Politics
International Relations
Analysis of Theories
The field of international relations is based on many competing and complementary theories. These include realism, liberalism, constructivism, dependency theory, Marxism, etc. The theories are many; the field is expansive. What international relations seek to do is both formulate and analyze international politics, and work concomitantly with world governments, non-governmental organizations, and multi-national corporations. Due to the nature of work in these global affairs, several of the theories mentioned above are utilized to explain various phenomena. This paper will thus focus on a few questions as they relate to international relations and, specifically, to the theories which it employs.
To begin, one must understand that the field of international politics can be segmented into various categories, or levels of analysis. The most famous of these categories are Kenneth Waltz' groups, which include explanations of politics as being driven by individuals, by psychology, by states, by what Waltz calls systemic factors, and (or) by anarchy. Levels of analysis are important in international relations because they examine state behavior. Often, scholars will employ four levels of analysis (system level, state level, organizational level and individual level) to study state systems, make predictions as to how states will act, and thus drive foreign policy. [1: All information from: http://www.people.vcu.edu/~wnewmann/468theory.htm]
Due to the fact that international relations are impacted by such different, yet strong forces every moment of every day, Waltz' groups are helpful to scholars, which as seen, use quite a few of them. The theories that explain such chaotic activity are helpful as well. Most of the theories mentioned above do take into account various levels of analysis and most actually pertain to a specific level out of the four above. This is most likely why these theories have become famous and useful. A "good theory" must therefore take into account all the specifics of the level for which it acts, and all...
International Relations Theory and United Nations Peace: International Relations (IR) field normally focuses on the study of how various state systems can be made to work more efficiently to improve the power of law, maintain order, manage interstate affairs peacefully, and lessen prospects of war. The word relation in this field is used to denote the inclusion of more than political affairs to aspects like conflict and peace. International relations field
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The correlation between cooperative initiation and receptive tendencies, however, is much weaker" (p. 32). The overriding theme that emerges from all of the foregoing analytical models is the fact that although international conflicts and be effectively modeled and deconstructed in order to gain a better understanding of the precipitating factors and how they play out in real-world settings, they do not necessarily provide the insights needed to develop resolutions to
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