The document outlines the evolution, scope, and subject matter of International Relations (IR) as an academic discipline, tracing its origins and development post-World War I. It highlights the significance of nation-states and various actors, their interactions, and the overarching complexities in global affairs, while establishing key pillars of IR, labeled as the '5 As.' Additionally, the document discusses how external factors, historical events, and emerging global challenges shape the practice and study of international relations today.

1. Shahid Hussain Raja
Author/Consultant/Trainer
Cambridge. UK
www.shahidhussainraja.com

2.  Introduction
 What is International Society/System?
 Features of International Society/System
 What are International Relations? What is IR?
 Difference between IR and International Politics
 History of International Relations, and IR
 Scope of IR- 5 As
 Areas of interest in IR
 Conclusion

3.  International relations as a practice of interaction among states, and
among state and non-state actors are thousands of years old
 However, International Relations (IR) as an academic discipline
studying these relations emerged as a specialized field after WW1.
 Like every other academic discipline, International Relations (IR) has
developed its own distinctive subject matter since its emergence
 This presentation explains scope and the subject matter of IR with the
help of its five pillars- Aim, Actors, Agenda, Arena and Actions

4.  'International society' refers to rules, institutions, and shared practices
used for interaction by different groups of political communities
 Developed over 5000 years of interaction, composed of interconnected
but independent sovereign states and non-state actors
 Multiple phases & facets-wars, conquests, conflicts, cooperation finally
led to Westphalian nation-state system in mid 17th CE
 Although it faces a complex range of challenges in the era of
globalization, yet its main features are as follows

5.  Despite emergence of numerous non-state/supra-state actors, nation-
states are still the main actors in international society
 Pursuit of National Interest is the main objective of every nation-state;
territorial integrity, sovereignty, well-being of citizens etc
 Two opposite forces namely conflict & cooperation are the main forms
of interaction among states in international society
 These interactions take place without any global government, yet
mutual self-interest prevents any anarchy in the system

6.  Despite formal equality of all states, it is practically an hierarchical
system consisting of global/regional hegemons, weak states etc
 Consequently, national power of a nation state determines the position
of a nation/ success or failure of its national interest
 Increasing complexity of international system due to emergence of new
actors and cross-borders issues; terrorism, climate change, Covid etc
 Increasing complexity is therefore enhancing the role of supra-state
actors such as UNO/World Bank etc, leading towards World
Government

7.  Internationl Relations more difficult to define than it seems to be.
 There are multiple reasons for this definitional ambiguity
◦ 1. International relations is very broad concept; multiple definitions
◦ 2. Comparatively new concept; constantly evolving
◦ 3. Different perspectives of scholars; six blind men defining elephant!
 Is it International Relations or International Politics? its essence, its scope?
 Are these real issues or just expression of intellectual arrogance?

8.  International Relations (IR) is the study of relations among the states
and non-state actors to achieve their objectives.
 Non-state actors could be supra state such as UNO, IMF, WB etc
 Non-state actors could be violent; terrorist organisations
 Non-state actors could be peaceful; NGOs, MNCs etc
 Scholars study these relations from different perspectives known as
theories-Realism, Structuralism, etc.
 All your analysis/remedies will flow from the perspective you choose.

9.  Inception-Term International Politics used before 1950s while it was
replaced by International Relations afterwards
 Eurocentric-International Politics was used when European writers
dominated the field and focussed on European politics
 Formalistic-International Politics mainly studied inter-state relations
from the official government perspectives; IR deals with all modes
 Scope-International Politics was mainly concerned with political
dynamics of inter-state relations; IR is with totality of relations

10.  Can be traced back to the rise of city-states thousands of years ago
 However, modern between the centuries of roughly 1500 to 1789.
 Rise of the independent, sovereign states, diplomacy and armies.
 Age of exploration,cultural interaction, MNCs, global trade
 The Peace of Westphalia of 1648-development of the modern state
system, sovereignty, sanctity of borders, nationalism
 French Revolution of 1789 further expanded these ideas in Europe
 Colonialism took these ideas outside Europe to Asia/Africa

