originated from a desire for war among the general populace. Far more often the general population has been reluctantly drawn into war by its rulers. One psychological theory that looks at the leaders is advanced by Maurice Walsh. He argues the general populace is more neutral towards war and wars occur when leaders with a psychologically abnormal disregard for human life are placed into power. War
2119-427: A positive correlation while others find either no correlation or a negative correlation. One consistent finding is that project aid tends to cluster in richer parts of countries, meaning most aid is not given to poor countries or poor recipients. Peter Singer argues that over the last three decades, "aid has added around one percentage point to the annual growth rate of the bottom billion." He argues that this has made
2282-513: A professor at the University of Illinois , says approximately 90–95% of known societies throughout history engaged in at least occasional warfare, and many fought constantly. Keeley describes several styles of primitive combat such as small raids , large raids, and massacres . All of these forms of warfare were used by primitive societies, a finding supported by other researchers. Keeley explains that early war raids were not well organized, as
2445-623: A purely anarchical system. Rather, liberal theory assumes that states are institutionally constrained by the power of international organisations, and mutually dependent on one another through economic and diplomatic ties. Institutions such as the United Nations , the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and the International Court of Justice are taken to, over time, have developed power and influence to shape
2608-410: A result, the citizens do not have any obligation to demand the provision of goods and services geared towards development. Dambisa Moyo argues that aid does not lead to development, but rather creates problems including corruption, dependency, limitations on exports and Dutch disease , which negatively affect the economic growth and development of most African countries and other poor countries across
2771-583: A school dedicated to teaching international affairs, was founded in Geneva , Switzerland. This was rapidly followed by establishment of IR at universities in the US. The creation of the posts of Montague Burton Professor of International Relations at LSE and at Oxford gave further impetus to the academic study of international relations. Furthermore, the International History department at LSE developed
2934-621: A single political body. Constructivism is also present in the analysis of international law , where norms of conduct such as the prohibition of chemical weapons , torture , and the protection of civilians in war , are socialised into international organisations, and stipulated into rules. Prominent constructivist IR scholars include Michael Barnett , Martha Finnemore , Ted Hopf , Peter Katzenstein , Kathryn Sikkink , and Alexander Wendt . Post-structuralism theories of international relations (also called critical theories due to being inherently critical of traditional IR frameworks) developed in
3097-609: A source of violent conflict. Pope Urban II in 1095, on the eve of the First Crusade , advocating Crusade as a solution to European overpopulation, said: For this land which you now inhabit, shut in on all sides by the sea and the mountain peaks, is too narrow for your large population; it scarcely furnishes food enough for its cultivators. Hence it is that you murder and devour one another, that you wage wars, and that many among you perish in civil strife. Let hatred, therefore, depart from among you; let your quarrels end. Enter upon
3260-640: A special role by the Geneva Conventions with respect to the visiting and monitoring of prisoners of war. Development aid is given by governments through individual countries' international aid agencies and through multilateral institutions such as the World Bank , and by individuals through development charities . For donor nations, development aid also has strategic value; improved living conditions can positively effects global security and economic growth. Official Development Assistance (ODA)
3423-488: A state, that the sovereign power(s) have absolute power over their territories, and that such a power is only limited by the sovereign's "own obligations towards other sovereigns and individuals". Such a foundation of sovereignty is indicated by a sovereign's obligation to other sovereigns, interdependence and dependence to take place. While throughout world history there have been instances of groups lacking or losing sovereignty, such as African nations prior to decolonization or
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#17327649763123586-555: A subdiscipline of political science, the focus of IR studies lies on political, diplomatic and security connections among states, as well as the study of modern political world history. In many academic institutions, studies of IR are thus situated in the department of politics/social sciences. This is for example the case in Scandinavia, where international relations are often simply referred to as international politics (IP). In institutions where international relations refers to
3749-402: A tool used to open new areas up to global capitalists, and being only secondarily, if at all, concerned with the wellbeing of the people in the recipient countries. The practice of extending aid to politically aligned parties in recipient nations continues today; Faye and Niehaus (2012) are able to establish a causal relationship between politics and aid in recipient nations. In their analysis of
3912-583: A universal and ancestral aspect of human nature , others argue it is a result of specific socio-cultural, economic, or ecological circumstances. The English word war derives from the 11th-century Old English words wyrre and werre , from Old French werre (also guerre as in modern French), in turn from the Frankish * werra , ultimately deriving from the Proto-Germanic * werzō ' mixture, confusion ' . The word
4075-409: Is dependency theory and the core–periphery model , which argue that developed countries, in their pursuit of power, appropriate developing states through international banking, security and trade agreements and unions on a formal level, and do so through the interaction of political and financial advisors, missionaries, relief aid workers, and MNCs on the informal level, in order to integrate them into
4238-444: Is a commonly used measure of developmental aid. Technical assistance is a sub-type of development aid. It is aid involving highly educated or trained personnel, such as doctors, who are moved into a developing country to assist with a program of development. It can be both programme and project aid. Aid can also be classified according to the terms agreed upon by the donor and receiving countries. In this classification, aid can be
4401-566: Is a gray overcast: many of these numbers actually are falling short of the Millennium Development Goals. There are only a few goals that have already been met or projected to be met by the 2015 deadline. The economist William Easterly and others have argued that aid can often distort incentives in poor countries in various harmful ways. Aid can also involve inflows of money to poor countries that have some similarities to inflows of money from natural resources that provoke
4564-533: Is a large literature on the subject. Econometric studies in the late 20th century often found the average effectiveness of aid to be minimal or even negative. Such studies have appeared on the whole to yield more affirmative results in the early 21st century, but the picture is complex and far from clear in many respects. American political scientist and professor Nicolas van de Walle has also argued that despite more than two decades of donor-supported reform in Africa,
4727-537: Is a prominent solidarist, while Hedley Bull and Robert H. Jackson are perhaps the best known pluralists. Some English school theoreticians have used historical cases in order to show the influence that normative frameworks have on the evolution of the international political order at various critical junctures. International relations are often viewed in terms of levels of analysis . The systemic level concepts are those broad concepts that define and shape an international milieu, characterized by anarchy . Focusing on
4890-466: Is an academic discipline. In a broader sense, the study of IR, in addition to multilateral relations, concerns all activities among states—such as war , diplomacy , trade , and foreign policy —as well as relations with and among other international actors, such as intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs), international legal bodies , and multinational corporations (MNCs). International relations
