International relations is the study of how countries, governments, non-governmental organizations and people interact across borders. The discipline is a subset of political science and also draws from other academic disciplines such as history, economics, law and sociology. Students who study international relations often pursue careers within government, non-governmental organizations such as the United Nations or charities and other non-state actors, or in advocacy for global issues including peace, human rights and the environment.
In this view, states act in self-interest and cooperate only when it serves their interest to do so. Conflict is the norm and international institutions are merely mechanisms to project power and bring coercion to bear on foreign nations. This school of IR is sometimes called realist.
Revisionist states are dissatisfied with the international status quo and seek to change it. They may or may not be able to achieve their goals, but they are usually willing to use force in the process. They tend to be viewed as neo-conservative in the US and libertarian elsewhere.
The military alliance of the US, Canada and 29 European states that provides collective security through its Article 5, which stipulates that an attack on one member is considered an attack on all members. During the Cold War, this was seen as a bulwark against the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact.
The theory that the underlying causes of conflict and cooperation in international relations are more complex than can be captured by traditional analytical frameworks. These include the notion of ‘levels of analysis’, which divides the international system into the domestic state and its inter-state relationships, regional multilateral institutions and the global level of multilateralism. It is also based on the idea that international systems are shaped by anarchic forces that create a natural tendency toward conflict, but that they can be governed by rules and conventions created by the interaction of states and other actors. It is often associated with institutionalism and has a strong emphasis on the use of game theory.
