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The Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) examines research topics surrounding global studies, international relations, & foreign policy issues.

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168 Current International Relations Research Topics For Any Level

Are you a student looking for intriguing international relations research topics? Look no further! In this blog post, we have created a list of 168 unique and thought-provoking research topics in the field of international relations that should help students get an A+ on their next paper.

Whether you’re studying political science, international affairs or related disciplines, this comprehensive list covers a wide range of fascinating subjects. From global governance to security issues, diplomacy, human rights, and more, these topics are designed to inspire your research and help you delve deeper into the complexities of international relations. So, grab your notepad and get ready to explore these captivating research ideas!

A Word On International Relations Theses

International relations is the study of interactions between nations and global actors. It examines politics, economics, security, and culture, exploring how countries cooperate, conflict and shape global dynamics. If you’re about to start working on a thesis in international relations and you are wondering what to include in your paper, here is a short explanation of each of the mandatory chapters:

Introduction: The opening section that presents the research problem, objectives, and significance of the study. Literature Review: A comprehensive review of existing scholarly works related to the research topic, providing a context for the study. Methodology: Describes the research design, data collection methods, and analytical techniques used to address the research questions or hypotheses. Findings: Presents the empirical results or outcomes of the research, often supported by data, analysis, and interpretation. Discussion: Analyzes and interprets the findings in relation to the research objectives, drawing connections to existing literature and providing insights. Conclusion: Summarizes the main findings, highlights the contributions to the field, and suggests avenues for future research. References: Lists all the sources cited in the thesis following a specific citation style (e.g., APA, MLA).

Now, it’s time to deliver on our promise and give you the list of international relations research paper topics. Choose the one you like the most:

Easy International Relations Research Topics

Explore our list of easy international relations research topics that will help you understand global politics and analyze the dynamics of international relations with ease

The impact of globalization on state sovereignty and international relations
Analyzing the role of non-state actors in global governance structures
The influence of soft power in shaping international relations and diplomacy
Exploring the relationship between human rights and international relations
Examining the dynamics of economic interdependence in international relations
The role of international organizations in promoting peace and security
Assessing the impact of climate change on international relations and cooperation
Analyzing the role of regional integration in shaping global politics
The implications of cyber warfare for international relations and national security
Examining the challenges and opportunities of humanitarian intervention in international relations
Analyzing the role of ideology in shaping state behavior in international relations
Exploring the impact of migration and refugee crises on international relations
Assessing the role of international law in resolving conflicts and promoting peace
Investigating the role of intelligence agencies in shaping international relations

International Relations Thesis Topics

Our wide range of international relations thesis topics will guide you towards developing a strong research question, conducting in-depth analysis, and contributing to the field with your original research:

Power dynamics and the balance of power in international relations
Exploring the role of diplomacy in conflict resolution and peacebuilding
The impact of nuclear proliferation on international security and non-proliferation regimes
Analyzing the role of international institutions in managing global crises
The influence of nationalism on interstate relations and regional cooperation
Examining the role of international norms and human rights in shaping foreign policy
Assessing the impact of economic globalization on state sovereignty in international relations
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and international relations
Exploring the concept of hegemony and its implications for international relations
The role of gender in international relations and its impact on policy-making
Analyzing the role of intelligence agencies in shaping international relations
The implications of emerging technologies on international security and arms control
Examining the role of media and propaganda in international conflicts and public opinion
The impact of regional integration on state behavior and international cooperation

Advanced International Relations Topics For Research

Dive into complex issues, explore cutting-edge theories, and unravel the intricate dynamics of global affairs with our advanced international relations topics for research:

China’s global rise and its power dynamics
Non-traditional security threats in international relations
AI and warfare: Implications for international security
Climate change, conflict, and forced migration in international relations
Religion and politics in international relations
Populism’s impact on global governance and international relations
Social movements and civil society in shaping international relations
Pandemics and international cooperation: Implications for global governance
Cultural diplomacy and soft power in international relations
Information warfare and disinformation in international relations
Regional powers shaping global security dynamics
Responsibility to protect and humanitarian interventions in international relations
Resource scarcity and environmental degradation in international relations
Migration and refugee crises’ impact on global stability