5053-496: Is based on Chenery and Strout's Dual Gap Model (Isse 129). Chenerya and Strout (1966) claimed that foreign aid promotes development by adding to domestic savings as well as to foreign exchange availability, this helping to close either the savings-investment gap or the export-import gap. (Isse 129). Carol Lancaster defines foreign aid as "a voluntary transfer of public resources, from a government to another independent government, to an NGO, or to an international organization (such as
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5216-632: Is caused by leaders who seek war such as Napoleon and Hitler . Such leaders most often come to power in times of crisis when the populace opts for a decisive leader, who then leads the nation to war. Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine
5379-493: Is commonplace encourage their children to be more aggressive. War can be seen as a growth of economic competition in a competitive international system. In this view wars begin as a pursuit of markets for natural resources and for wealth. War has also been linked to economic development by economic historians and development economists studying state-building and fiscal capacity . While this theory has been applied to many conflicts, such counter arguments become less valid as
5542-420: Is considerably different from the type of rights envisioned under natural law , Francisco de Vitoria , Hugo Grotius , and John Locke offered the first accounts of universal entitlement to certain rights on the basis of common humanity. In the 20th century, in addition to contemporary theories of liberal internationalism , Marxism has been a foundation of international relations. International relations as
5705-404: Is dealt with in more detail below. IR theory, however, has a long tradition of drawing on the work of other social sciences . The use of capitalizations of the "I" and "R" in international relations aims to distinguish the academic discipline of international relations from the phenomena of international relations. Many cite Sun Tzu 's The Art of War (6th century BC), Thucydides ' History of
5868-422: Is distinguished from humanitarian aid as being aimed at alleviating poverty in the long term, rather than alleviating suffering in the short term. Aid may serve one or more functions: it may be given as a signal of diplomatic approval, or to strengthen a military ally , to reward a government for behavior desired by the donor , to extend the donor's cultural influence, to provide infrastructure needed by
6031-557: Is especially multifaceted in countries within Sub-Saharan Africa due to geographic barriers. Most macro foreign aid efforts fail to recognize these issues and, as Sachs argues, cause insufficient international aid and policy improvement. Sachs argues that unless foreign aid provides mechanisms that overcome geographic barriers, pandemics such as HIV and AIDS that cause traumatic casualties within regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa will continue to cause millions of fatalities. Aid
6194-620: Is estimated that between 1985 and 1994, 378,000 people per year died due to war. Most wars have resulted in significant loss of life, along with destruction of infrastructure and resources (which may lead to famine , disease, and death in the civilian population ). During the Thirty Years' War in Europe, the population of the Holy Roman Empire was reduced by 15 to 40 percent. Civilians in war zones may also be subject to war atrocities such as genocide , while survivors may suffer
6357-547: Is fueled by displacement and projection where a person transfers his or her grievances into bias and hatred against other races , religions , nations or ideologies . By this theory, the nation state preserves order in the local society while creating an outlet for aggression through warfare. The Italian psychoanalyst Franco Fornari , a follower of Melanie Klein , thought war was the paranoid or projective "elaboration" of mourning. Fornari thought war and violence develop out of our "love need": our wish to preserve and defend
6520-456: Is generally characterized by extreme violence , destruction, and mortality, using regular or irregular military forces . Warfare refers to the common activities and characteristics of types of war, or of wars in general. Total war is warfare that is not restricted to purely legitimate military targets , and can result in massive civilian or other non-combatant suffering and casualties . While some war studies scholars consider war
6683-593: Is generally classified as a major multidiscipline of political science , along with comparative politics , political methodology , political theory , and public administration . It often draws heavily from other fields, including anthropology , economics , geography , history , law , philosophy , and sociology . There are several schools of thought within IR, of which the most prominent are realism , liberalism , and constructivism . While international politics has been analyzed since antiquity , it did not become
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6846-600: Is generally intended for use by a specific end. From this perspective it may be called: Most official development assistance (ODA) comes from the 30 members of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC), or about $ 150 billion in 2018. For the same year, the OECD estimated that six to seven billion dollars of ODA-like aid was given by ten other states, including China and India. Official development assistance (in absolute terms) contributed by
7009-410: Is given as either grants , where no repayment is required, or as concessional loans , where interest rates are lower than market rates. Loan repayments to multilateral institutions are pooled and redistributed as new loans. Additionally, debt relief, partial or total cancellation of loan repayments, is often added to total aid numbers even though it is not an actual transfer of funds. It is compiled by
7172-515: Is given, its source, and its level of urgency. For example, aid may be classified based on urgency into emergency aid and development aid . Emergency aid is rapid assistance given to a people in immediate distress by individuals, organizations, or governments to relieve suffering, during and after man-made emergencies (like wars ) and natural disasters . Development aid is aid given to support development in general which can be economic development or social development in developing countries . It
7335-451: Is not always the case. It is often distinguished from development aid by being focused on relieving suffering caused by natural disaster or conflict, rather than removing the root causes of poverty or vulnerability. Development aid is aid given to support development in general which can be economic development or social development in developing countries . It is distinguished from humanitarian aid as being aimed at alleviating poverty in
7498-676: Is offset by other economic programs such as agricultural subsidies . Mark Malloch Brown , former head of the United Nations Development Program, estimated that farm subsidies cost poor countries about US$ 50 billion a year in lost agricultural exports: It is the extraordinary distortion of global trade, where the West spends $ 360 billion a year on protecting its agriculture with a network of subsidies and tariffs that costs developing countries about US$ 50 billion in potential lost agricultural exports. Fifty billion dollars
7661-430: Is only a subjective judgment, divorced from the facts as they are and informed by prejudice and wishful thinking. Major theorists include E. H. Carr , Robert Gilpin , Charles P. Kindleberger , Stephen D. Krasner , Hans Morgenthau , Kenneth Waltz , Robert Jervis , Stephen Walt , and John Mearsheimer . In contrast to realism, the liberal framework emphasises that states, although they are sovereign, do not exist in
7824-621: Is related to the Old Saxon werran , Old High German werran , and the modern German verwirren , meaning ' to confuse, to perplex, to bring into confusion ' . The earliest evidence of prehistoric warfare is a Mesolithic cemetery in Jebel Sahaba , which has been determined to be about 13,400 years old. About forty-five percent of the skeletons there displayed signs of violent death, specifically traumatic bone lesions. In War Before Civilization , Lawrence H. Keeley ,
7987-447: Is seldom given from motives of pure altruism ; for instance it is often given as a means of supporting an ally in international politics . It may also be given with the intention of influencing the political process in the receiving nation. Whether one considers such aid helpful may depend on whether one agrees with the agenda being pursued by the donor nation in a particular case. During the conflict between communism and capitalism in