11.  Before WW1, IR was conducted primarily in two loosely organized
branches of learning: diplomatic history and international law.
 Since WW1, need and importance of studying IR increased due to
 1. Emergence of USA as global power led its universities to study it
 2. WW1 devastation-not enough was known about global issues
 3. Democratisation of public policy policy formulation-global matters
responsibility of all citizens, not only of scholars and diplomats

12.  4. Global popularisation of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson (1913–21)
Fourteen Points-a call for “open covenants of peace, openly arrived at”
 5. Global Recession of 1920s-no nation is an island
 6. New fields of studies in schools, universities were being introduced
 7. Increase in number of educational/ reserch centres, institutes
 8. Ease of international travel led to more interaction among scholars

13.  10. greatr access of scholars to rusuian/german archives to study
 11. Creation of League of Nations- need for global civil sevants
 12. Advent of WW2-what is happening? We heading for another war?
 13. WW2 followed by Cold War anf threat of nuclear war
 14. Rapid globalisationon has increased its importance
 15. Global trends are now affecting everyone, directly or indirectly

14.  Every academic discipline tries to explain some aspect of the world from
different perspectives based on its respective body of literature.
 This body of literature has been built over a period in response to
particular problems or questions emerging relating to its subject matter.
 Study of international relations (IR) has developed its own distinctive
subject matter since it emerged as a specialized field soon after WW1.
 Gradually became multi-disciplinary drawing on other disciplines
especially history, economics, sociology, geography, philosophy, and
law.
 There are five pillars of international relations (remember 5As)- Aim,
Actors, Agenda, Arena and Actions;

15.  Each branch of knowledge aim-studying its respective core elements.
 Economics- what is being produced, how it is being produced, and for
whom it is being produced.
 Political Science-who wields authority to allocate resources to whom &
how.
 Public Administration-who governs whom and how
 Similarly in international relations-who gets what and how in terms of
power, prestige, and resources in global setting

16.  International relations-collective interactions of international
community.
 Not only individual nation-states but also non-state entities
 Intergovernmental organizations-(UNO/ UNICEF/ IMF/ WTO)
 Non-governmental organizations-(Oxfam, Red Cross, etc)
 Multinational corporations-(Microsoft, Google, etc)
 Violent non-state actors, whether nationalists or terrorists

17.  Agenda-what they want to achieve. Throughout history, states have
three objectives under their Agenda (Remember 3Gs)-Gold, God,& Glory.
◦ Gold: pursuit of economic interests-hydrocarbon resources/access to market,
graining foothold of a geostrategic location/denying it to others
◦ God: religious/cultural norms and values you consider superior to others and are
desirous of spreading them I.e., Islam/ Christianity/communism,/liberal
democracy,
◦ Glory: considering yourself superior to others either personal aggrandizements
like Alexander's or hegemonic designs of the ruling elite of a country like the USA
 However, common threats like global warming, nuclear proliferation,
terrorism, etc are common agenda to counter these threats

18.  Place of action where the actors are pursuing their respective agenda
 For a small country, it could be just its immediate neighbourhood
 For a regional power, it could be region, consisting of several states
 Global powers having global agenda, are every country’s neighbours
 It could be a physical location(Middle East), space, or even cyber space.
 Or it could be a metaphysical space-human rights, global warming

19.  Strategies these actors employ to achieve their objectives.
 Diplomatic-open or back-door
 Trade relations-access or denial to markets
 Aid-Economic, military, moral, diplomatic
 Economic sanctions-tariffs, quotas, banning of trade/investment
 Threat of use of force/Actual use of force
 Soft Power-cultural invasion, exchange of artists

20.  1. Nation-states
 2. National Interest
 3. National Power
 4. Foreign Policies
 5. International Economic Relations
 6. Supra-state Actors
 7. Non-state Actors
 8. Concepts and Ideas
 9. Study of Current Issues & Events

21.  Since their inception after the Peace of Westphalia, the nation-states
are the primary actors in international relations.
 Their proliferation after WW1/WW2 has increased their importance
 Each state is conditioned by its geography, resources, population,
national power, ideology, diplomacy, national interest, etc.
 As such, the study of nation-states, their respective objectives, their
weaknesses or strengths, etc., are the starting point of the scope of
IR.