International Relations Research Questions

Our carefully curated list of international relations research questions will inspire critical thinking and promote meaningful discussions:

How does power transition theory explain shifts in global power dynamics?
What are the implications of the rise of non-state actors on traditional state-centric international relations theories?
How do identity politics and nationalism shape interstate conflicts?
What are the factors influencing state compliance with international human rights norms?
How does globalization impact state sovereignty?
What are the challenges of multilateralism in addressing global issues?
How does public opinion influence state behavior in international relations?
What are the causes and consequences of failed states in international relations?
How does the distribution of power in international institutions affect their legitimacy?
What are the implications of emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, on international security?
How do regional conflicts and security dilemmas impact regional integration efforts?
What are the root causes of terrorism?
How does economic interdependence shape interstate relations and global governance structures?
What are the challenges of global environmental governance in addressing climate change?

International Relations Paper Topics

Choose one of our international relations paper topics that resonate with your interests and embark on an enriching research journey:

The role of ideology in shaping state behavior in international relations
Analyzing the impact of economic sanctions on diplomatic relations between countries
The role of media and propaganda in influencing public opinion in international conflicts
Exploring the relationship between globalization and cultural identity in international relations
The implications of cybersecurity threats on national security and international relations
Assessing the role of intelligence agencies in gathering and analyzing international intelligence
Analyzing the impact of regional organizations on regional conflicts and cooperation in international relations
The influence of international trade agreements on global economic and political relations
Exploring the dynamics of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation in international relations
The role of international law in resolving territorial disputes and promoting peace
Non-state actors in international relations: Influence and challenges
Conflict resolution mechanisms: Negotiation, mediation, and peacebuilding approaches
Diplomatic immunity: Balancing immunity with accountability in international relations
The impact of global pandemics on international cooperation and security

Engaging Topic Ideas About International Relations

Are you seeking engaging and captivating topic ideas for your international relations research? Choose one of these engaging topic ideas about international relations:

Global governance and international organizations in addressing global challenges.
Nationalism’s impact on international relations and global cooperation.
Soft power in shaping international perceptions and relations.
Regional conflicts’ implications for global stability and security.
Cyber warfare: Assessing evolving cyber threats in international relations.
Media’s role in international relations: Influence, propaganda, and disinformation.
Economic interdependence: Opportunities and risks in global relations.
Diplomacy in the digital age: Challenges of virtual diplomacy.
Global migration and refugee crises: Humanitarian and political dimensions.
Human rights in international relations: Promoting universal rights.
Terrorism’s impact on global security and counterterrorism efforts.
Environmental diplomacy: Addressing global environmental challenges.
Religion’s role in international relations.
Regional power dynamics: Influence of major powers in different regions

Interesting International Relations Research Paper Topics

Uncover fascinating research paper topics in international relations that will captivate your readers and showcase your analytical skills. Use one of these interesting international relations research paper topics:

Populism’s rise and its impact on international relations and global governance
Climate change’s geopolitical implications: Conflicts, migrations, and resource competition
Hybrid warfare: Analyzing blurred lines between conventional and unconventional threats
Technology’s impact on diplomacy and the future of diplomatic practices
Nuclear energy diplomacy: Balancing peaceful uses and proliferation concerns
Soft power and cultural industries’ influence in international relations
Politics of humanitarian aid: Challenges and ethical considerations
Media framing’s impact on public opinion in international conflicts
International cooperation in space exploration and its geopolitical implications
Diaspora communities’ role in shaping international relations and global politics
Migration policies and human rights: Balancing border control and human dignity
Global health governance: Cooperation, challenges, and pandemic responses
Environmental peacebuilding: Addressing conflicts over natural resources and degradation
Economic sanctions: Effectiveness and ethical implications in international relations

