Whether you’re fascinated by global conflicts, how international trade agreements are made or what makes non-governmental organizations work in global development, an international affairs degree will give you the skills and knowledge to turn your curiosity into a meaningful career. This major blends politics, economics, history and culture to explore how nations, groups and people interact internationally.
The study of international relations is a broad field that cuts across the fields of political science, history, sociology, geography, law and business. It examines global issues like diplomacy, foreign policy, human rights, the environment and international conflict.
In the field of international relations, scholars have developed a variety of theories to explain and predict how countries behave in their interactions with other states. The traditional level of analysis is the individual state, which is studied in terms of its form of government, its internal institutions, its foreign policy and its behavior in international politics and diplomacy.
Various schools of thought have developed to explain these interactions, including classical realist theory, neorealist theory, constructivist theory and Marxism. In the aftermath of World War I, President Woodrow Wilson created a new perspective on peace and international relations in his Fourteen Points. He argued that democracies externalize their norms and do not go to war for their own self-interests, and thus are more likely to achieve peace.
Regardless of the specific school of thought, all of these theories are guided by the concept of sovereignty. Originally articulated by Jean Bodin in 1576, the idea of sovereignty asserts that sovereign powers have absolute control over their territory and that this authority cannot be interfered with by other nations or individuals.