The study of how states and their citizens interact with one another through politics, diplomacy, trade and other activities across borders. The field uses a variety of theoretical lenses, such as realism and liberalism to examine patterns of state behaviour and global phenomena.
A system of alliances that countries (or international organizations) enter into to pursue common interests. Most alliances are military in nature, though political and economic ones also exist. Some are open and indefinite, such as NATO; others are temporary and based on specific events, such as the coalitions of the willing that fought the 2003 war in Iraq. The term can also be used to describe regional groupings of nations, such as APEC or the African Union.
The first major universal organization, created to avoid a relapse into war after World War I in 1919. Its successor, the UN, was founded after World War II in 1945. Both the League and the UN were based on the principle of collective security, in which all states promise to create international law against aggression and will enforce sanctions—nonmilitary and military—if that law is violated.
A state that is dissatisfied with the existing international order and wants to revise it. For example, Russia and China are revisionist states. A popular overthrow of a government that has wide-reaching effects in the state’s own domestic and regional politics and, potentially, internationally. Examples include the French, Russian and Iranian revolutions. The revolution can also be an exportable phenomenon, as seen in the Arab Spring.
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