Concepts of International Relations - Study Guide
Unit 1 and 2 - Intro to International Relations
a) Definition
● Juan Carlos Pereira: "scientific and global study of the historical relations that have developed
between people, in states and in supranational collectives within international society."
● Robert Frank: "set of relationship that human beings and groups establish with each other
across borders"
● David Gómez: "set of links and interactions that are established between actors such as states,
intergovernmental organizations, NGO's or transnational companies' ' Furthermore, these
interactions can be political, economical, geographical, legal and cultural. As is also known as
the academic discipline that since the inter-war period has studied these interconnections,
and which is influenced by other fields such as politics, history, law and economics.
IR was developed after WWI as a consequence of the changes that were occurring in several
dimensions:
- Technological developments
- Influence of social movements
- Heterogenous International Society
- Horrors of WWI
- Responsibility of the great powers
- Other International actors
- Cooperation
- Domestic policy vs international policy
b) Method of Analysis
Three ideas to be highlighted concerning the analysis of international relations
Multiple domestic and international factors whose impact must be assessed and prioritized according
to the chosen problem (multi- causality)
● Consider the structure of the international system, its rules, or the power and room for
maneuver of each state within the system
● Multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary = incorporate concerts ad approaches from other
social sciences
● Methodological Nationalism versus Cosmopolitanism (Ulrich Beck)
c) Contemporary IR
, Dissatisfaction with the current situation in which a rossroad of methodological paths marked by
encounters and above all lack of explanatory power and misunderstanding between the different
national schools converge.
According to Robert Frank:
- Historians who are internationalists in their field of study are not necessarily internationalists
in their way of writing history
- The modes of epistemological and methodological reflection are closely linked to the specific
intellectual contexts of each country
- Despite interconnections and reciprocal influence , "IR historiographies are inscribed in
national traditions"
This defines the possibility of different methodological approaches to both the discipline and the
field/object of study.
Methodology based on a traditional formula:
- Diplomatic history and its variants, which have never ceased to be nurtured
- National perspective
Its advantages and limitations are well known:
- The old descriptive history of negotiations between two governments, representatives of
national interests (from the “horizon of chancelleries”) has been superseded, at the same pace
as political history in general has been renewed. The historian continues to account for
international phenomena by describing and narrating what constitutes their raw material, the
events, and trying to explain their causes.
Quest for new objects of study:
● Objective: to overcome the narrow framework of the nation-state and methodological
nationalism prevailing in much of the social sciences.
● Problem: loss of identity as a discipline, the concept of the history of international relations is
emptied, since the object of study is that which transcends the notion of the nation-state but
also of the nation..
● Results: new forms of historicising closer to:
○ Transnational history: regional level, relations between non-state actors.
○ History of Globalization
○ Global History:
■ Eurocentrism: world history versus the notion of colonial or postcolonial
history
■ Origins of American historiography: great influence on German and Central
European history
According to Kepa Suduepe, we can distinguish four successive debates:
1. The idealism-realism debate:
Unit 1 and 2 - Intro to International Relations
a) Definition
● Juan Carlos Pereira: "scientific and global study of the historical relations that have developed
between people, in states and in supranational collectives within international society."
● Robert Frank: "set of relationship that human beings and groups establish with each other
across borders"
● David Gómez: "set of links and interactions that are established between actors such as states,
intergovernmental organizations, NGO's or transnational companies' ' Furthermore, these
interactions can be political, economical, geographical, legal and cultural. As is also known as
the academic discipline that since the inter-war period has studied these interconnections,
and which is influenced by other fields such as politics, history, law and economics.
IR was developed after WWI as a consequence of the changes that were occurring in several
dimensions:
- Technological developments
- Influence of social movements
- Heterogenous International Society
- Horrors of WWI
- Responsibility of the great powers
- Other International actors
- Cooperation
- Domestic policy vs international policy
b) Method of Analysis
Three ideas to be highlighted concerning the analysis of international relations
Multiple domestic and international factors whose impact must be assessed and prioritized according
to the chosen problem (multi- causality)
● Consider the structure of the international system, its rules, or the power and room for
maneuver of each state within the system
● Multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary = incorporate concerts ad approaches from other
social sciences
● Methodological Nationalism versus Cosmopolitanism (Ulrich Beck)
c) Contemporary IR
, Dissatisfaction with the current situation in which a rossroad of methodological paths marked by
encounters and above all lack of explanatory power and misunderstanding between the different
national schools converge.
According to Robert Frank:
- Historians who are internationalists in their field of study are not necessarily internationalists
in their way of writing history
- The modes of epistemological and methodological reflection are closely linked to the specific
intellectual contexts of each country
- Despite interconnections and reciprocal influence , "IR historiographies are inscribed in
national traditions"
This defines the possibility of different methodological approaches to both the discipline and the
field/object of study.
Methodology based on a traditional formula:
- Diplomatic history and its variants, which have never ceased to be nurtured
- National perspective
Its advantages and limitations are well known:
- The old descriptive history of negotiations between two governments, representatives of
national interests (from the “horizon of chancelleries”) has been superseded, at the same pace
as political history in general has been renewed. The historian continues to account for
international phenomena by describing and narrating what constitutes their raw material, the
events, and trying to explain their causes.
Quest for new objects of study:
● Objective: to overcome the narrow framework of the nation-state and methodological
nationalism prevailing in much of the social sciences.
● Problem: loss of identity as a discipline, the concept of the history of international relations is
emptied, since the object of study is that which transcends the notion of the nation-state but
also of the nation..
● Results: new forms of historicising closer to:
○ Transnational history: regional level, relations between non-state actors.
○ History of Globalization
○ Global History:
■ Eurocentrism: world history versus the notion of colonial or postcolonial
history
■ Origins of American historiography: great influence on German and Central
European history
According to Kepa Suduepe, we can distinguish four successive debates:
1. The idealism-realism debate:
