INR1000 Introduction to International Relations

In Semester 3, 2023 this course will be delivered as a Transition (9 week) semester, commencing on 13 November 2023 and concluding on 12 January 2024.

An understanding of international relations, both historically and in the contemporary world, is crucial as societies and cultures, political systems and ideologies, and economies interact in dynamic and complex ways at the different levels of the global system. This course provides an introduction to the evolving global environment. Furthermore, the course provides first-year students with foundational skills in analysis and written communication, with a focus on the academic professional skills necessary to progress to a career in international relations.

The actors in international relations range from individual persons to groups and institutions - with the latter including states and sub-state units, international organizations and movements, non-governmental organizations, multi-national corporations and regional organizations. INR1000 focuses on the evolution of the international system with an emphasis on factors such as international law, organisations, war, international political economy, environment, social justice and human rights, and on the practice of diplomacy through a critical presentation of the major competing analytical perspectives of realism, liberalism and world systems, as well as constructivist and feminist approaches.

On successful completion of this course students should be able to:

1. use academic and professional skills to apply critical knowledge of the nature and evolution of International Relations as a series of processes in and of themselves as well as an interdisciplinary field of academic study;
2. contextualise the nature and evolution of the international system and the practice of diplomacy and other forms of interaction at the various levels of the system;
3. apply written communication skills that conform with the requirements of the discipline to prepare and submit academic work;
4. justify the currency and relevance of the study of International Relations to their career interests and to the broader community within which they will function as informed citizens;
5. apply ethical research and inquiry skills to the comprehension and application of basic referencing norms and practices in their work.