8150-493: Is the degree of success or failure of international aid ( development aid or humanitarian aid ). Concern with aid effectiveness might be at a high level of generality (whether aid on average fulfils the main functions that aid is supposed to have), or it might be more detailed (considering relative degrees of success between different types of aid in differing circumstances). Questions of aid effectiveness have been highly contested by academics, commentators and practitioners: there
8313-692: Is the equivalent of today's level of development assistance. Anthropologist and researcher Jason Hickel concludes from a 2016 report by the US-based Global Financial Integrity (GFI) and the Centre for Applied Research at the Norwegian School of Economics that the usual development narrative has it backwards. Aid is effectively flowing in reverse. Rich countries aren't developing poor countries; poor countries are developing rich ones... The aid narrative begins to seem
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#17327649763128476-551: Is the oldest continuously operating school for international affairs in the United States, founded in 1919. In 1927, the London School of Economics ' department of international relations was founded at the behest of Nobel Peace Prize winner Philip Noel-Baker : this was the first institute to offer a wide range of degrees in the field. That same year, the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies ,
8639-524: Is what states make of it". By this he means that the anarchic structure that realists claim governs state interaction is in fact a phenomenon that is socially constructed and reproduced by states. Constructivism is part of critical theory, and as such seeks to criticise the assumptions underlying traditional IR theory. Constructivist theory would for example claim that the state leaders of the United States and Soviet Union were socialised into different roles and norms, which can provide theoretical insights to how
8802-892: The American Civil War , including about 6% in the North and approximately 18% in the South. The war remains the deadliest conflict in American history, resulting in the deaths of 620,000 military personnel. United States military casualties of war since 1775 have totaled over two million. Of the 60 million European military personnel who were mobilized in World War I , 8 million were killed, 7 million were permanently disabled, and 15 million were seriously injured. During Napoleon 's retreat from Moscow, more French military personnel died of typhus than were killed by
8965-896: The Korean War , the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 , the Iran–Iraq War , the Gulf War , the Eritrean–Ethiopian War , and the Russo-Ukrainian War . The Human Security Report 2005 documented a significant decline in the number and severity of armed conflicts since the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s. However, the evidence examined in the 2008 edition of the Center for International Development and Conflict Management's "Peace and Conflict" study indicated
9128-688: The Paris Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity , reflect a growing consensus that environmental degradation requires coordinated international responses , shaping diplomatic priorities and global governance frameworks. Within the study of international relations, there exists multiple theories seeking to explain how states and other actors operate within the international system. These can generally be divided into three main strands: realism, liberalism, and constructivism. The realist framework of international relations rests on
9291-489: The Soviet Union were around 27 million . Since a high proportion of those killed were young men who had not yet fathered any children, population growth in the postwar Soviet Union was much lower than it otherwise would have been. Once a war has ended, losing nations are sometimes required to pay war reparations to the victorious nations. In certain cases, land is ceded to the victorious nations. For example,
9454-404: The resource curse . This is partially because aid given in the form of foreign currency causes exchange rate to become less competitive and this impedes the growth of manufacturing sector which is more conducive in the cheap labour conditions. Aid also can take the pressure off and delay the painful changes required in the economy to shift from agriculture to manufacturing. Some believe that aid
9617-409: The "critical" component of theory was derived significantly from their attempt to overcome the limits of positivism. Modern-day proponents such as Andrew Linklater , Robert W. Cox , and Ken Booth focus on the need for human emancipation from the nation-state. Hence, it is "critical" of mainstream IR theories that tend to be both positivist and state-centric. Further linked in with Marxist theories
9780-417: The 1980s from postmodernist studies in political science . Post-structuralism explores the deconstruction of concepts traditionally not problematic in IR (such as "power" and "agency") and examines how the construction of these concepts shapes international relations. The examination of "narratives" plays an important part in poststructuralist analysis; for example, feminist poststructuralist work has examined
9943-443: The 1990s opened up a space for gendering International Relations. Because feminist IR is linked broadly to the critical project in IR, by and large most feminist scholarship have sought to problematize the politics of knowledge construction within the discipline—often by adopting methodologies of deconstructivism associated with postmodernism/poststructuralism. However, the growing influence of feminist and women-centric approaches within
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#173276497631210106-763: The Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is mandated to coordinate the international humanitarian response to a natural disaster or complex emergency acting on the basis of the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 46/182. The Geneva Conventions give a mandate to the International Committee of the Red Cross and other impartial humanitarian organizations to provide assistance and protection of civilians during times of war. The ICRC, has been given
10269-582: The Development Assistance Committee. The United Nations , the World Bank , and many scholars use the DAC's ODA figure as their main aid figure because it is easily available and reasonably consistently calculated over time and between countries. The DAC classifies aid in three categories: Aid is often pledged at one point in time, but disbursements (financial transfers) might not arrive until later. In 2009, South Korea became
10432-707: The Great Depression, though some consider that it did not play a very large role in the recovery, though it did help in reducing unemployment. In most cases, such as the wars of Louis XIV, the Franco-Prussian War , and World War I , warfare primarily results in damage to the economy of the countries involved. For example, Russia's involvement in World War I took such a toll on the Russian economy that it almost collapsed and greatly contributed to
10595-564: The Neanderthals and ancestors of apes and primates. For the period 3000 BCE until 1991, estimates range from 151 million to 2 billion. The deadliest war in history, in terms of the cumulative number of deaths since its start, is World War II , from 1939 to 1945, with 70–85 million deaths, followed by the Mongol conquests at up to 60 million. As concerns a belligerent's losses in proportion to its prewar population,
10758-498: The Peloponnesian War (5th century BC), Chanakya 's Arthashastra (4th century BC), as the inspiration for realist theory, with Hobbes ' Leviathan and Machiavelli 's The Prince providing further elaboration. Similarly, liberalism draws upon the work of Kant and Rousseau , with the work of the former often being cited as the first elaboration of democratic peace theory . Though contemporary human rights
10921-448: The Peloponnesian War , written by Thucydides , is considered a foundational text of the realist school of political philosophy. There is debate over whether Thucydides himself was a realist; Richard Ned Lebow has argued that seeing Thucydides as a realist is a misinterpretation of a more complex political message within his work. Amongst others, philosophers like Machiavelli , Hobbes , and Rousseau are considered to have contributed to
11084-705: The Russians. Of the 450,000 soldiers who crossed the Neman on 25 June 1812, less than 40,000 returned. More military personnel were killed from 1500 to 1914 by typhus than from military action. In addition, if it were not for modern medical advances there would be thousands more dead from disease and infection. For instance, during the Seven Years' War , the Royal Navy reported it conscripted 184,899 sailors, of whom 133,708 (72%) died of disease or were 'missing'. It
