International Relations focus on how countries, people and organisations

interact while Globalization is making a profound effect on International

relations. Therefore the aim of this paper is to discuss the two concepts and how they relate to
each other. These concepts will not be discussed in isolation of each other but simultaneously.
The paper will begin the an explanation of the key concepts of international relations and
globalization respectively, thereafter a discussion will follow and in summary form a conclusion
shall be drawn.

The first thing to do is to introduce and explain the paper’s key term: international relations. It is
important to note that ‘international relations’ has two distinct, yet interrelated, meanings. First,
when spelt with a capital ‘I’ and capital ‘R’ (International Relations), it refers to an academic
discipline which evolved in recent decades from the subject area called ‘Politics’. Because it has
its roots in the study of politics, the discipline of International Relations (or IR) is sometimes
referred to as ‘International Politics’ or ‘World Politics’. Whatever term we use, we are referring
to essentially the same discipline, the aim of which is to explain and predict the behaviour of
important entities whose actions have a bearing on the lives of people all around the world.
These entities might be individual states and governments, whose actions undoubtedly have a
direct effect on their citizens and neighbouring states but they may just as easily be groups of
states, international organisations, businesses that operate worldwide or even a multinational
terrorist entity, such as Daesh/Islamic State. The aim of International Relations is to examine
how these various types of bodies interact with one another, for what purposes and to what ends.
In sum, as an academic discipline, International Relations studies: how and why states engage
with each other; and the international activities of various important ‘non-state actors’ (Zaren,
2008).

Furthermore, international relations, is the study of the relations of states with each other and
with international organizations and certain subnational entities for example bureaucracies,
political parties, and interest groups. It is related to a number of other academic disciplines,
including political science, geography, history, economics, law, sociology, psychology,
and philosophy. Moreover, international Relations is concerned with relations across boundaries
of nation-states. It addresses international political economy, global governance, intercultural
relations, national and ethnic identities, foreign policy analysis, development studies,

Page 1 of 6
environment, international security, diplomacy, terrorism, media, social movements and more. It
is a multidisciplinary field that does not restrict students to one approach and employs a variety
of methods including discourse analysis, statistics and comparative and historical analysis
(Jenkins, 2008).

Turning to globalization, globalization is a term that was first used in international relations in
the 1980s. At first, it was only used by economists who wanted to describe what they
characterised as the recent emergence of a global economy. Today, the phenomenon of
globalisation is wider than economic globalisation: now it refers to a greatly increased
interdependency beyond the realm of economics, extending to technology, culture, politics and
how states and non-state institutions relate to one another. The result is that now we cannot think
seriously about international relations without factoring in how globalisation moulds power and
its use. The fact of globalisation focuses our attention on international relations during a period
of profound change when even the hitherto most powerful countries, such as the United States,
have lost ability definitively to influence international outcomes (Anderson, 2004).

Moreover, according to, David (2003: 10), globalisation is a term for collective ‘processes
through which sovereign national states are criss-crossed and undermined by transnational actors
with varying prospects of power, orientations, identities and networks’. Moreover, For David
(2003), the process of globalisation is characterised by: the geographical expansion and ever
greater density of international trade, as well as the global networking of finance markets and the
growing power of transnational corporations ; the ongoing evolution of information and
communications technology ; the universal demands for human rights for instance the lip service
paid to the principle of democracy ; the stream of images from global culture industries; the
emergence of a post-national, polycentric world politics, in which transnational actors that is
corporations, non-governmental organisations, like the United Nations are growing in power and
number alongside governments ; the question of world poverty; the issue of global
environmental destruction and the trans-cultural conflicts in one and the same place.

In the same vein, thus globalisation is characterised by intensification of global

interconnectedness between both states and non-state actors. It is a multidimensional process
involving technological, political, economic and cultural issues. It implies lessening of the
significance of territorial boundaries and, theoretically, of government-directed political and

Page 2 of 6
economic structures and processes. In sum, globalisation is characterised by rapid integration of
the world economy to produce a ‘borderless’ economic environment ; speedy and significant
innovations and growth in international electronic communications, and increasing political and
cultural awareness of humanity’s global interdependence (Kummer,2003).

At this point, the paper starts the discussion of globalization and international relations
simultaneously. As more nations, people, and cultures adapt to the ever changing international
community, diplomats, politicians, and representatives must meet and deal with accordingly to
the needs and wants of nations. Diplomacy can be exerted in many forms; through peace talks,
written constitutions, field experiences and many others. Culture is a familiar term and remains
unchanged by definition. However, globalization and international relations have constantly
altered culture both positively and negatively. Globalization increases worldwide technology,
and the readability of fast, effective communication and consumption of popular products.
Globalization links cultures and international relations on a variety of levels; economics,
politically, socially, and other cardinal spheres of life. International relations have used
globalization to reach its goal: of understanding cultures. International relations focus on how
countries, people and organizations interact and globalization is making a profound effect on
International relations. Understanding culture, globalization, and international relations is critical
for the future of not only governments, people, and businesses, but for the survival of the human
race (Jenkins, 2008).

