The document discusses the evolution and significance of international relations (IR), emphasizing the shift from regional to global interactions influenced by technological advancements. It examines different definitions and scopes of IR, highlighting debates among scholars about its broader and narrower perspectives. The text concludes by suggesting that while IR encompasses various aspects of state and non-state relationships, it remains an evolving field that intersects with other disciplines, lacking a coherent body of knowledge.

1. IR-meaning, nature and
importance
Hakim Afridi university of haripur

2. Importance
 The world has become a global village
due to technological advances
 Therefore, an event in one part of the
world has an immediate effect on the
other part
 All the states in the world are now under
compulsion to interact with each other

3. Importance
 International relations existed since long
among different states like Egypt, Greece
and china but they were based on morality
and were not scrupulously observed
 These earlier relations were among the
neighbors and they may precisely be called
“ regional relations”. It was only in
seventeen century that the states
established relations beyond their regions

4. Importance
 The improvement in the means of
communications, and the industrial revolution
further brought the states together
 At this time the study of IR was mainly
concerned with the study of diplomacy, law
and philosophy
 Today the relations among the states are
interdependence, and IR enables us to
understand the motives of individual states
and problems faced by the world

5. Importance
 IR teaches us that peace could only be
achieved if the world actors subjectively
solve the problems faced by the world
politics like excessive nationalism and
narrow national interest
 Modern theory of IR demonstrates that
the traditional concept of sovereignty
has become outdated and needs
modification

6. Meaning of IR
 The term “international” was for the first
time used by Jeremy Bentham in the
later part of eighteen century
 Consequently, the term IR was defined
as officials relations between the
sovereign states. However some
scholars include economic, social and
cultural relations in it

7. Meaning of IR
 There are two views regarding the meaning of IR, one is
Broader and the other narrow
 Those who take narrow view assert IR include only “the
official relations conducted by the authorized leaders of
the state”
 To them relations like trade, financial interaction,
missionary activities, travel of students and cultural
relations do not fall in the domain of IR
 Professor Dunn takes a narrower view and define IR as
“the actual relations that take place across national
boundaries or as the body of knowledge which we have of
those relations at any given time”

8. Meaning of IR
 Those who take broader view of IR include,
apart from official relations, all other relations
among the states like movement of people,
goods an ideas
 Quincy wright says “it is not only the nation
which international relations seek to regulate.
Varied types of groups-nations, states,
governments, people, regions, alliances,
confederations, international organizations,
even industrial organizations, cultural
organizations shall be dealt within the study of
IR”

9. Meaning of IR
 Professor Hoffmann says “ international
relations is concerned with the factors and
the activities which affect the external
policies and the powers of basic units into
which the world is divided”
 It comes from the above that international
relations is not only concerned with official
relations among the states but it also
covers the all those factors and
organizations which affect the external
relations of a nation

10. IR and international politics
 Scholars of international relations have
ignored the distinction between IR and
International politics and they consider
them as identical
 E.H Carr, Quincy Wright treated the two as
identical. However some writers have tried
to draw a distinctions between the two. To
them IR is the totality of relations and
therefore a wider term which includes
politics, war, diplomacy, economy and even
culture

11. IR and international politics
 On the other hand International politics is concerned
with diplomacy and the relations among states and
other political units
 International politics include only those aspects of IR
in which conflict of purpose or interest is involved
 In its broadest sense IR is comprised myriads of
contacts among the states, people, organizations
and groups however all these relations are regulated
by the governments of the states and in this sense
IR and international relations become identical

12. Scope of IR
 In modern world the scope of IR has greatly
expanded. Initially it was the study of diplomacy.
Later on international law became the subject matter
of IR. It became more wider with the establishment
of league of nations and the study of international
organizations was also included in IR
 The scope of IR expanded during the second world
war with emergence of USA and USSR as super
power, the multiplications of nation states, the
danger of thermo-nuclear war, increasing
interdependence of states and rising expectations in
the people of the underdeveloped world

13. Scope of IR
 Greater emphasis was made on the scientific study
of IR which developed methodologies and
introduction of new theories
 Today IR includes the study of behavior of political
actors and groups and it has an extensive scope
 On the other hand the writers seem divided on the
scope of IR and as Alfred Zimmern says that IR is
not a discipline but a combination of History and
political science. It is heavily dependent on other
disciplines and has so far failed to develop a
coherent body of knowledge

14. Scope of IR
 According to Organski “as a science, IR
today is in its infancy, it is still less a
science than a mixture of philosophy
and history and its theories are
shockingly unstable”