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93-453: The International Refugee Organization ( IRO ) was an intergovernmental organization founded on 20 April 1946 to deal with the massive refugee problem created by World War II . A Preparatory Commission began operations fourteen months previously. In 1948, the treaty establishing the IRO formally entered into force and the IRO became a United Nations specialized agency . The IRO assumed most of

186-493: A treaty that acts as a charter creating the group. Treaties are formed when lawful representatives (governments) of several states go through a ratification process, providing the IGO with an international legal personality. Intergovernmental organizations are an important aspect of public international law . Intergovernmental organizations in a legal sense should be distinguished from simple groupings or coalitions of states, such as

279-735: A capitalist economy. The oldest regional organization is the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine , created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna . There are several different reasons a state may choose membership in an intergovernmental organization. But there are also reasons membership may be rejected. Reasons for participation: Reasons for rejecting membership: Intergovernmental organizations are provided with privileges and immunities that are intended to ensure their independent and effective functioning. They are specified in

372-580: 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

465-798: 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

558-640: A fair trial . Otherwise, the organizations' immunities may be put in question in national and international courts. Some organizations hold proceedings before tribunals relating to their organization to be confidential, and in some instances have threatened disciplinary action should an employee disclose any of the relevant information. Such confidentiality has been criticized as a lack of transparency . The immunities also extend to employment law . In this regard, immunity from national jurisdiction necessitates that reasonable alternative means are available to effectively protect employees' rights; in this context,

651-854: A first instance Dutch court considered an estimated duration of proceedings before the Administrative Tribunal of the International Labour Organization of 15 years to be too long. An international organization does not pay taxes, is difficult to prosecute in court and is not obliged to provide information to any parliament. The United Nations focuses on five main areas: "maintaining peace and security , protecting human rights , delivering humanitarian aid , supporting sustainable development , and upholding international law ". UN agencies , such as UN Relief and Works Agency , are generally regarded as international organizations in their own right. Additionally,

744-670: 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

837-427: 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

930-534: A good resource for developmental projects in developing countries. The UN has to protect against any kind of human rights violation, and in the UN system, some specialized agencies, like ILO and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees ( UNHCR ), work in the human rights' protection fields. The UN agency, ILO, is trying to end any kind of discrimination in the work field and child labor; after that, this agency promotes fundamental labor rights and to get safe and secure for

1023-1296: A liquidation period, went out of existence on 30 September 1953. By that time many of its responsibilities had been assumed by other agencies. Of particular importance was the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees , established in January 1951 as a part of the United Nations, and the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration (originally PICMME), set up in December 1951. Intergovernmental organization Examples for international organizations include: UN General Assembly , World Trade Organization , African Development Bank , UN Economic and Social Council , UN Security Council , Asian Development Bank , International Bank for Reconstruction and Development , International Monetary Fund , International Finance Corporation , Inter-American Development Bank , United Nations Environment Programme. Scottish law professor James Lorimer has been credited with coining

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1116-591: 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

1209-623: 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

1302-583: 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

1395-621: 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

1488-488: 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

1581-555: 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

1674-543: A variety of issues—was the League of Nations , founded on 10 January 1920 with a principal mission of maintaining world peace after World War I. The United Nations followed this model after World War II . This was signed on 26 June 1945, in San Francisco, at the conclusion of the United Nations Conference on International Organization, and came into force on 24 October 1945. Currently, the UN

1767-409: 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

1860-537: 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

1953-420: 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

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2046-404: 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

2139-593: 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

2232-484: Is intended to be ensured by legal mechanisms that are internal to the intergovernmental organization itself and access to administrative tribunals. In the course of many court cases where private parties tried to pursue claims against international organizations, there has been a gradual realization that alternative means of dispute settlement are required as states have fundamental human rights obligations to provide plaintiffs with access to court in view of their right to

2325-430: 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

2418-817: Is the main IGO with its arms such as the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), the General Assembly (UNGA), the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the Secretariat (UNSA), the Trusteeship Council (UNTC) and the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). When defined as "organizations with at least three state parties, a permanent headquarters or secretariat, as well as regular meetings and budgets",

2511-551: 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 ,

2604-524: 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

2697-782: The G7 or the Quartet . Such groups or associations have not been founded by a constituent document and exist only as task groups . Intergovernmental organizations must also be distinguished from treaties. Many treaties (such as the North American Free Trade Agreement , or the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade before the establishment of the World Trade Organization ) do not establish an independent secretariat and instead rely on

2790-672: The International Telecommunication Union and other standards organizations ). Common types include: In regional organizations like the European Union , African Union , NATO , ASEAN and Mercosur , there are restrictions on membership due to factors such as geography or political regimes. To enter the European Union (EU), the states require different criteria; member states need to be European, liberal-democratic political system, and be

2883-688: 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

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2976-409: 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

3069-417: 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

3162-443: 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

3255-657: The French Emperor Napoleon. States then became the main decision makers who preferred to maintain their sovereignty as of 1648 at the Westphalian treaty that closed the 30 Years' War in Europe. The first and oldest international organization—being established employing a treaty, and creating a permanent secretariat, with a global membership—was the International Telecommunication Union (founded in 1865). The first general international organization—addressing

3348-498: 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

3441-448: 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

3534-653: The Philippines, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Venezuela. The U.S. provided about 40% of the IRO's $ 155 million annual budget. The total contribution by the members for the five years of operation was around $ 400 million. It had rehabilitated around 10 million people during this time, out of 15 million people who were stranded in Europe. The IRO's first Director-General was William Hallam Tuck, succeeded by J. Donald Kingsley on 31 July 1949. IRO closed its operations on 31 January 1952 and after

