12.1 What Is International Relations?
States, Anarchy, & the International System
Political science studies power within societies.
International relations studies power between societies.
More specifically, international relations (often abbreviated IR) is the study of how states, international organizations, non-state actors, and other participants interact with one another across national borders.
International relations examines questions such as:
- Why do countries cooperate?
- Why do countries go to war?
- How do alliances form?
- Why do some states become powerful while others remain weak?
- How do trade, diplomacy, and international organizations influence global politics?
- How do terrorism, cyberattacks, multinational corporations, and global movements affect world affairs?
At its core, international relations is the study of how political actors pursue their interests in a world where no single authority governs everyone.
The International System
To understand international relations, we must first understand the international system.
An international system is the collection of states and other actors that interact with one another on a global scale.
Today, the international system includes nearly two hundred sovereign states, along with international organizations, multinational corporations, religious movements, terrorist groups, advocacy organizations, and countless other actors. These participants constantly interact through diplomacy, trade, alliances, competition, conflict, migration, information exchange, and cultural influence.
Unlike domestic politics, however, the international system has no single government that rules over all participants. This leads us to one of the most important concepts in international relations: anarchy.
Anarchy in International Relations
When most people hear the word anarchy, they think of chaos, disorder, or the absence of rules.
In international relations, anarchy simply means that there is no higher political authority above sovereign states.
Within a country, governments can create laws, enforce rules, settle disputes, and punish those who violate the law.
At the international level, no world government possesses this kind of authority over all states. Organizations such as the United Nations may encourage cooperation, facilitate negotiations, or establish international norms, but they generally cannot force sovereign states to obey in the same way a government can enforce laws within its own territory.
As a result, states operate in a system where they are ultimately responsible for their own security and survival. This does not mean that the international system is lawless. Countries create treaties, trade agreements, alliances, and international organizations.
Because there is no higher authority responsible for protecting states, international relations is often described as a self-help system. States must ultimately rely on their own capabilities, alliances, and strategies to ensure their security and survival.
Many states voluntarily follow international law and cooperate with one another. However, because there is no supreme authority above states, participation in these arrangements ultimately depends on the willingness of states themselves. This reality has shaped much of international political thought.
States as the Primary Actors
Although many different actors participate in international politics, states have traditionally been viewed as the most important actors in the international system.
A state possesses territory, a population, a government, and sovereignty.
As we saw in Module 4, sovereignty means that a state possesses final authority over its own territory and political affairs and is not legally subordinate to another state.
Because states control military forces, negotiate treaties, regulate trade, collect taxes, and exercise political authority, they remain the central units of analysis for much of international relations.
States pursue many different goals. Some seek security from external threats. Others seek economic prosperity, political influence, territorial expansion, ideological goals, or international prestige. These goals sometimes lead states to cooperate and sometimes lead them into conflict.
Understanding why states behave the way they do is one of the central challenges of international relations.
Cooperation and Conflict
One of the most interesting features of the international system is that cooperation and conflict exist side by side.
States often compete for power, influence, resources, territory, and strategic advantage. At the same time, they also cooperate through trade agreements, diplomatic negotiations, international organizations, scientific partnerships, and security alliances.
Countries that disagree on some issues may still cooperate on others. For example, two states may compete economically while also cooperating on counterterrorism, environmental protection, or public health.
International relations seeks to understand why cooperation sometimes succeeds, why conflict sometimes emerges, and what conditions make peace or war more likely.
Why International Relations Matters
International relations affects nearly every aspect of modern life.
- Trade influences the prices of goods.
- Diplomacy affects international travel.
- Wars influence global security and migration.
- International organizations shape health, development, and environmental policy.
- Cyberattacks can target governments, businesses, and critical infrastructure across national borders.
- Events occurring on the other side of the world can influence economies, politics, and daily life thousands of miles away.
Because the modern world is deeply interconnected, understanding international relations helps us understand many of the opportunities and challenges facing societies today.
International relations begins with a simple observation: states exist in a world without a world government, yet they must still find ways to survive, cooperate, compete, and pursue their interests.
Political scientists have developed several major theories to explain how states behave under these conditions.
In section 12.2, we will examine the first and most influential of these theories: realism.