Political Science Dissertation Topics

Our list of political science dissertation topics will provide you with a solid foundation for developing a unique research proposal and making a significant contribution to the field:

The role of political ideologies in foreign policy and international relations.
National security strategies and state behavior in international relations.
Global governance and collective decision-making challenges in international institutions.
Public opinion’s influence on foreign policy and international relations.
Identity politics and intergroup relations in international contexts.
Humanitarian interventions and the responsibility to protect.
Geopolitics and resource conflicts: Strategic importance of natural resources.
International law’s role in shaping state behavior and resolving conflicts.
Comparative political systems in international relations.
Political leadership’s impact on diplomatic relations and cooperation.
International development assistance: Aid effectiveness and challenges.
Non-state actors in global politics: Influence, networks, power dynamics.
Intelligence agencies in international intelligence gathering and analysis.
Political parties and foreign policy shaping

Current International Relations Topics For Research Paper

Stay up to date with the latest developments in global politics by exploring our selection of current international relations topics for research paper writing :

Emerging technologies’ impact on global security and power dynamics.
Transnational threats: Terrorism, crime, and cyber challenges in focus.
Regional integration in globalization: Achievements, limitations, and prospects.
Trade wars: Implications for global economy and cooperation.
Disinformation and fake news: Influence on international politics and public opinion.
Climate change negotiations: Progress and challenges in combating global warming
Cybersecurity and emerging threats in international relations.
Regional power dynamics in the Middle East: Implications for global security
Global responses to the COVID-19 pandemic: Cooperation and challenges
Climate change mitigation and adaptation in international policy
Rising nationalism and its impact on international cooperation
Humanitarian crisis in Yemen: International responses and challenges
Technology and the future of warfare: Implications for global security
The Belt and Road Initiative: Assessing its impact on international relations

Awesome Research Topics For International Relations

Our awesome research topics for international relations allow you to explore diverse areas of global politics and contribute to the field with your exceptional research:

NGOs’ role in shaping international policies and agendas
Humanitarian interventions and the responsibility to protect: Effectiveness and ethics
Cybersecurity challenges in international relations: Risks and responses
Global migration governance: Policies and implications
Globalization vs national sovereignty: Impacts on state behavior
China’s Belt and Road Initiative: Geopolitical influence and challenges
Nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation: Effectiveness of treaties
Gender in international relations: Impact of norms and policies
Post-colonial perspectives in international relations: Power dynamics and legacies
Climate justice and international cooperation: Addressing climate change
Regional organizations in global governance and international relations
Politics of humanitarian intervention: Strategies and outcomes
Political economy of international trade: Impact of policies and agreements
Populism’s impact on democracy and international relations

Controversial International Relations Topics

Delve into the realm of controversy and discourse with our thought-provoking controversial international relations topics:

Drones in targeted killings: Legal and ethical implications
Nuclear energy and non-proliferation: Benefits and risks
Intervention in state sovereignty: Legitimacy and consequences
Ethics of economic sanctions: Effectiveness and impact on civilians
Cyber warfare and international norms: Regulating cyber conflicts
Climate change’s impact on national security and conflicts
Intelligence agencies in covert operations and international relations
Politics of humanitarian aid: Motivations and challenges
Ethics of military intervention: Justifications and consequences
Politics of regime change: Motivations and implications
Media bias’s impact on international perceptions and diplomacy
Private military companies: Challenges and accountability
Politics of disarmament and arms control: Progress and challenges
Corporate interests’ influence on foreign policy and relations

Best International Relations Topics For 2023

Stay ahead of the curve with our selection of the best international relations topics for 2023. These carefully curated topics reflect the current trends, emerging challenges and pressing issues:

COVID-19 pandemic’s implications on global politics and international relations
Rise of populism and its impact on democracy and international cooperation
Cybersecurity challenges in a hyper-connected world: Risks and responses
Future of international cooperation in addressing global challenges and conflicts
Climate change and security: Implications for international relations and stability
Evolving role of regional powers in shaping global politics and relations
Technological advancements’ impact on state power and international relations
Global governance reform: Restructuring international institutions
Social media’s role in shaping international perceptions and political movements
Challenges and prospects of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation
Intersection of artificial intelligence and international relations
Impact of trade wars on global economic relations and cooperation
Geopolitical tensions in the Arctic: Resource competition and influence
Future of multilateralism: Relevance and effectiveness in a changing world

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How do I choose a research topic in international relations?

Consider your interests, current events, and gaps in existing literature to identify an area of focus. Brainstorm potential topics and ensure they align with your research objectives.

What makes a strong international relations research paper?

A strong research paper includes a well-defined research question, solid theoretical framework, rigorous analysis, credible sources, and logical structure. It should also contribute to the existing body of knowledge.

How can I narrow down my international relations research topic?

Consider specific regions, actors, theories, or policy areas within international relations. Narrowing down your topic will allow for a more focused and manageable research paper.

Can I use case studies in my international relations research paper?

Yes, case studies can be valuable in providing empirical evidence and in-depth analysis. They help illustrate theoretical concepts and offer real-world examples to support your arguments.

40+ Best International Relations Research Topics: Global Dynamics Unveiled

Post author By admin
November 11, 2023

Explore the complex landscape of global affairs with our curated list of International Relations Research Topics. Delve into pressing issues, emerging trends, and fresh perspectives that shape the world stage.

Uncover the latest insights and navigate the intricacies of international diplomacy through innovative research avenues.

Embarking on the captivating odyssey of “International Relations Research Topics” is akin to donning the explorer’s hat in a vast, interconnected world.

As our globe tightens its bonds, the study of international relations becomes not just relevant but essential. In this article, we embark on a journey that doesn’t merely skim the surface; it delves deep into the beating heart of themes that intrigue scholars and mold the very narrative of our shared global drama.

Imagine traversing the echoes of historical events, resonating through the grand halls of diplomacy. Picture grappling with the contemporary puzzles that carve the geopolitical landscape, and unraveling the theoretical frameworks that scaffold our comprehension of international relations.

From the intricate dance of negotiation to the mosaic of global governance complexities, we’re set to embark on a thrilling adventure, spanning disciplines, cultures, and the sands of time.

So, fasten your seatbelts as we navigate the twists and turns of international relations research. Join us in dissecting real-world challenges through illuminating case studies and peering into the crystal ball of future trends that will shape the diplomatic stage.

The realm of international relations research isn’t just a scholarly pursuit; it’s a journey into the heart of human interaction on the international stage, a quest that promises both revelations and solutions.

Get ready for an expedition that transcends borders and plunges into the pulse of our shared global destiny.

Together, let’s unravel the dynamic and ever-evolving world of international relations research—a journey that promises not just academic enlightenment but a deeper understanding of the threads that weave our world together.

Table of Contents

International Relations Research Topics

Check out international relations research topics:-

Theories of International Relations

Power Dynamics Unveiled : Investigate the role of power in international relations and how realist perspectives shape foreign policy.

The Promise of Cooperation : Explore the principles of liberalism and how they influence diplomatic collaboration and international organizations.

Constructivism

Beyond Structures : Delve into the impact of ideas, norms, and identities on international relations, challenging traditional structural perspectives.

Critical Theories

Deconstructing Narratives : Examine critical approaches to IR, questioning established norms and advocating for social justice in global relations.

Foreign Policy

The united states’ foreign policy.

Evolution and Trends : Analyze the historical shifts and current trends in U.S. foreign policy, exploring its global implications.

China’s Foreign Policy

Rising Dragon : Investigate China’s geopolitical strategy, economic diplomacy, and its role in shaping international relations.