22.  Ambiguous concept defined by states according to the context and
used to achieve the objectives defined under it by different states.
 "What a nation feels to be necessary to its security and wellbeing …
National interest reflects the general and continuing ends for which a
nation acts." Brookings Institute
 National interest determines the shape and scope of external
relations of a country; this affects the direction of global relations.
 Accordingly, the scope of IR includes the study of the objectives
various countries try to achieve under their national interest

23.  Success or failure of a country to achieve the national interest
objectives is dependent upon the extent of its national power
 Thus a superpower will be in a better position to pursue its national
interest agenda than a regional power and so on.
 However, sometime, a weak but strategically located country can play
larger than life role in international relations-case of Afghanistan
 As such, the study of the national power of a country forms an
important part of the subject-matter of International Politics.

24.  Foreign policy is the strategies chosen by a nation-state to safeguard
its national interests by interacting with other state/non-state actors
 In pursuit of these objectives, every state is either cooperating with
other countries or is in conflict with some, setting relations matrix
 Ultimately it is the interplay of these foreign policies and the
strategies which are the stuff of the International Relations
 By studying the foreign policies of various nations, one can
understand the nature of present-day international relations.

25.  The increased importance and role of economic and trade relations in
global affairs can be hardly overestimated.
 Bilateral or multilateral economic relations such as trade, investment,
aid, etc., form a very important part of international relations.
 They are the most important means of influencing the course,
content, and direction of relations among the nation-state of
relations
 Hence the study of economic relations forms an integral part of the
scope of International Relations.

26.  Rapid growth of supra-state actors, international institutions is one
of the most prominent features of post-WW2 international relations.
 They are acting as the institutionalized means for the conduct of
relations among nations, even becoming more powerful than states
 In fact, they are increasingly penetrating those domains which were
henceforth exclusively reserved for the domestic state machinery.
 Thus, the study of these international institutions is an important
subject matter of international relations

27.  Along with the rise of supra-state institutions, there has been a
mushroom growth of two types of non-state actors
 Violent non-state actors; genuine liberation movements or pure
terrorist organizations, very active nationally, globally and regionally
 Non-violent non-state actors; multinational corporations, NGOs, and
other such actors
 Their growing influence have necessitated the inclusion of the study
of the role of these actors in the international system.

28.  While the nation-states, non-state actors, supra-state organizations, etc
constitute the hardware of the study of international relations,
 There are certain concepts and ideas which have been dominating the
study of international relations since its inception; software of IR
 For example, International law, the balance of power, dictatorship,
fascism, capitalism, end of history, public opinion, etc.
 Studying all such concepts and ideas to have a thorough knowledge of
the subject matter of international relations.

29.  Major contemporary issues and events such as wars, disasters, etcs
are the immediate drivers of inter-state relations at any time.
 Similarly, there are long terms trends such as global warming,
pandemics etc needing coordinated action at global level
 These issues and events shape and condition the behaviour of nations
in international relations.
 Consequently, their study is also an important subject matter of IR

30.  Internation Relations(IR) is continuously evolving academic
discipline, changing in scope and subject matter
 However, its five pillars discussed above will remain the same
 There will be additions and adptations in each of these pillars
 Keep yourself well-informed by studying new developments

31.  If you like the presentation , kindly click the icon
 For any question, kindly email me at shahidraja@hotmail.com
 For downloading the presentation or its word version, please visit my
website
www.shahidhussainraja.com
This website contains large number of articles on diverse issues. Some
of these are presented in the next few slides

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