11247-484: The Soviet Union and subsequent rise of globalization in the late 20th century have presaged new theories and evaluations of the rapidly changing international system . Depending on the academic institution, international relations or international affairs is either a subdiscipline of political science or a broader multidisciplinary field encompassing global politics , law, economics or world history. As
11410-527: The US), Alesina and Dollar (2000) discovered that each has its own distortions to the aid it gives out. Japan appears to prioritize giving aid nations that exercise similar voting preferences in the United Nations, France mostly sends aid to its former colonies, and the U.S. disproportionately provides aid to Israel and Egypt. These allocations are often powerful tools for maintaining the strategic interests of
11573-438: The United States and U.S. Generals , expressed support for an economic view of war. The Marxist theory of war is quasi-economic in that it states all modern wars are caused by competition for resources and markets between great ( imperialist ) powers, claiming these wars are a natural result of capitalism . Marxist economists Karl Kautsky , Rosa Luxemburg , Rudolf Hilferding and Vladimir Lenin theorized that imperialism
11736-649: The United States government discontinued the reporting of military aid as part of its foreign aid figures in 1958. The most widely used measure of aid is " Official Development Assistance " (ODA). The Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development defines its aid measure, Official Development Assistance (ODA), as follows: "ODA consists of flows to developing countries and multilateral institutions provided by official agencies, including state and local governments, or by their executive agencies, each transaction of which meets
11899-526: The World Bank or UNICEF , pool aid from one or more sources and disperse it among many recipients. Aid may be also classified based on urgency into emergency aid and development aid. Emergency aid is rapid assistance given to a people in immediate distress by individuals, organizations, or governments to relieve suffering, during and after man-made emergencies (like wars ) and natural disasters . The term often carries an international connotation, but this
12062-632: The World Bank or the UN Development Program ) with at least a 25 percent grant element, one goal of which is to better the human condition in the country receiving the aid." The type of aid given may be classified according to various factors, including its level of urgency and intended purpose, or the terms or conditions (if any) under which it is given. Aid from various sources can reach recipients through bilateral or multilateral delivery systems. Bilateral refers to government to government transfers. Multilateral institutions , such as
12225-623: The World Bank, but only that part where risks are higher" and more stringent oversight thus deemed necessary.) The study authors found "that donor efforts to control corruption in aid spending through national procurement systems, by tightening oversight and increasing market openness , were effective in reducing corruption risks." The study also found that countries with high party system institutionalization (PSI) and countries with greater state capacity had lower prevalence of single bidding, lending support for "theories of corruption control based on reducing opportunities and increasing constraints on
12388-455: The ability of states to control and limit war in their international relations. Early adherents include Woodrow Wilson and Norman Angell , who argued that states mutually gained from cooperation and that war was so destructive as to be essentially futile. Liberalism was not recognized as a coherent theory as such until it was collectively and derisively termed idealism by E. H. Carr . A new version of "idealism" that focused on human rights as
12551-667: The apparent increase in corruption did not appear to be driven by increased economic activity, but rather could be linked to a negative Chinese impact on norms (e.g., the legitimization of corruption). The study noted that: "Chinese aid stands out from World Bank aid in this respect. In particular, whereas the results indicate that Chinese aid projects fuel local corruption but have no observable impact on short term local economic activity, they suggest that World Bank aid projects stimulate local economic activity without any consistent evidence of it fuelling local corruption." Foreign aid kills local industries in developing countries. Foreign aid in
12714-420: The basis of the legitimacy of international law was advanced by Hans Köchler . Major theorists include Montesquieu , Immanuel Kant , Michael W. Doyle , Francis Fukuyama , and Helen Milner . Liberal institutionalism (some times referred to as neoliberalism) shows how cooperation can be achieved in international relations even if neorealist assumptions apply (states are the key actors in world politics,
12877-494: The broader multidisciplinary field of global politics, law, economics and history, the subject may be studied across multiple departments, or be situated in its own department, as is the case at for example the London School of Economics. An undergraduate degree in multidisciplinary international relations may lead to a more specialised master's degree of either international politics, economics, or international law . In
13040-431: The capitalist system, strategically appropriating undervalued natural resources and labor hours and fostering economic and political dependence. Feminist IR considers the ways that international politics affects and is affected by both men and women and also at how the core concepts that are employed within the discipline of IR (e.g. war, security, etc.) are themselves gendered. Feminist IR has not only concerned itself with
13203-988: The chances of becoming a psychiatric casualty – of being debilitated for some period of time as a consequence of the stresses of military life – were greater than the chances of being killed by enemy fire. Swank and Marchand's World War II study found that after sixty days of continuous combat, 98% of all surviving military personnel will become psychiatric casualties. Psychiatric casualties manifest themselves in fatigue cases, confusional states, conversion hysteria, anxiety, obsessional and compulsive states, and character disorders. One-tenth of mobilised American men were hospitalised for mental disturbances between 1942 and 1945, and after thirty-five days of uninterrupted combat, 98% of them manifested psychiatric disturbances in varying degrees. Additionally, it has been estimated anywhere from 18% to 54% of Vietnam war veterans suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder . Based on 1860 census figures, 8% of all white American males aged 13 to 43 died in
13366-579: The competitive 2006 Palestinian elections, they note that USAID provided funding for development programs in Palestine to support the Palestinian Authority, the US backed entity running for reelection. Faye and Niehaus discovered that the greater the degree of alignment the recipient party has with the donor entity, the more aid it receives on average during an election year. In an analysis of the three biggest donor nations (Japan, France, and
13529-672: The conflict between the nations was conducted during the Cold War. E.g., prominent US policy makers frequently spoke of the USSR as an 'evil empire', and thus socialised the US population and state apparatus into an anti-communist sentiment, which defined the norms conducted in US foreign policy. Other constructivist analyses include the discourses on European integration; senior policy-making circles were socialised into ideas of Europe as an historical and cultural community, and therefore sought to construct institutions to integrate European nations into
13692-778: The conflict, and increased revenues by weapons manufacturers . Three of the ten most costly wars, in terms of loss of life, have been waged in the last century. These are the two World Wars, followed by the Second Sino-Japanese War (which is sometimes considered part of World War II , or as overlapping). Most of the others involved China or neighboring peoples. The death toll of World War II, being over 60 million, surpasses all other war-death-tolls. Military personnel subject to combat in war often suffer mental and physical injuries, including depression, posttraumatic stress disorder , disease, injury, and death. In every war in which American soldiers have fought in,
13855-524: The conflicts between states in the early European state-system; the causes of the First and Second World Wars , as well as the behavior of the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War . In settings such as these the realist framework carries great interpretative insights in explaining how the military and economic power struggles of states lead to larger armed conflicts. History of
