International relations is an art
and a field of intellectual endeavour. As an art, international relations
refers to the totality of relations that exists among states or nation states
in the international system. It is an all-embracing concept which covers all spheres of
relations ranging from
commercial transactions, tourism,
cultural exchanges, religious
affiliations and other relations among nation states. As
an art, international relations concerns itself with the activities of
governments or states in relation to one
another. It is an instrument for the realization of governmental objectives and
aspirations.6 International
relations as a field of intellectual endeavour is the systematic study of the
relations that exist among nation states
in the international system.
As an art it could be said to have started when
nations began to organize themselves into political entities, claiming sovereignty over recognizable portions of
land on which they exercised their authority. International
relations as a field of intellectual
pursuit did not begin until 1914. Before
this period, international relations
was the exclusive preserve of professional diplomats and statesmen.
The first World War with its attendant horror and
destruction altered international relations.
World War 1 was blamed partly on
secret diplomacy conducted by professional diplomats and statesmen. At the end
of the war in 1918, efforts aimed at preventing future re-occurrence were
pursued. The conduct of relations among
nations began to gain popular and academic recognition. Henceforth,
international relations enjoyed the attention of scholarly-minded
individuals from various fields ranging form history, law,
economics, sociology, geography,
etc. each of these disciplines has its
won way of seeing the world. In like
manner, at the 1919
Versailles treaty which ended World
War 1, the veteran French
Prime Minister, George Clemenceau persuaded the world to believe that war is
too serious a business to be
left to soldiers alone.
Before 1914,
there was no autonomous discipline called international relations.7
On the contrary, the various segments of international relations were studied
under different but traditional
disciplines like political science, diplomatic history among others. It was
in 1914
that these aspects of
international relations were
synthesized into a single discipline known as international relations. it is important to state that the traditional disciplines were not
totally divorced from international relations. Up till the present period, international
relations is still studied under law, history, economics, diplomacy among
others. 1914, therefore, marked a watershed in the history of international
relations. Henceforth, historians and lawyers began to make deliberate efforts
to study the modalities for the conduct of international relations.
The study of
international relations assumed both historical and legalistic approaches. In
the historical approach, the conduct of relations between states was studied
with a view to knowing whether or
not the outbreak of World War1 could be blamed on the acts of omission or commission on the art of diplomats or
statesmen. Scholarship also aimed at surveying the possibility of guarding
against the recurrence of a conflict of the magnitude of World War 1. In the legalistic approach. The framework for
the conduct of relations among states was studied. Jurists sought to see if
international or quasi-international institutions that existed before 1914 were
responsible for the outbreak of World War 1.
The development
of international relations is associated with approaches which captured
thinking about the discipline. Idealism
was the dominant theme in the early years of
the discipline.8 The
reason is due largely to the
circumstances that led to the establishment of the subject (World War 1). There are two key points which
illuminate our thinking in this direction. First, there was a wide spread view
that the overwhelming lesson of the war was that military force could no longer
achieve its objectives. Public perception of the war in Europe was that of a
senseless war which claimed millions of lives as a result of insignificant
portion of territory. The war achieved marginal results for the combatants.
Secondly, the lack of real reward for either side after the heavy losses was
compounded by the fact that it was seen as a war that no one had actually
wanted. The war had resulted from the
separate acts of various leaders none of whom wanted war as the outcome. But
these acts reinforced mutual fears and suspicion that war became totally
unavoidable.
The implication
after all was that the massive deaths had all been in vain. The casualties recorded
and lack of any real
reward even to the victorious
countries was worsened by the realization that Europe had fought war which no one had
really wanted. The lessons of the
war was useful both for politicians and academics studying the phenomena of
international relations. Four major
lessons were drawn. First, the war was simply a senseless act. Second, the First World War was as a result
of leaders who were caught up in a peculiar process they could not control.
Third, the causes of the war were the
misunderstanding between leaders and failure to practice democratic
accountability in the countries involved, and fourth, the tension which had
made the war inevitable could have been removed by the spread of democratic
ideas and granting independence to colonized people.
The discipline
of international relations grew out of this intellectual and political setting
and ever since, it bore the birth marks of its origins.
International
relations originated in two countries which were victorious power in the war.
These powers, USA /Britain were more or less essentially satisfied with the
results of the war. They wanted to maintain the status quo and disallow a
change in the new international order.
International
relations encountered some problems especially in the inter-war years. It was
generally regarded as discipline that does not subscribe to changes no matter
how little. Second, due to the wholesale destruction and loss of life, those
who survived cannot forget it in a
hurry. They wished the war and had been a war to end all wars. Therefore,
international relations had to be concerned with how to prevent such a war from
occurring again.
Third, the basic
assumptions of international relations were utterly shattered by the very
outbreak of the Second World War. The
outbreak of the war left a heavy burden on International Relations. The
practitioners had to reflect the concerns of the previous generations. It was
generally believed the war erupted largely due to misunderstanding amongst
leaders. So international relations devised ways of reducing such misunderstanding in future.
Approach is some
kind of simplifying devise that allows one to decide which facts matter and
which do not. According to Baylis and
Mith9(1997), a good analogy is sunglasses with different coloured
lenses; put on the red pair and the
world looks red; put on the yellow pair and it looks yellow. It is a way of deciding which of the
numerous possible facts matter most.