Introduction and Scope of International Relations

    International relation is the study of foreign affairs and relations among states within the international system. It includes the roles of states, inter-governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, and multinational corporations as well as regional organizations such as SAARC, ASEAN, EU, etc.

    International relation is the study of the interaction of nation-states and non-governmental organizations in fields such as politics, economics, and security. According to some scholars, ‘international relations’ can be used synonymously with ‘international affairs’ as it embraces all kinds of relations traversing state boundaries regardless of whether they are of economic, legal, political, or any other character and, of course, whether they are private or public.

    ‘International relation’ is a term that properly embraces the totality of the relations among peoples and groups in the world society. Its disciplines deal with the factors and activities which affect the external policies and the powers of the basic units into which the world is divided, and these include a wide variety of transitional relationships, political and non-political, formal and informal, official and unofficial.

    Not a single nation-state is self-sufficient in all aspects of human needs. Every state is either strategically or structurally dependent on some other nation or group of nations. Due to this inevitable dependence, states have the compulsion to establish a kind of network between and among them. It is primarily to protect their national interests. This relation which is political in nature is known as international relation.

    Scope of International Relations

    The discipline of international relations has no definite boundary. Some of the most important scopes international relation covers are as follow:

      • Nation-states and their relations
      • Non-state actors
      • International political economy
      • International security
      • Foreign policies of important powers
      • Globalization
      • International terrorism
      • International environment
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