2 Analysing International Relations

To analyse IR effectively, it is important to understand and consider the various actors and issues involved and the debates they give rise to. They form the foundation for understanding how the global system works. In the next three sub-sections you can gain a basic understanding of these considerations. As you will see in sub-section 1, actors, ranging from states and international organisations to corporations and individuals, shape and drive interactions worldwide. Then, in sub-section 2, you can learn about ‘issues’, which are the main topics that actors engage with. For example, issues such as security, human rights, economics and the environment, are global challenges that impact societies, and different actors need to interact in order to deal with these. Finally, debates/perspectives offer different angles to understand motivations, conflicts, and potential cooperation among actors. These considerations – actors, issues and debates – can be a valuable tool to help in organising your knowledge about, and enquiries into, IR.

Figure 2 Actors, issues and debates.

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This diagram illustrates how international relations will be studied in the context of this course. It features a row of three boxes above a centred circle labelled ‘International Relations’. Each of the boxes is connected to the circle by a downward-pointing arrow. In the box on the left is the heading ‘Actors’ above the following bullet-point list: ‘States; International organisations; NGOs; Businesses’. In the middle box is the heading ‘Issues’ above the following list: ‘War and Peace; Economy; Human rights, environment’. In the box on the right is the heading ‘Debates’ above the following list: ‘Different sides in debates; Theories and traditions of thought’.

Figure 2 Actors, issues and debates.