How do you define the concept of " international relations" today?

Question

How do you define the concept of " international relations" today?

Answer 1

International relations, a branch of political science, is the study of foreign affairs and global issues among states within the international system, including the roles of states, inter-governmental organizations (IGOs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and multinational corporations (MNCs). It is both an academic and public policy field, and can be either positive or normative as it both seeks to analyze as well as formulate the foreign policy of particular states.

Apart from political science, IR draws upon such diverse fields as economics, history, law, philosophy, geography, sociology, anthropology, psychology, and cultural studies. It involves a diverse range of issues, from globalization and its impacts on societies and state sovereignty to ecological sustainability, nuclear proliferation, nationalism, economic development, terrorism, organized crime, human security, and human rights.

Answer 2

International relations is defined as a broad term of political science.  In the past, international relations were strictly prohibited to just to states (countries).  The bulk of this theory of state relations began with the Treaty of Westphalia and continued roughly until the end of WWII.  Once WWII ended, the international system began to see a change in the way the power landscape existed.  No longer is international relations bound to just states, but also international organizations such as NGOs (Greenpeace, HRW, CARE Int.) and IGOs (UN, EU, NATO), important international actors and heads of state (President Bush[?], Bill Gates, Warren Buffet), terrorist organizations, all of these types of players now are considered to be involved in international relations.  Today, the idea of international relations is the relationships and discourse between two or more key players of the international system.  There are a multitude of examples, the US and China fighting over the lead content of toys, the EU deciding if Turkey should be a member, UN relief efforts in Darfur, any of these could be considered some form of international relations.

Answer 3

It is the same as in the 19th and 20th centuries. It's called Realpolitik (a German word).

Answer 4

Tom Cruise inverted giving a Russian the finger..