14018-507: The connections existing between sovereign nation-states . This makes the establishment of the modern state system the natural starting point of international relations history. The establishment of modern sovereign states as fundamental political units traces back to the Peace of Westphalia of 1648 in Europe . During the preceding Middle Ages , European organization of political authority
14181-427: The consolidation of newly independent nation-states within the non-West , such as Brazil and India. In recent decades, IR has increasingly addressed environmental concerns such as climate change , deforestation , and biodiversity loss , recognizing their implications for global security and diplomacy. Once peripheral, these issues have gained prominence due to their global impact . Multilateral agreements, like
14344-572: The continent continues to be plagued by economic crises due to the combination of state generated factors and to the counter productivity of international development aid to Africa. Van de Walle posits that international aid has sustained economic stagnation in Africa by: In order for aid to be productive and for economic policy reform to be successfully implemented in Africa, the relationship between donors and governments must change. Van de Walle argues that aid must be made more conditional and selective to incentivize states to take on reform and to generate
14507-414: The contrary, on a global scale the time since WWII has been unusually peaceful. Estimates for total deaths due to war vary widely. In one estimate, primitive warfare from 50,000 to 3000 BCE has been thought to have claimed 400 million±133,000 victims based on the assumption that it accounted for the 15.1% of all deaths. Other scholars find the prehistoric percentage much lower, around 2%, similar to
14670-494: The core functions of government, such as operations and maintenance, or the delivery of basic public services, without foreign aid funding and expertise". Aid has made many African countries and other poor regions incapable of achieving economic growth and development without foreign assistance. Most African economies have become dependent on aid and this is because foreign aid has become a significant norm of systems of international relations between high and low income countries across
14833-446: The course of conflict and may eventually morph into "peace conditions" – the minimal conditions under which a state may cease to wage a particular war. Throughout the course of human history, the average number of people dying from war has fluctuated relatively little, being about 1 to 10 people dying per 100,000. However, major wars over shorter periods have resulted in much higher casualty rates, with 100–200 casualties per 100,000 over
14996-624: The creation of foreign policy. The liberal framework is associated with analysis of the globalised world as it emerged in the aftermath of World War II . Increased political cooperation through organisations such as the UN , as well as economic cooperation through institutions such as the WTO, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund , was thought to have made the realist analysis of power and conflict inadequate in explaining
15159-402: The developed world, in a foreign aid, increases the price of locally produced goods and products. Due to their high prices, export of local goods reduces. As a result, local industries and producers are forced to go out of business. Statistical studies have produced widely differing assessments of the correlation between aid and economic growth: there is little consensus with some studies finding
15322-484: The developmental barriers associated with geography specifically, poor health, low agricultural productivity, and high transportation costs". The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are two organizations that Sachs argues are currently instrumental in advising and directing foreign aid; however, he argues that these two organizations focus too much on "institutional reforms". Foreign aid
15485-598: The difference between "stagnation and severe cumulative decline." Aid can make progress towards reducing poverty worldwide, or at least help prevent cumulative decline. Despite the intense criticism on aid, there are some promising numbers. In 1990, approximately 43 percent of the world's population was living on less than $ 1.25 a day and has dropped to about 16 percent in 2008. Maternal deaths have dropped from 543,000 in 1990 to 287,000 in 2010. Under-five mortality rates have also dropped, from 12 million in 1990 to 6.9 million in 2011. Although these numbers alone sound promising, there
15648-497: The discipline is inherently masculine in nature. For example, in her article "Sex and Death in the Rational World of Defense Intellectuals" Signs (1988), Carol Cohn claimed that a highly masculinized culture within the defense establishment contributed to the divorcing of war from human emotion. Feminist IR emerged largely from the late 1980s onward. The end of the Cold War and the re-evaluation of traditional IR theory during
15811-596: The donor country in the recipient country. Some analysts, such as researchers at the Overseas Development Institute , argue that current support for developing countries suffers from a policy incoherence. While some policies are designed to support developing countries, other domestic policies undermine its impact, examples include: International relations International relations ( IR , and also referred to as international studies , international politics , or international affairs )
15974-433: The donor for resource extraction from the recipient country, or to gain other kinds of commercial access. Countries may provide aid for further diplomatic reasons. Humanitarian and altruistic purposes are often reasons for foreign assistance. Aid may be given by individuals, private organizations, or governments. Standards delimiting exactly the types of transfers considered "aid" vary from country to country. For example,
16137-416: The economic and material aspects. It makes the assumption that the economy trumps other concerns, making economic class the fundamental level of analysis. Marxists view the international system as an integrated capitalist system in pursuit of capital accumulation . Thus, colonialism brought in sources for raw materials and captive markets for exports, while decolonialization brought new opportunities in
16300-545: The first graduate-only school of international affairs in the United States. In 1965, Glendon College and the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs were the first institutions in Canada to offer an undergraduate and a graduate program in international studies and affairs, respectively. The lines between IR and other political science subfields is sometimes blurred, in particular when it comes to
16463-647: The first fully-fledged international system. Analyses of the foreign policies of sovereign city states have been done in ancient times, as in Thycydides ' analysis of the causes of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta , as well as by Niccolò Machiavelli in The Prince , published in 1532, where he analyzed the foreign policy of the renaissance city state of Florence . The contemporary field of international relations, however, analyzes
16626-466: The first international relations graduate program in the United States. This was soon followed by the establishment of the Committee on International Relations (CIR) at the University of Chicago , where the first research graduate degree was conferred in 1928. The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy , a collaboration between Tufts University and Harvard University , opened its doors in 1933 as
16789-461: The first major recipient of ODA from the OECD to turn into a major donor. The country now provides over $ 1 billion in aid annually. Most monetary flows between nations are not counted as aid. These include market-based flows such as foreign direct investments and portfolio investments , remittances from migrant workers to their families in their home countries, and military aid . In 2009, aid in
16952-428: The following test: a) it is administered with the promotion of the economic development and welfare of developing countries as its main objective, and b) it is concessional in character and contains a grant element of at least 25% (calculated at a rate of discount of 10%)." Foreign aid has increased since the 1950s and 1960s (Isse 129). The notion that foreign aid increases economic performance and generates economic growth
17115-520: The foreign policies of individual states. Furthermore, the existence of the globalised world economy makes continuous military power struggle irrational, as states are dependent on participation in the global trade system to ensure their own survival. As such, the liberal framework stresses cooperation between states as a fundamental part of the international system. States are not seen as unitary actors, but pluralistic arenas where interest groups, non-governmental organisations, and economic actors also shape
