International Relations

What is/are international relations?

IR stands for international relations and has two definitions. IR means the segment of political science that pays attention to the nature of relationships between countries ("states") and interactions that show up between ("inter") states (national") in the international system. These states come with preferences and our desire is to try and understand where those interests come from and what they'll do in the international system. There are also various interactions within IR (e.g., economic exchanges like trades or the new USMCA negotiated trade agreement, military in nature or war which is a common topic of interest in IR, etc.). Lastly, there are institutions created with IR which are formal (e.g., the United Nations) and informal (norms, soft laws, etc.) in nature. These are behaviors that are expected from these countries but rigorously organized in the international system. Leaders interact on the behalf of countries a lot.

what are the causes and consequences of conflict and cooperation between countries?

Countries can get along or (too often) not get along. A great example of conflict between countries are the trade wars between the USA and China that got worse for an entire year after 2017. After all, they are competing economic powers which means they want to have an advantage against each other and this can escalate into a war. There are classic theories about economics tell us that when 2 countries are trading freely with each other, they both benefit. So, why do these 2 countries come into conflict often over trading relations?

Can countries be constrained by one another or by the international community?

Many other theories tells us that countries, if led to their own devices, will inescapably fall into conflict with one another because they don't trust each other with the deals they make. So, rather, they'll use their military resources to resolve their conflicts. An example of countries being constrained by one another or by the international community is the immensely famous meeting from the final few months of the Second World War at the Yalta recently in Ukraine, also known as the Yalta Conference (February 1945); the leaders of the U.S., the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom came together to aim at reaching an agreement about 2 important elements. The first element was how to bring a close to the tremendously deadly Second World War that was raging then for more than 5 years. Their initial task was to agree on how their going to come together to continue their joint operations to defeat Hitler's Nazi Germany. The second batch of decisions they made was about a postwar environment; coming together about how to divide the so-called spoils of an unavoidable victory over Germany at this point.

As some may not know, including me, the USA didn't rely on what they agreed on at the Yalta Conference in 1945. Rather, they designed an entire architecture in the international system that could constrain and define behaviors around political issues, economic issues, etc. like the Bretton Woods Institutions (the early precursors of the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization). We can then think about the founding of the United Nations or big institutional structures that states put in place to aim for constraining behaviors and prevent those kinds of meetings from becoming inescapable in the future.

under what conditions can the international community act collectively?

Two most common existential crisis we face as a common race on the international system are the environmental and refugee crisis. Former General Secretary of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon for South Korea, presented the United Nation's vision of hope after the signing of the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015 that came at the end of 20 or 30 years of a lot of negotiations in an attempt to identify the basic principles on where countries can band together to strive to reduce their carbon emissions and hopefully (at some point) revers some of the human-originated issues relative to climate change. The solution to this is only collective action.

An example of the refugee crisis is where hundreds of refugees crammed in a boat crossing the Mediterranean Sea assumingly from Libia heading towards Italy. Over the last few years, there has been an increase of refugees in the international system. Consequently, there's been a destruction of the existing structures in the international system created to cope with refugee problems and other problems around the world. In 1951, looking back on the horrors and humanitarian crises of the Second World War, the international community came together to build a new institution for reaching some agreement for housing refugees. Back then, there were millions of people who fled the Nazi regime and Europe for a better life. What was happening was states recognizing a common commitment and interest in finding longer-term solutions for these now forced migrants. This problem has occurred repeatedly without the same international protections. For instance, we have more refugees now than at any time recorded in history that are looking for permanent and durable solutions. We also have little to no countries willing to provide those solutions.

● common international relations topics

● wars between countries

● Civil wars and terrorism

● Trade and capital flows

● Poverty and development

● Human rights and security

● International laws and norms