First of all, thank you for choosing this book. This book contains an introduction to available approaches and theories in studying international relations. The content also includes details about different schools of thought in IR. International Relations is an emerging and essential area of study in Political Sciences.
The study of international relations in our time is an introduction to the art and science of the survival of mankind. If civilization is killed in the nearest future, it will not be killed by famine or plague, but by foreign policy and international relations. Due to increasing human-activities, the relations among various states has been changing and due to these continuous changes in international relations, the meaning, nature and scope of international relations have been changing. Many factors affect the nature of international relations such as the evolution of new nations, technological development, nuclear research, the rise of a multipolar world, the emergence of a new order, non-state organizations, global problems, so and so forth. Due to changing nature of international relations, new approaches and theories are continuously replacing the old ones. So, it is necessary to have a clear idea of the approaches and theories involved in the study of IR.
This is an introductory book and it is based on the handouts that we prepared as course material to facilitate our students in IR class. We hope this collection will help the reader to understand the basic theories and philosophical aspects of the study of IR.