Russia’s Foreign Policy

Eurasian Ambitions : Explore Russia’s geopolitical objectives, alliances, and its impact on regional and global stability.

The European Union’s Foreign Policy

Unity in Diversity : Assess the coherence and challenges of the EU’s foreign policy, considering its unique supranational structure.

The Foreign Policy of the Middle East

Navigating Complexity : Examine the intricate foreign policies of Middle Eastern nations, addressing regional conflicts and global interactions.

International Law

The role of international law in the international system.

Legal Frameworks : Investigate the impact and effectiveness of international legal systems in governing state behavior.

The Sources of International Law

Foundations Unveiled : Explore the historical and contemporary sources influencing the development of international legal principles.

The Enforcement of International Law

Legal Realities : Assess the mechanisms and challenges in enforcing international law, addressing issues of compliance and accountability.

The Development of International Law

Evolutionary Trajectories : Trace the historical evolution of international law, analyzing its adaptive nature in response to global changes.

The Future of International Law

Innovations and Challenges : Speculate on the future directions and innovations in international law amidst evolving global dynamics.

International Organizations

The united nations.

Global Governance : Examine the role, challenges, and effectiveness of the United Nations in addressing global issues and conflicts.

The World Trade Organization

Trade Diplomacy : Assess the impact of the WTO on global trade dynamics, exploring its role in shaping economic relations.

The International Monetary Fund

Economic Stabilization : Investigate the IMF’s influence on global financial stability, economic development, and its role in financial crises.

The World Bank

Development Finance : Examine the World Bank’s role in funding development projects and its impact on global economic disparities.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

Collective Security : Analyze NATO’s evolving role in ensuring collective defense and maintaining regional and global security.

International Security

Nuclear weapons.

Arms Control Dilemmas : Explore the challenges of nuclear disarmament, arms control agreements, and the geopolitical implications of nuclear arsenals.

Global Threats : Investigate the causes, dynamics, and counterterrorism strategies in response to global terrorist threats.

Cyberwarfare

Virtual Battlefields : Examine the evolving landscape of cyber threats, state-sponsored cyber operations, and diplomatic responses.

Climate Change

Security Implications : Assess the security challenges posed by climate change, including resource scarcity, migration, and conflict risks.

Global Health Security : Explore the intersection of international relations and global health, focusing on pandemic preparedness and response.

International Development

The causes of poverty.

Structural Analysis : Investigate the root causes of poverty globally, examining the role of economic, social, and political factors.

The Impact of Globalization

Global Dynamics : Analyze the effects of globalization on economic, social, and political dimensions, considering both positive and negative impacts.

The Role of Aid

Humanitarian Assistance : Examine the effectiveness of international aid in promoting development, addressing crises, and reducing poverty.

The Role of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)

Civil Society Actors : Assess the contributions and challenges of NGOs in international development and diplomacy.

The Future of International Development

Sustainable Goals : Speculate on the future trajectories of international development, considering global challenges and innovative solutions.

International Political Economy

The global economy.

Economic Governance : Evaluate the structures and governance of the global economy, addressing issues of economic inequality and trade imbalances.

Trade Diplomacy Trends : Investigate emerging trends in global trade diplomacy, trade agreements, and their impact on national economies.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) : Examine the role of FDI in shaping international economic relations, focusing on its impact on host and home countries.

Financial Governance : Assess the role of international financial institutions and governance mechanisms in maintaining global financial stability.

Development

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) : Explore the progress and challenges in achieving the SDGs, considering their impact on global economic relations.

International Environmental Politics

Global Responses : Evaluate international efforts to address climate change, analyzing agreements, policies, and the role of state and non-state actors.

Biodiversity

Conservation Challenges : Examine global initiatives and challenges in preserving biodiversity, considering the impact on ecosystems and human societies.

Cross-Border Impacts : Analyze international frameworks and strategies for addressing transboundary pollution, emphasizing cooperative solutions.

