MEANING OF IR:

“IR not only organize study of relations between states but also study of various kinds of groups like nations,
states, people, alliances, regions, international organizations, industrial organizations, religious organizations,
etc” –QUINCY WRIGHT.

International relation (IR) is generally understood as a set of actions, reactions, interactions, and inter-relations
between sovereign nation-states, through the medium of their foreign policies and diplomacy. Thus, in simplest
language, IR is interrelationship among nation states without any super or world Govt. Interactions among
sovereign states are based on their national interests and relative powers & capabilities. They are also guided
somewhat by need for cooperation, interdependence, and other international non state actors.

IR is both a condition- facts of global politics- and field of study- academic discipline. As condition of global
politics, it denotes the actual conducts of States towards each other through diplomacy, cooperation, conflict, and
war among them. As a field of study, IR try to understand and describe actions, interactions and inter-relations of
states and non-state actors, international organizations, etc in global arena to prescribe or suggest appropriate
actions and behaviours on parts of them in interactions with other actors.

NATURE OF IR:
 Multi-Disciplinary, Multi Theoretical: IR as academic discipline is, by its nature, MultiDisciplinary and
Multi Theoretical. Study in IR draws heavily from economics, psychology, sociology, anthropology,
geography, cartography, and many other academic disciplines. Multiple theories and perspectives, such as
realism, liberalism, Marxism, Feminism, post-modernism, etc have enriched the academic discipline of IR.
 State as primary actor: In the field of international politics, State is the sole and unitary
actor. The state has always been a major player in international relations. Despite
growing importance of non-state actors, such as Inter-governmental organization (IGO), International
NGOs (INGOs), MNCs, etc, States or nation-states are main actors in the IR.
 National Interest and power are the core of IR : The protection of national interests is
the main goal of the state. With this goal in mind, the state engages in relations with other states and the
national power of the state will be able to satisfy its national interests. Thus, it is seen that the issues of
national interest and the role of national power in fulfilling those interests are considered as the core of
IR.

 Anarchical World order: No supranational authority or world Govt. over the sovereign nation-state.
Hence, IR is mainly guided by national interest and relative power and capabilities of interacting nation-
states. States having widely varying powers and capabilities adopt several strategies to defend and secure
their interests without help from any superior authority.

 Interaction among states: No state in the present world is self-sufficient. Every state is
dependent on each other. Hence the need for interconnectedness and that is
possible only because of the interaction among different states.

However, in modern times, there has been perceptible change in the nature of IR. Traditionally, world politics
was centered around Europe, but now the Locus shifting from Europe and North America to Asia and 3rd world
countries. There has been an Increasing role of non-state actors, supranational organizations- UN, IMF, World
Bank, WTO, global social movements, etc.
Moreover the Focus is shifting from war, peace and security to interdependence and cooperation, especially in
trade and economy. More and more importance to issues affecting people under any state such as
environmental degradation, climate change, terrorism & violence, hunger & poverty, energy security, pandemic,
human rights, human security etc, has been given.

SCOPE OF IR:
Scope, dimensions, or ranges of issues taken under the fold of IR have been constantly evolving. IR has no
definite boundary, and contemporary IR covers a very broad area of study.

Nation-states and their relations: The operation of the nation-state system and relations among nation-states
have always made international politics possible, and constituted the basic subject-matter of IR. These would
continue to remain the primary area of study in the discipline.
Foreign policies of important powers: Foreign policies of major powers constitute important subject-matter of
IR because these powers are the driving force in international relations. In contemporary IR, analyses of foreign
policies of the US, China, Russia, Japan and India may be useful as these states have become major actors in
recent times.
Study of non-state actors and issues: The content of international relations does not revolve only around the
activities of the state and its formal institutions. There are many non-state actors whose activities affect
international relations, for eg. global civil societies, INGOs, global social movements, global resistance, and social
phenomenon such as human rights, pandemic, environmental issues, climate change, terrorism, migration,
refugee, human rights, human security, poverty and hunger, etc.

Int. org. and third world: Study of International organizations in fields of politics, trade, economy, cultural,
education, religion, regulation, movements, as people from various countries are involved in these. The role of
the third world in world politics is also the relevant point of discussion in international relations.

International political economy (IPE): International political economy is the study of international relations with
the help of economic activities and analyses. With the onset of globalization from the mid-1980s, a renewed
interest in IPE has developed among scholars.

Area studies: Sometimes it becomes rather difficult to study international political, security, or economic issues
from a broader perspective. So area studies have become popular nowadays. Under it, such issues concerning
different areas of the world are taken up separately for analysis. For instance, West Asia, South Asia or Central
Europe

Contemporary international relations embrace the whole gamut of diplomatic history, international politics,
international organization, international law and area studies aimed at understanding and solving problems and
conflicts of shared global communities separated by boundaries of nation-states.

CONCLUSION:

Thus, there has been a considerable sift in both the nature and scope of IR in recent times. As a field of study or
academic discipline, it has become much broader in its scope, multi-disciplinary, multi theoretical, including
multiple issues both pertaining to state as well as the people living under any state anywhere in the world. Even
the people and community without a state, indigenous communities, marginalized people, etc are also
undertaken for study under the IR in contemporary times.