More importantly, in today’s increasingly interdependent and turbulent world, many of the
leading issues in the news concern international affairs. Whether it is the continuing impact of
globalization, Globalization which is the process of continuing integration of the countries in the
world is strongly underway in all parts of the globe. It is a complex interconnection between
capitalism and democracy, which involves positive and negative features, which both empowers
and disempowers individuals and groups. From the other hand Globalization is a popular term
used by governments, business, academic and a range of diverse non-governmental
organizations. It also, however, signifies a new paradigm within world politics and economic
relations. While national governments for many years dictated the international political and
economic scene, international organizations such as the World Bank, International Monetary
Fund and the World Trade Organization have now become significant role players. In this

Page 3 of 6
“Global Village” national governments have lost some of their importance and perhaps their
powers in favour of these major international organizations. As a process of interaction and
integration among people, companies and governments of different nations Globalization is a
process driven by the International Trade and Investment and aided by Information technology
(Doggett, 2006).

In the same vein, globalization is important for understanding International Relations. The paper
looks at the brief inception of the two concepts. Globalisation has become particularly important
over the last quarter century, a period which saw the emergence of a global economy and a
communications revolution. It was also a time that saw the end of a fundamental ideological
division centrally affecting International Relations, which involved both the USA and a
multinational entity known as the Soviet Union or USSR, whose core state was Russia. As
already noted, the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s coincided with increased globalisation.
The post-Cold War period roughly the last twenty-five years was a time of rapidly expanding
globalisation, involving increased technological, political, economic and cultural interactions.
The result was fundamentally to question orthodox thinking about International Relations. This
is because study of International Relations had long presumed strict separation between internal
and external affairs, the domestic and international arenas, the national and the global. Now, in
this newly interdependent post-Cold War world, events abroad often affect what happens at
home, while developments within a country may well have knock-on effects internationally
(Zaren,2008).

In the same vein, according to Kummer, (2003: 839), ‘global public policy networks’ are best
understood as ‘a proliferation of administrative practices and processes of policymaking and
policy delivery beyond but often overlapping with traditional nation-state policy processes. New
formal and informal institutions and actors are behind these policy processes, often in
cooperation with national public administrations but sometimes quite independently from them’.
Such actors include: government agencies, international organisations, multinational business
corporations and various civil society actors, including: nongovernmental organisations,
professional associations and religious groups. What they all have in common is that they join
together to achieve what none on its own can accomplish. In other words, global public policy
networks can bring together both state and non-state actors in pursuit of shared objectives. The

Page 4 of 6
United Nations is a major meeting point of such networks, concerned with a variety of
objectives. While the United Nations was established by governments and in many respects is
still primarily characterised by their interaction, it is also the case that the United Nations is the
global meeting place of many important non-state actors, who share a concern with global public
policy or rather international relations (Anderson, 2004).

Moreover, another development which was encouraged by globalisation again demonstrates the
interconnectedness of states in the modern international system – private sector institutions.
Bodies like the International Federation of Stock Exchange, founded in 1961, have by their
decisions and actions taken concerning issues such as credit rates and food prices significantly
influenced many countries all over the world and the global economy as a whole. Even more
directly, states have become more interdependent through the opening of national borders and
the implementation of free-trade. Due to globalisation it is now easier for companies to set up
branches or production sites in other countries where the conditions for the company are better.
However, this also increases competition between countries as each of them wants the companies
to establish themselves in their country. Thus the states are dependent on each other in so far as
they each have to try to be more attractive to companies than the others (Doggett, 2006).

Furthermore, free-trade was supposed to create conditions under which every state could trade
freely and with equal opportunities with any other state. But since this does in reality not favour
all nations equally, as some nations can export cheaper than others and are thus more likely to be
trade-partners, some countries had to implement tariffs and quotas in order to protect their
national economies. In this way, states are adversely effected by the other country’s tariffs and
quotas in order to trade with them. Sometimes that even means that the particular state is not able
to trade certain goods with that country, as meeting the restrictions would have detrimental
effects for that particular state (David, 2003).

One last but not less significant factor which was especially important in augmenting the
interdependence of globalization and international relation is the “…fusion of national capital
markets. … [and] the emergence of an integrated global economy”( David,2003). Since states
now no longer have sole control over their economies, they rely and depend on the collective
governance of bodies like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or the World Bank in order to
regulate the international financial market. On the one hand, this new dependence provides the

Page 5 of 6
member-states with some sort of protection in case their economy gets into financial difficulties,
but on the other hand this interconnectedness can also have negative effects as could be observed
recently in the Economic Crisis. Consequently, the emergence of a global economy also
increases the risk of states being affect by a crisis which may start off in one or two countries,
but since these form part of the global economy, it quickly stretches out and can thus have
detrimental effects on other states whose national economy might also be significantly smaller
and thus suffer even worse. Hence emphasizing the interconnectedness of globalization and
international relations (Jenkins, 2008).

In a nutshell, it has been demonstrated, that globalisation has changed the international system
quite significantly in so far as it made states far more interdependent and interconnected. The
world is not a place of many different and separate countries anymore, but these states form
almost one entity on many different levels. Problems do not arise isolated any more and thus the
solutions for these now also have to be found in collective action rather than individual
responses. Intergovernmental Organisations, private sector bodies and global financial
institutions which are the products of globalisation all have taken the leading role in trying to
solve these global problems and in creating a global market and economy. By doing so, they
have simultaneously brought states closer together and thus made them more dependent on each
other. Clearly then as demonstrated by this paper, It can be said that globalization has shaped the
world and international relations in many ways. We can conclude with little hesitation that we no
longer live and work in uniquely sovereign countries. That is, economies and society have and
continue to evolve rapidly and globalization is the trend that continues to reshape the boundaries
of our individual and collective interactions and international relation is the medium that
facilitates it.

Page 6 of 6