Water Resources

Hydro-Diplomacy : Investigate the geopolitical dimensions of water scarcity, transboundary water management, and the potential for conflict or cooperation.

Global Energy Security : Assess the geopolitics of energy resources, exploring the impact on international relations and national security.

International Human Rights

The universal declaration of human rights.

70 Years On : Reflect on the achievements and challenges in upholding the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Role of Human Rights Organizations

Advocacy and Impact : Assess the contributions and limitations of human rights organizations in promoting and protecting human rights globally.

The Challenges of Human Rights Protection

Contemporary Dilemmas : Examine current challenges and dilemmas in the protection of human rights, considering cultural, political, and legal perspectives.

The Future of Human Rights

Emerging Harmonies : Identify and analyze emerging human rights issues globally and explore diplomatic strategies for advancing human rights advocacy worldwide.

Future Trends

Check out the future trends:-

Diplomacy in the Digital Age

Cybersecurity Adventures: In an era of technological leaps, the specter of cyber threats looms large. Future international relations will be in the trenches, figuring out the playbook for norms, treaties, and group huddles to fend off cyber villains and safeguard our digital fortresses.

Guardians of Global Wellness

Pandemic Odyssey: The seismic impact of COVID-19 sounded the alarm for robust global health governance.

Imagine this: a future where nations join hands in a symphony of collaboration, fine-tuning pandemic preparedness, orchestrating vaccine ballets, and addressing health inequalities on the grand stage of global solidarity.

Environmental Diplomacy

Climate Crusaders: Brace yourself for a climate showdown! As the world heats up, international relations will groove to the beat of urgent climate action.

Imagine a dance floor where negotiations, agreements, and collaborations bust moves to mitigate environmental threats and jive with the rhythm of a changing climate.

Regional Power Play

Shapeshifting Dynamics: A plot twist is brewing as regional powers in Asia and Africa steal the spotlight, reshaping the global stage.

The future of international relations will be a blockbuster, navigating the rise of these regional superheroes alongside the traditional titans of global influence.

Tech-Driven Humanitarianism

Aid’s Tech Symphony: When humanitarian crises strike, enter the tech virtuosos! Drones, artificial intelligence, and other tech marvels take center stage, orchestrating a symphony of innovation to respond to crises and deliver assistance with superhero efficiency.

Cosmic Diplomacy

Space Odyssey Unleashed: As we soar into the cosmos, international relations will boldly go where no treaties have gone before.

Picture diplomatic efforts navigating the vast expanse of space, establishing norms, agreements, and governance frameworks for our cosmic endeavors.

Economic Resilience Revolution:

Economic Tango Redefined: The aftermath of global economic shocks reshapes the dance floor of economic alliances and trade relationships.

Future international relations will spin into action, crafting moves to enhance economic resilience and foster cooperation in an ever-changing economic landscape.

Digital Frontier Governance:

Regulating the Digital Wild West: Get ready for a showdown in the digital saloon! The digital realm takes the spotlight in international relations, where future trends include crafting international regulations, treaties, and norms to tame the digital frontier, ensuring data privacy and the ethical use of emerging technologies.

Migration Marvels:

Demographic Jigsaw: Demographic changes and migration challenges become key players in the international relations saga.

Nations collaborate on an epic script, developing comprehensive policies that address the impacts of migration on societies, economies, and the geopolitics stage.

Multilateral Makeover

Global Governance Remix: The future sees multilateral institutions donning a new look to tackle contemporary challenges.

Efforts to reform and adapt global governance structures take center stage, promising an international relations blockbuster that shapes the world’s destiny.

What are good topics for research in international relations?

Check out some of good topics for research in international relations:-

Digital Battlegrounds: Navigating Cybersecurity Challenges in Global Diplomacy

Unraveling the influence of cyber threats on shaping diplomatic relations and the imperative for a united front in the realm of cybersecurity.

