International affairs is the study of how people, countries and global organizations interact. The field includes a wide variety of topics, including foreign policy, global governance, intercultural relations, terrorism, diplomacy and world security. It is a highly multidisciplinary field, and international studies programs (including those at the University of Cincinnati) frequently include courses in political science, history, economics, environmental studies, journalism, foreign languages and more.
International relations scholarship grew out of the aftermath of World War I, when the belief that knowledge about foreign policy should not remain the exclusive domain of elites began to give way to the idea that such matters were a matter for everyone’s concern. The field became more focused in the 1920s, with a number of university programs establishing international relations as a distinct field of study.
The dominant analytical frameworks in the field are realism and constructivism. Realism focuses on the innate characteristics of states that determine their behavior, arguing that states are essentially self-interested actors that operate in a state of anarchy where no one else can influence them. In contrast, the constructivist approach argues that the international system is a social construction that results from the interactions of different actors.
Students who major in international relations gain a wide range of real-world skills that employers in fields like government, business, nonprofits and international organizations look for. These include critical thinking, a broad understanding of cultures and systems and effective communication in a global environment.