The study of interactions among nations, non-state actors and international institutions. International relations encompasses a wide range of topics, including security studies (war and peace), cooperation and alliances, global economic governance, international law, and politics of culture and identity. The Princeton faculty conducts research and trains students across the field’s broad range of approaches, theories and methods.
An argument that a country should not seek to influence other countries in ways that are inconsistent with its fundamental values. An alternative to realism and usually contrasted with idealism, it advocates for a foreign policy that is ethically and politically virtuous.
A grouping of states based on common interests in the region, such as the Group of 77 or SADC. Such regional blocs promote economic co-operation and provide an institutional mechanism for addressing political issues that are too dangerous or intractable for individual states to resolve on their own, like the civil wars in Africa.
A situation in which a state’s actions are perceived as a threat by other states, leading them to increase their own defence spending in an attempt to avoid such a perception. This is sometimes known as the spiral of insecurity. A variant of this theory is the reversal of this trend, in which increasing globalisation has led to the slowing down or even reversal of international security trends.