China’s Global Odyssey: Decoding the Belt and Road Initiative

Embarking on an exploration of the economic, political, and geopolitical ripple effects stemming from China’s grand infrastructure and development venture.

Angels in Conflict: Humanitarian Interventions Unveiled

Delving into the intricacies of international humanitarian interventions, weighing their effectiveness against the ethical backdrop in conflict-ridden territories.

Climate Avengers: Global Governance Confronts Climate Change

Surveying the battlefield of climate change, evaluating the triumphs and tribulations of international agreements and organizations in fostering sustainability.

Beyond Borders: The Dance of Non-State Actors in Global Affairs

Spotlighting the silent influencers – NGOs, multinational corporations, and other non-state actors – and deciphering their impact on the world stage.

Refugee Realities: An International Collaboration Saga

Unmasking the challenges and collaborative opportunities on the global stage as nations grapple with the escalating refugee crisis .

Energy Chess: Geopolitics in Resource Distribution

Tracing the geopolitical moves dictated by the control and distribution of energy resources, a chess game shaping international relations.

Populism’s Echo: Global Diplomacy in the Age of Charismatic Leaders

Analyzing the crescendo of populist movements and leaders, exploring their influence on international relations, alliances, and diplomatic dynamics.

Nuclear Shadows: Proliferation Puzzles and Global Security

Assessing the shadow cast by nuclear weapons proliferation and unraveling strategies for global disarmament.

Multilateralism Unveiled: Charting the Future Course

Lifting the curtain on the role and relevance of multilateral institutions in the ever-evolving landscape of international relations, envisioning potential reforms.

Regional Harmony: Dynamics of Integration Explored

Unlocking the impact of regional organizations, like the European Union or ASEAN, on stability, economic collaboration, and political cohesion.

Soft Whispers: Cultural Influence in Global Affairs

Deciphering the art of soft power, cultural sway, and the dance of public diplomacy on the grand stage of international relations.

Trade Winds of Change: Global Commerce Post-Pandemic

Navigating the reshaped tides of global trade and supply chains in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rights Under Fire: Human Rights Amidst Conflict

Assessing the safeguarding of human rights in the tumult of conflict zones, and exploring avenues for accountability and justice.

AI on the Frontlines: Warfare in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Probing the ethical, legal, and strategic battlegrounds of integrating artificial intelligence into military operations and the face of warfare.

These topics now come alive with a touch of intrigue and exploration!

What topics do international relations students study?

Embarking on the adventure of international relations studies is like diving into a treasure trove of global complexities. A

s students navigate this dynamic field, they encounter a fascinating array of subjects that mirror the intricate dance of nations.

Here’s a sneak peek into the captivating topics that typically grace the desks of international relations students:

Global Political Economy

Unraveling the intricate threads of international trade, finance, and economic jamborees, exploring the rollercoaster ride of globalization, development dramas, and economic sagas.

Delving into the legal labyrinths that regulate the cosmic ballet between states, organizations, and individuals on the world stage—think treaties, human rights, and diplomatic choreography.

Security Studies

Analyzing the kaleidoscope of global security, from military acrobatics and conflict resolution gymnastics to the starring role of international organizations in the grand spectacle of peacekeeping.

Comparative Politics

Comparing political systems worldwide, a bit like political Tinder, but for countries—swipe left for autocracy, swipe right for democracy.

Diplomacy and Negotiation

Mastering the art and strategy of diplomacy—picture a chessboard where countries make their moves with diplomatic finesse, negotiating checkmates and stalemates.

Foreign Policy Analysis

Playing detective in the realm of global decision-making—think Sherlock Holmes meets geopolitics, dissecting the motives and influences behind a nation’s foreign policy.

Touring the bureaucratic wonders of global organizations like the United Nations, where policies are debated, resolutions are passed, and diplomatic handshakes abound.

Human Rights and Global Governance

Championing the cause of human rights on the world stage, a bit like the Avengers, but for justice, with discussions on global governance challenges thrown in.