17278-469: The form of dependence. A prominent derivative of Marxian thought is critical international relations theory which is the application of " critical theory " to international relations. Early critical theorists were associated with the Frankfurt School , which followed Marx's concern with the conditions that allow for social change and the establishment of rational institutions. Their emphasis on
17441-432: The form of food aid that is given to poor countries or underdeveloped countries is responsible for the death of local farm industries in poor countries. Local farmers end up going out of business because they cannot compete with the abundance of cheap imported aid food, that is brought into poor countries as a response to humanitarian crisis and natural disasters. Large inflows of money that come into developing countries, from
17604-425: The form of remittances by migrant workers in the United States to their international families was twice as large as that country's humanitarian aid. The World Bank reported that, worldwide, foreign workers sent $ 328 billion from richer to poorer countries in 2008, over twice as much as official aid flows from OECD members. The United States does not count military aid in its foreign aid figures. Aid effectiveness
17767-551: The fundamental assumption that the international state system is an anarchy , with no overarching power restricting the behaviour of sovereign states. As a consequence, states are engaged in a continuous power struggle, where they seek to augment their own military capabilities, economic power, and diplomacy relative to other states; this in order to ensure the protection of their political system, citizens, and vital interests. The realist framework further assumes that states act as unitary, rational actors, where central decision makers in
17930-409: The globe. Foreign aid makes African countries dependent on aid because it is regarded by policy makers as regular income, thus they do not have any incentive to make policies and decisions that will enable their countries to independently finance their economic growth and development. Additionally, aid does not incentivize the government to tax citizens, due to the constant inflow of foreign aid, and as
18093-768: The globe. Moyo devotes a section of her book, Dead Aid to rethinking the aid dependency model. She cautions that although "weaning governments off aid won't be easy", it is necessary. Primary among her prescriptions is a "capital solution" where African countries must enter the bond market to raise their capital for development, the interconnectedness that globalization has provided, will turn other "pools of money toward African markets in form of mutual funds, hedge funds, pension schemes" etc. A 2020 article published in Studies in Comparative International Development analyzed contract-level data over
18256-418: The globe. The invention of gunpowder , and its eventual use in warfare, together with the acceleration of technological advances have fomented major changes to war itself. In Western Europe, since the late 18th century, more than 150 conflicts and about 600 battles have taken place. During the 20th century, war resulted in a dramatic intensification of the pace of social changes, and was a crucial catalyst for
18419-426: The growth of left-wing politics . Mao Zedong urged the socialist camp not to fear nuclear war with the United States since, even if "half of mankind died, the other half would remain while imperialism would be razed to the ground and the whole world would become socialist." A distinctive feature of war since 1945 is that combat has largely been a matter of civil wars and insurgencies. The major exceptions were
18582-530: The inaugural issue of World Politics , Frederick S. Dunn wrote that IR was about "relations that take place across national boundaries" and "between autonomous political groups in a world system". Dunn wrote that unique elements characterized IR and separated it from other subfields: international politics is concerned with the special kind of power relationships that exist in a community lacking an overriding authority; international economics deals with trade relations across national boundaries that are complicated by
18745-459: The increasing mobility of capital and information level the distributions of wealth worldwide, or when considering that it is relative, not absolute, wealth differences that may fuel wars. There are those on the extreme right of the political spectrum who provide support, fascists in particular, by asserting a natural right of a strong nation to whatever the weak cannot hold by force. Some centrist, capitalist, world leaders, including Presidents of
18908-409: The interest of the donor than the recipient, or even a form of neocolonialism . Some specific motives a donor may have for giving aid were listed in 1985 as follows: defence support, market expansion, foreign investment, missionary enterprise, cultural extension. In recent decades, aid by organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank has been criticized as being primarily
19071-851: The international policy communities (for example at the World Bank and the United Nations) is more reflective of the liberal feminist emphasis on equality of opportunity for women. Prominent scholars include Carol Cohn , Cynthia Enloe , Sara Ruddick , and J. Ann Tickner . International society theory, also called the English school, focuses on the shared norms and values of states and how they regulate international relations. Examples of such norms include diplomacy, order, and international law . Theorists have focused particularly on humanitarian intervention, and are subdivided between solidarists, who tend to advocate it more, and pluralists, who place greater value in order and sovereignty. Nicholas Wheeler
19234-492: The international system could remain stable in the absence of a hegemon, thus rebutting hegemonic stability theory. Regime theory is derived from the liberal tradition that argues that international institutions or regimes affect the behaviour of states (or other international actors). It assumes that cooperation is possible in the anarchic system of states, indeed, regimes are by definition, instances of international cooperation. While realism predicts that conflict should be
19397-425: The international system is anarchic, and states pursue their self interest). Liberal institutionalists highlight the role of international institutions and regimes in facilitating cooperation between states. Prominent neoliberal institutionalists are John Ikenberry , Robert Keohane , and Joseph Nye . Robert Keohane's 1984 book After Hegemony used insights from the new institutional economics to argue that
19560-545: The international system is built on social constructs; such as ideas , norms , and identities . Various political actors, such as state leaders , policy makers , and the leaders of international organisations, are socialised into different roles and systems of norms, which define how the international system operates. The constructivist scholar Alexander Wendt , in a 1992 article in International Organization , noted in response to realism that "anarchy
19723-486: The length of the fighting. Finally, Crost, Felter and Johnston (2014) have showed that a development program in the Philippines have had the unintended effect of increasing conflict because of a strategic retaliation from the rebel group, on where they tried to prevent that the development program increases support to the government. Aid dependency is defined as the "situation in which a country cannot perform many of
19886-411: The long term, rather than alleviating suffering in the short term. Official aid may be classified by types according to its intended purpose. Military aid is material or logistical assistance given to strengthen the military capabilities of an ally country. Humanitarian aid is material or logistical assistance provided for humanitarian purposes, typically in response to humanitarian crises such as
20049-591: The longstanding UN target for an ODA/GNI ratio of 0.7% in 2013: European Union countries that are members of the Development Assistance Committee gave 0.42% of GNI (excluding the $ 15.93 billion given by EU Institutions). Official development assistance (ODA) is a term coined by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to measure aid. ODA refers to aid from national governments for promoting economic development and welfare in low and middle income countries. ODA can be bilateral or multilateral. This aid
