Introduction
International relations is a field of study that focuses on understanding the relationships between different nations and cultures that impact politics, economics, and international governments. The comprehension of these processes allows scientists to evaluate the strategies, predetermine the outcomes, and uncover possible behavior patterns that can help guide organizational or governmental decisions. I firmly believe that international relations study is extremely valuable and helpful to determine where and how society shifts and takes responsible decisions.
International Relations Professionals
International relations have affected all the spheres of people’s lives, from gas prices to the presidential elections. It greatly affected the societal structure from Greek philosophers’ governmental studies to the World War II strategical alliances (Viotti and Kauppi 31). In modern days, international relations professionals remain instrumental in the governmental or organizational structure. They can adequately assess the risk of a particular social situation like terrorism or revolutions to resolve the issue most responsibly in the government. The international relations professionals in multi-national organizations allow the SEOs to make sense of forces that drive social and economic changes to make a difference in the public or private sector. Finally, they also possess the crucial critical reasoning skills to consider socially relevant cases with a global perspective in think tanks. These application spheres create a way for society to function responsibly by acknowledging societal behavior’s theoretical basis.
International Relations Theories
Different approaches towards the patterns of social behavior from a historical perspective flourished in various critical theories. The different theoretical perceptions of international relations allow scientists to categorize sets of ideas to determine society’s structure on the individual, state, and international levels. The main theories in international relations are neorealism, liberalism, imperialism, and capitalism. The ideas of capitalism and imperialism interrelated in a single argument by Lenin stating that imperialism is the highest stage of capitalism was a little too radical to me. Even though the idea of financial capital, labor, and resource exploitation to sustain colonies in imperialism is an accurate description of the theory, I still regard capitalism as a positive force developing the market (Lenin 110). Instead, Lenin used the inverted definition of capitalism to build his political structure of communism. Considering the unsuccessful history of communism and Lenin’s rationales, the theory of the highest stage of capitalism only weakened his theory’s value.
The neorealist approach of recognizing the condition of international anarchy as the driving element that affects state behavior also did not strengthen my perception of the theory. Schweller’s theory of the security dilemma implied the constant state of anarchy when the security of the state is the primary focus presents the world to be a little more chaotic than it is (Schweller 91). On the other hand, the liberal theory of the international institutions shaping the state behavior to reach collective agreements appeared the most balanced theory, in my opinion. The basic liberal principles and institutions described in Viotti and Kauppi’s work strengthened the value of liberal internationalism with strong ethics and high regard for democracy (Viotti and Kauppi 1434).
In the end, International Relations proved to be helpful in at least evaluating the current state of the political condition in the country and the world, if not determining a step-by-step development of these processes. None of the social studies can give a 100% accuracy of the predictions since people are not always predictable and perfect. However, the attempt to analyze and determine the possible effects of a social change in a specific situation gives a broader variety of tools to work in politics.
Works Cited
Doyle, Michael, and Stefano Recchia. “Liberalism in international relations.” International Encyclopedia of Political Science, 2011.
Lenin, Vladimir I. “Selections from Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism.” Mingst & Snyder, 1939.
Schweller, Randall L. “Neorealism’s status‐quo bias: What security dilemma?” Security Studies, vol. 5, no. 3, 1996, pp. 90-121.
Viotti, Paul R., and Mark V. Kauppi. International relations theory. Rowman & Littlefield, 2019.