We live in an uncertain and challenging era where global issues increasingly affect our
local daily lives. Forty years of uneven globalisation has been accompanied by the rise of
corporations, regional and international institutions, and international nongovernmental
agencies. As important influencers of decision-making, these agencies
have both undermined and transformed the nation state's position as the key actor in
world affairs. Despite national, regional and global intergovernmental and
multistakeholder governance efforts, the world remains beset with problems. These
range from transnational terrorism, pandemic disease, human rights atrocities, war,
weapons of mass destruction and global injustices from deep gender inequality to the
dramatic, new and daunting sustainability challenges including of climate change that
existing institutions seem ill-equipped to resolve. How should these challenges be met?
Can states acting alone solve these old and new global problems as the new populist
nationalism appears to believe? Or should regional and international institutions and
new multistakeholder governance organisations play a larger role? How should we
address other important issues such as the world's economic division into the rich,
developed 'North' and the poor, developing 'South'?

Tackling these challenges requires understanding as deeply as we can the strengths and
weaknesses of different explanations for the nature of world affairs. Is it effectively a
struggle for power as IR Realists suggest? Or is it better conceptualised as an
evolutionary process of global rule making that makes peace and universal justice
possible as IR Liberals argue? Is it based on capitalist exploitation by footloose
corporations, a view put forcefully by neo-Marxists? And why do women remain invisible
in IR theory despite ‘holding up half the sky’, a critique made be IR Feminists observe?
Finally, what is the role of IR discourse itself in the production and reproduction of ideas
that shape the way we view the ‘reality’ we purport to study? We will consider these
vital questions in this unit as we examine both conventional and new approaches to
international relations and world politics.

This unit aims to provide students with an introduction to the process, substance, and
changing nature of international relations and world politics, including a basic knowledge
of some key theoretical debates in the field. After completing this unit students will have
a broad understanding of international relations, which will serve as a useful base for the
more advanced international politics units offered by the Program in Politics and
International Relations.