20212-419: The main mechanism driving this result is predation of the aid by the rebel groups. In fact, they note that aid can have the unintentional consequence of actually improving rebel groups' ability to continue conflict, as vehicles and communications equipment usually accompany the aid that is stolen. These tools improve the ability of rebel groups to organize and give them assets to trade for arms, possibly increasing
20375-505: The most destructive war in modern history may have been the Paraguayan War (see Paraguayan War casualties ). In 2013 war resulted in 31,000 deaths, down from 72,000 deaths in 1990. War usually results in significant deterioration of infrastructure and the ecosystem, a decrease in social spending, famine , large-scale emigration from the war zone, and often the mistreatment of prisoners of war or civilians. For instance, of
20538-542: The motivations for war, but no consensus about which are most common. Military theorist Carl von Clausewitz said, "Every age has its own kind of war, its own limiting conditions, and its own peculiar preconceptions." Dutch psychoanalyst Joost Meerloo held that, "War is often...a mass discharge of accumulated internal rage (where)...the inner fears of mankind are discharged in mass destruction." Other psychoanalysts such as E.F.M. Durban and John Bowlby have argued human beings are inherently violent. This aggressiveness
20701-550: The much needed accountability and capacity in African governments. The effect of aid on conflict intensity and onset have been proved to have different impacts in different countries and situations. For instance, for the case of Colombia Dube and Naidu (2015) showed that Aid from the US seems to have been diverted to paramilitary groups, increasing political violence. Moreover, Nunn and Qian (2014) have found that an increase in U.S. food aid increases conflict intensity; they claim that
20864-599: The nature and presence of warfare. Thus, he argues, warfare is not a universal human occurrence and appears to have been a historical invention, associated with certain types of human societies. Montagu's argument is supported by ethnographic research conducted in societies where the concept of aggression seems to be entirely absent, e.g. the Chewong and Semai of the Malay peninsula. Bobbi S. Low has observed correlation between warfare and education, noting societies where warfare
21027-474: The nine million people who were on the territory of the Byelorussian SSR in 1941, some 1.6 million were killed by the Germans in actions away from battlefields, including about 700,000 prisoners of war, 500,000 Jews, and 320,000 people counted as partisans (the vast majority of whom were unarmed civilians). Another byproduct of some wars is the prevalence of propaganda by some or all parties in
21190-442: The norm in international relations, regime theorists say that there is cooperation despite anarchy. Often they cite cooperation in trade, human rights and collective security among other issues. These instances of cooperation are regimes. The most commonly cited definition of regimes comes from Stephen Krasner , who defines regimes as "principles, norms, rules, and decision-making procedures around which actor expectations converge in
21353-466: The occupation of Iraq during the Iraq War , there is still a need for sovereignty in terms of assessing international relations. The concept of power in international relations can be described as the degree of resources, capabilities, and influence in international affairs. It is often divided up into the concepts of hard power and soft power , hard power relating primarily to coercive power, such as
21516-500: The overall decline in conflicts had stalled. Entities contemplating going to war and entities considering whether to end a war may formulate war aims as an evaluation/propaganda tool. War aims may stand as a proxy for national-military resolve. Fried defines war aims as "the desired territorial, economic, military or other benefits expected following successful conclusion of a war". Tangible/intangible aims: Explicit/implicit aims: Positive/negative aims: War aims can change in
21679-416: The participants did not have any formal training. Scarcity of resources meant defensive works were not a cost-effective way to protect the society against enemy raids. William Rubinstein wrote "Pre-literate societies, even those organized in a relatively advanced way, were renowned for their studied cruelty.'" Since the rise of the state some 5,000 years ago, military activity has continued over much of
21842-464: The period 1998 through 2008 in more than a hundred recipient countries. As a risk indicator for corruption, the study used the prevalence of single bids submitted in "high-risk" competitive tenders for procurement contracts funded by World Bank development aid. ("High-risk" tenders are those with a higher degree of World Bank oversight and control; as a result, the study authors noted that "our findings are not representative of all aid spending financed by
22005-399: The policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship. ... the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works
22168-478: The power of public administrators." A 2018 study published in the Journal of Public Economics investigated with Chinese aid projects in Africa increased local-level corruption. Matching Afrobarometer data (on perceptions of corruption) to georeferenced data on Chinese development finance project sites, the study found that active Chinese project sites had more widespread local corruption. The study found that
22331-525: The psychological aftereffects of witnessing the destruction of war. War also results in lower quality of life and worse health outcomes. A medium-sized conflict with about 2,500 battle deaths reduces civilian life expectancy by one year and increases infant mortality by 10% and malnutrition by 3.3%. Additionally, about 1.8% of the population loses access to drinking water . Most estimates of World War II casualties indicate around 60 million people died, 40 million of whom were civilians. Deaths in
22494-409: The rarely if ever fulfilled ideal that all people speaking one language should belong to one state only. The same claim to sovereignty was made for both forms of nation-state. In Europe today, few states conform to either definition of nation-state: many continue to have royal sovereigns, and hardly any are ethnically homogeneous. The particular European system supposing the sovereign equality of states
22657-477: The real-world problems that international relations studies is supposed to contribute to solving. Constructivist theory (see above) is the most prominent strand of post-structuralism. Other prominent post-structuralist theories are Marxism, dependency theory, feminism, and the theories of the English school. See also Critical international relations theory . Marxist theories of IR reject the realist/liberal view of state conflict or cooperation; instead focusing on
22820-473: The realist philosophy. However, while their work may support realist doctrine, it is not likely that they would have classified themselves as realists in this sense. Political realism believes that politics, like society, is governed by objective laws with roots in human nature . To improve society, it is first necessary to understand the laws by which society lives. The operation of these laws being impervious to our preferences, persons will challenge them only at
22983-407: The relations of these different types of states is disputed. "Levels of analysis" is a way of looking at the international system, which includes the individual level, the domestic state as a unit, the international level of transnational and intergovernmental affairs, and the global level. What is explicitly recognized as international relations theory was not developed until after World War I , and
23146-403: The relationship between the institutionalization of IR as an academic discipline and the demands of national governments. Robert Vitalis [ ar ] 's book White World Order, Black Power Politics details the historical imbrication of IR in the projects of colonial administration and imperialism, while other scholars have traced the emergence of international relations in relation to
23309-443: The risk of failure. Realism, believing as it does in the objectivity of the laws of politics, must also believe in the possibility of developing a rational theory that reflects, however imperfectly and one-sidedly, these objective laws. It believes also, then, in the possibility of distinguishing in politics between truth and opinion—between what is true objectively and rationally, supported by evidence and illuminated by reason, and what
23472-419: The role that "women" play in global society and how they are constructed in war as "innocent" and "civilians". Rosenberg's article "Why is there no International Historical Sociology" was a key text in the evolution of this strand of international relations theory. Post-structuralism has garnered both significant praise and criticism, with its critics arguing that post-structuralist research often fails to address
23635-407: The sacred object to which we are attached, namely our early mother and our fusion with her. For the adult, nations are the sacred objects that generate warfare. Fornari focused upon sacrifice as the essence of war: the astonishing willingness of human beings to die for their country, to give over their bodies to their nation. Despite Fornari's theory that man's altruistic desire for self-sacrifice for
23798-674: The same way in any country. Several theories concern the evolutionary origins of warfare. There are two main schools: One sees organized warfare as emerging in or after the Mesolithic as a result of complex social organization and greater population density and competition over resources; the other sees human warfare as a more ancient practice derived from common animal tendencies, such as territoriality and sexual competition. The latter school argues that since warlike behavior patterns are found in many primate species such as chimpanzees , as well as in many ant species, group conflict may be
23961-469: The start of the Russian Revolution of 1917 . World War II was the most financially costly conflict in history; its belligerents cumulatively spent about a trillion U.S. dollars on the war effort (as adjusted to 1940 prices). The Great Depression of the 1930s ended as nations increased their production of war materials. By the end of the war, 70% of European industrial infrastructure
24124-420: The state apparatus ultimately stand for most of the state's foreign policy decisions. International organizations are in consequence merely seen as tools for individual states used to further their own interests, and are thought to have little power in shaping states' foreign policies on their own. The realist framework is traditionally associated with the analysis of power-politics, and has been used to analyze
24287-513: The study of conflict , institutions , political economy and political behavior . The division between comparative politics and international relations is artificial, as processes within nations shape international processes, and international processes shape processes within states. Some scholars have called for an integration of the fields. Comparative politics does not have similar " isms " as international relations scholarship. Critical scholarship in international relations has explored
24450-530: The systemic level of international relations is often, but not always, the preferred method for neo-realists and other structuralist IR analysts. Preceding the concepts of interdependence and dependence, international relations relies on the idea of sovereignty. Described in Jean Bodin 's Six Books of the Commonwealth in 1576, the three pivotal points derived from the book describe sovereignty as being
24613-514: The territory of Alsace-Lorraine has been traded between France and Germany on three different occasions. Typically, war becomes intertwined with the economy and many wars are partially or entirely based on economic reasons. The common view among economic historians is that the Great Depression ended with the advent of World War II . Many economists believe that government spending on the war caused or at least accelerated recovery from
24776-422: The territory's sovereign borders. These principles underpin the modern international legal and political order. The period between roughly 1500 to 1789 saw the rise of independent sovereign states , multilateralism , and the institutionalization of diplomacy and the military. The French Revolution contributed the idea that it was the citizenry of a state, defined as the nation, that were sovereign, rather than
24939-410: The top 10 DAC countries is as follows. European Union countries together gave $ 75,838,040,000 and EU Institutions gave a further $ 19.4 billion. The European Union accumulated a higher portion of GDP as a form of foreign aid than any other economic union. Official development assistance as a percentage of gross national income contributed by the top 10 DAC countries is as follows. Five countries met
25102-486: The traditional focus of IR on states, wars, diplomacy and security, but feminist IR scholars have also emphasized the importance of looking at how gender shapes the current global political economy. In this sense, there is no clear cut division between feminists working in IR and those working in the area of International Political Economy (IPE). From its inception, feminist IR has also theorized extensively about men and, in particular, masculinities. Many IR feminists argue that
25265-533: The twentieth century, the champions of those ideologies – the Soviet Union and the United States – each used aid to influence the internal politics of other nations, and to support their weaker allies. Perhaps the most notable example was the Marshall Plan by which the United States , largely successfully, sought to pull European nations toward capitalism and away from communism. Aid to underdeveloped countries has sometimes been criticized as being more in
25428-461: The uncontrolled actions of sovereign states; and international law is law that is based on voluntary acceptance by independent nations. The terms "International studies" and " global studies " have been used by some to refer to a broader multidisciplinary IR field. Studies of international relations started thousands of years ago; Barry Buzan and Richard Little considered the interaction of ancient Sumerian city-states, starting in 3,500 BC , as
25591-453: The use of force, and soft power commonly covering economics , diplomacy , and cultural influence. However, there is no clear dividing line between the two forms of power. War War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states , or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organized groups. It
25754-493: The workings of the international system. The intellectual basis of liberal theory is often cited as Immanuel Kant 's essay Perpetual Peace from 1795. In it, he postulates that states, over time, through increased political and economic cooperation, will come to resemble an international federation—a world government ; which will be characterised by continual peace and cooperation. In modern times, liberal international relations theory arose after World War I in response to
25917-517: Was based on a vaguely hierarchical religious order. Contrary to popular belief, Westphalia still embodied layered systems of sovereignty, especially within the Holy Roman Empire . More than the Peace of Westphalia, the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713 is 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
26080-527: Was destroyed. Property damage in the Soviet Union inflicted by the Axis invasion was estimated at a value of 679 billion rubles. The combined damage consisted of complete or partial destruction of 1,710 cities and towns, 70,000 villages/hamlets, 2,508 church buildings, 31,850 industrial establishments, 40,000 mi (64,374 km) of railroad, 4100 railroad stations, 40,000 hospitals, 84,000 schools, and 43,000 public libraries. There are many theories about
26243-599: Was exported to the Americas, Africa, and Asia via colonialism and the "standards of civilization". The contemporary international system was finally established through decolonization during the Cold War . However, this is somewhat over-simplified. While the nation-state system is considered "modern", many states have not incorporated the system and are termed "pre-modern". A handful of states have moved beyond insistence on full sovereignty, and can be considered "post-modern". The ability of contemporary IR discourse to explain
26406-667: Was important to have a reputation for retaliation, causing humans to develop instincts for revenge as well as for protecting a group's (or an individual's) reputation (" honor "). Crofoot and Wrangham have argued that warfare, if defined as group interactions in which "coalitions attempt to aggressively dominate or kill members of other groups", is a characteristic of most human societies. Those in which it has been lacking "tend to be societies that were politically dominated by their neighbors". Ashley Montagu strongly denied universalistic instinctual arguments, arguing that social factors and childhood socialization are important in determining
26569-533: Was the result of capitalist countries needing new markets . Expansion of the means of production is only possible if there is a corresponding growth in consumer demand . Since the workers in a capitalist economy would be unable to fill the demand, producers must expand into non-capitalist markets to find consumers for their goods, hence driving imperialism. Demographic theories can be grouped into two classes, Malthusian and youth bulge theories: Malthusian theories see expanding population and scarce resources as
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