International Relations: A Very Short Introduction

Description

International relations affects everyone's lives: their security, economic well-being, rights and freedoms, and the environment they share. This book explores international relations' central concerns with the changing way that political authority is organized globally, and provides the theoretical tools to understand the dynamics of the field.

• Presents a new perspective on the nature of international relations, as more than just external relations between sovereign states
• Provides the tools for thinking about large scale historical changes in international relations, particularly the transformation from a world of empires to a world of sovereign states
• Demystifies theory, and treats it as an essential tool of analysis
• Part of the Very Short Introductions series - over ten million copies sold worldwide

About the Author(s)

Christian Reus-Smit, Professor of International Relations, University of Queensland

Christian Reus-Smit is Professor of International Relations at the University of Queensland and a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. Among his previous books, he is the author of On Cultural Diversity (Cambridge University Press, 2018), Individual Rights and the Making of the International System (Cambridge University Press, 2013), American Power and World Order (Polity Press, 2004), and The Moral Purpose of the State (Princeton University Press, 1999).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
List of illustrations
List of maps
List of figures
1:What is international relations?
2:The global organization of political authority
3:Theory is your friend
4:War
5:Economy
6:Rights
7:Culture
8:Conclusion
References
Further reading
Glossary
Index

Reviews

"International Relations is an excellent addition to the list of Oxford's of very short introductions. It would be a good primer for undergraduates and the core curriculum." - Arab Studies Quarterly