3627-484: 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

3720-716: The UN such as the World Health Organization (which was made up of regional organizations such as PAHO that predated the UN). A few UN special agencies are very centralized in policy and decision-making, but some are decentralized; for example, the country-based projects or missions' directors and managers can decide what they want to do in the fields. The UN agencies have a variety of tasks based on their specialization and their interests. The UN agencies provide different kinds of assistance to low-income countries and middle-income countries, and this assistance would be

3813-640: The United Nations has Specialized Agencies , which are organizations within the United Nations System that have their member states (often nearly identical to the UN Member States ) and are governed independently by them; examples include international organizations that predate the UN, such as the International Telecommunication Union , and the Universal Postal Union , as well as organizations that were created after

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3906-621: The Western allies and the Soviet Union, the IRO only worked in areas controlled by Western armies of occupation. Twenty-six states became members of the IRO and it formally came into existence in 1948: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Republic of China, Chile, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, France, Guatemala, Honduras, Iceland, Italy, Liberia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Peru,

3999-455: 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

4092-420: 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,

4185-494: 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

4278-431: 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

4371-672: 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

4464-584: 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

4557-507: 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

4650-427: 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

4743-683: 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

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4836-497: 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

4929-640: The distinction from international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), which are non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that operate internationally. These include international nonprofit organizations such as the World Organization of the Scout Movement , International Committee of the Red Cross and Médecins Sans Frontières , as well as lobby groups that represent the interests of multinational corporations. IGOs are established by

5022-416: 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

5115-545: 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

5208-647: 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

5301-524: 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

5394-520: 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

5487-469: 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

5580-739: The functions of the earlier United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration . In 1952, operations of the IRO ceased, and it was replaced by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The Constitution of the International Refugee Organization , adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 15 December 1946, is the founding document of the IRO. The constitution specified

5673-551: 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

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5766-530: 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

5859-851: 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

5952-492: 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

6045-425: 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

6138-545: 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

6231-398: The jurisdiction of national courts. Certain privileges and immunities are also specified in the Vienna Convention on the Representation of States in their Relations with International Organizations of a Universal Character of 1975,. which however has so far not been signed by 35 states and is thus not yet in force (status: 2022). Rather than by national jurisdiction, legal accountability

6324-411: The laborers. United Nations Environment Program(UNEP) is one of the UN's (United Nations) agencies and is an international organization that coordinates U.N. activities on the environment. An early prominent example of an international organization is the Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815, which was an international diplomatic conference to reconstitute the European political order after the downfall of

6417-442: 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

6510-779: The number of IGOs in the world increased from about 60 in 1940 to about 350 in 1980, after which it has remained roughly constant. International relations International relations ( IR , and also referred to as international studies , international politics , or international affairs ) 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

6603-411: 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

6696-502: The organization's field of operations. Controversially, the constitution defined "persons of German ethnic origin" who had been expelled, or were to be expelled from their countries of birth into the postwar Germany, as individuals who would "not be the concern of the Organization." This excluded from its purview a group that exceeded in number all the other European displaced persons put together. Also, because of disagreements between

6789-511: The parties for their administration, for example by setting up a joint committee . Other treaties have established an administrative apparatus which was not deemed to have been granted binding legal authority. The broader concept wherein relations among three or more states are organized according to certain principles they hold in common is multilateralism . Intergovernmental organizations differ in function, membership, and membership criteria. They have various goals and scopes, often outlined in

6882-619: The purpose of realizing a common end". He distinguished between bilateral and multilateral organizations on one end and customary or conventional organizations on the other end. In his 1922 book An Introduction to the Study of International Organization , Potter argued that international organization was distinct from " international intercourse " (all relations between states), "international law" (which lacks enforcement) and world government . International Organizations are sometimes referred to as intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), to clarify

6975-409: 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

7068-477: 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

7161-473: 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

7254-407: 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

7347-403: 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

7440-443: 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

7533-419: 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

7626-420: 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

7719-513: 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

7812-530: 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

7905-635: The term "international organization" in a 1871 article in the Revue de Droit International et de Legislation Compare . Lorimer use the term frequently in his two-volume Institutes of the Law of Nations (1883, 1884). Other early uses of the term were by law professor Walther Schucking in works published in 1907, 1908 and 1909, and by political science professor Paul S. Reinsch in 1911. In 1935, Pitman B. Potter defined international organization as "an association or union of nations established or recognized by them for

7998-422: 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

8091-486: 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

8184-801: The treaties that give rise to the organization (such as the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations and the Agreement on the Privileges and Immunities of the International Criminal Court ), which are normally supplemented by further multinational agreements and national regulations (for example the International Organizations Immunities Act in the United States). The organizations are thereby immune from

8277-634: The treaty or charter . Some IGOs developed to fulfill a need for a neutral forum for debate or negotiation to resolve disputes. Others developed to carry out mutual interests with unified aims to preserve peace through conflict resolution and better international relations , promote international cooperation on matters such as environmental protection , to promote human rights , to promote social development (education, health care ), to render humanitarian aid , and to economic development . Some are more general in scope (the United Nations ) while others may have subject-specific missions (such as INTERPOL or

8370-461: 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

8463-493: 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

8556-584: 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

8649-599: 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

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