ir meaningnatureandimportance

7/25/2019 Ir Meaningnatureandimportance

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IR-meaning, nature andimportance

Hakim Afridi university of haripur


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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


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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


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Importance

The improvement in the means of

communications, and the industrial revolution

further brought the states together

At this time the study of I# was mainly concerned

with the study of diplomacy, law and philosophy

Today the relations among the states areinterdependence, and I# enables us to

understand the motives of individual states and

problems faced by the world


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Importance

I# teaches us that peace could only be

achieved if the world actors sub$ectively

solve the problems faced by the world

politics like excessive nationalism andnarrow national interest

%odern theory of I# demonstrates thatthe traditional concept of sovereignty has

become outdated and needs modification


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Meaning of IR

The term international! was for the first

time used by &eremy 'entham in the

later part of eighteen century

(onse)uently, the term I# was defined

as officials relations between the

sovereign states" However somescholars include economic, social and

cultural relations in it


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Meaning of IR

There are two views regarding the meaning of I#, one is 'roader

and the other narrow

Those who take narrow view assert I# include only the official

relations conducted by the authori*ed 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 I#

+rofessor unn takes a narrower view and define I# 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!


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Meaning of IR

Those who take broader view of I# include, apart

from official relations, all other relations among the

states like movement of people, goods an ideas

-uincy wright says it is not only the nation which

international relations seek to regulate" .aried

types of groups/nations, states, governments,

people, regions, alliances, confederations,

international organi*ations, even industrialorgani*ations, cultural organi*ations shall be dealt

within the study of I#!


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Meaning of IR

+rofessor 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 officialrelations among the states but it also covers the

all those factors and organi*ations which affect

the external relations of a nation


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IR and internationalpolitics 0cholars of international relations have ignored

the distinction between I# and International

politics and they consider them as identical

E"H (arr, -uincy 1right treated the two as

identical" However some writers have tried to

draw a distinctions between the two" To them

I# is the totality of relations and therefore awider term which includes politics, war,

diplomacy, economy and even culture


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IR and internationalpolitics 2n 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 I#

in which conflict of purpose or interest is involved

In its broadest sense I# is comprised myriads of

contacts among the states, people, organi*ations andgroups however all these relations are regulated by

the governments of the states and in this sense I#

and international relations become identical


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Scope of IR

In modern world the scope of I# has greatly expanded"

Initially it was the study of diplomacy" 3ater on

international law became the sub$ect matter of I#" It

became more wider with the establishment of league of

nations and the study of international organi*ations wasalso included in I#

The scope of I# expanded during the second world war

with emergence of 40A and 400# 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


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Scope of IR

Greater emphasis was made on the scientific study of I#

which developed methodologies and introduction of new

theories

Today I# includes the study of behavior of political actorsand groups and it has an extensive scope

2n the other hand the writers seem divided on the scope

of I# and as Alfred 5immern says that I# 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


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Scope of IR

According to 2rganski as a science, I#

today is in its infancy, it is still less a

science than a mixture of philosophy

and history and its theories areshockingly unstable!

ir meaningnatureandimportance

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