ATS1873 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Peace Dividend, Core Countries, Pew Research Center
Document Summary
International relations is the study of international relations. Structure: states, international organisations, non-state actors, multinational corporations, civil society groups, individuals, etc. And the events that shape their behaviour and interactions. It is an effort to create theoretical understandings of past events and to (tentatively) predict future trends. Begin with premise that the world as we know it is ahistorical. It came to be as a result of very specific history (module 1) The various histories and understandings of these histories form the basis of the main theories of ir that we will explore in module 2. Realism and neo-realism (act out of self-interest, prevalent on global stage, states operate in a state of anarchy) Marxism and neo-marxism (global capitalist super structure, periphery. Having an understanding of the history of the contemporary international order and the main ways of understanding it will allow you to critically engage with understanding the behaviour and importance of the actors involved module 3.
