Theories and Concepts in International Relations – from Idealism to Realism Cover Image

Theories and Concepts in International Relations – from Idealism to Realism
Theories and Concepts in International Relations – from Idealism to Realism

Author(s): Ionuț ȘERBAN
Subject(s): Diplomatic history, International relations/trade
Published by: Editura Universitaria Craiova
Keywords: International Relations; theory; idealism and realism;

Summary/Abstract: International Relations, as a field of social life, refers to world politics, influence factor of the contemporary world, to everything that surrounds us. As a practice of world politics, International Relation is an old occupation but modern era was the one in which this practice has become conceptualized by the emergence of concepts on which it is based. Idealism was the first current or theory in International Relations that arouse at the end of the First World War as famous historians and scholars in response to the need to know and understand the drama of the most devastating global conflict to date, tried to find a way to prevent in the future such a human and material catastrophe. The new principles in International Relations were based on the collective security system and the renunciation of the balance of powers. In contradiction with Idealism, the Realistic theory focused on the balance of power and its distribution in the world as the collective security embraced after The Paris Conference from 1919-1920 and shaped in the League of Nations failed in its mission and allowed the Second World War to start. The arena of International Relations is a very complicated and complex one, hard to decipher and understand and only by looking and learning from the past, from history, we can understand the present and maybe, maybe predict what can happen in the future regarding international politics and world’s evolution.

  • Issue Year: 2013
  • Issue No: 40
  • Page Range: 52-58
  • Page Count: 7
  • Language: English