Crisis Management

Learning the ABCs of handling international crises—from humanitarian dramas to political cliffhangers, because sometimes the world feels like a suspenseful blockbuster.

Area Studies

Taking a deep dive into the soul of specific regions or countries, unraveling their histories, cultures, political intrigues, and international relations soap operas.

These are just a few teasers from the thrilling curriculum that shapes international relations students into global aficionados, ready to decode the world’s greatest mysteries and challenges.

What are the main issues of international relations?

Embarking on the labyrinthine journey of international relations is like diving headfirst into a riveting saga filled with complex challenges and diplomatic intricacies. Here’s a closer look at the pulse-quickening issues that keep the global stage buzzing with anticipation:

Global Security and Conflict

Imagine the ongoing chess game of maintaining global peace, tackling conflicts, and deftly sidestepping the landmines of potential new hostilities.

Economic Inequality and Globalization

Imagine a high-stakes tightrope walk, balancing the pursuit of economic growth with the tightrope of fair wealth distribution in our interconnected, globalized world.

Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability

Feel the urgency of a call to arms against climate change, championing environmental protection, and orchestrating a symphony of international cooperation for sustainable development.

Human Rights Violations

Enter the battlefield of justice, where the quest to protect and champion human rights clashes with discrimination, persecution, and the shadows of injustice.

Global Health Challenges

Witness the epic quest against pandemics, the noble pursuit of equal healthcare, and the captivating dance where global health meets the intricate steps of international relations.

Nuclear Proliferation

Imagine delicate diplomatic waltz around the possession and potential use of nuclear weapons, involving disarming maneuvers, non-proliferation treaties, and diplomatic pirouettes.

Terrorism and Transnational Crime

Navigate the thrilling world of international intrigue where the threat of terrorism and cybercrime lurk, challenging the boundaries of nations.

Migration and Displacement

Step into the multifaceted dance of human migration, refugees seeking a new rhythm, and the drama of how these moves impact host countries and global stability.

Nationalism and Populism

Experience the resurgence of nationalist and populist movements, an unfolding drama influencing both domestic and international political stages.

Technological Advancements and Governance

Dive into the riveting tale of rapid technological advances, where cybersecurity challenges and the regulation of emerging technologies take center stage.

Public Health Crises

Respond to the urgent call of global health crises, epitomized by the dramatic plot twists of events like the COVID-19 pandemic.

Diplomatic Tensions and Alliances

Feel the diplomatic tension in the air, where alliances are forged and strained, as the geopolitical script continually rewrites itself.

These are not just global issues; they’re the characters and plotlines that make the grand narrative of international relations a thrilling and ever-evolving spectacle. Get ready for the next episode!

What are the topics of the International Relations Journal?

The International Relations Journal is like a treasure trove, unlocking the secrets of the ever-evolving world of international relations.

It’s a captivating journey through a kaleidoscope of topics, where the academic spotlight shines on:

Dive into the drama of war, the chessboard of nuclear politics, and the backstage workings of global peacekeepers.

Get tangled in the web of globalization’s impact on world economies, the intricate dance of international trade, and the role of financial bigwigs.

Embark on a legal odyssey, exploring the origins and applications of international law, dissecting treaties, and scrutinizing institutions like the International Court of Justice.

Take a cross-cultural road trip, comparing political systems, dissecting the birth and demise of democracies and autocracies, and peeking into the political economy and social policies across the globe.

International Relations Theory

Dip your toes into the sea of theories, from the hard-hitters like realism and liberalism to the avant-garde worlds of constructivism, critical theory, and postmodernism.

International History

Time-travel through historical sagas of diplomacy, the rollercoaster of war, the rise and fall of empires, and the game-changers like the Cold War, 9/11, and the transformative waves of the Arab Spring.

This isn’t just a journal; it’s a vibrant marketplace of ideas, where scholars and enthusiasts alike gather to decipher the complex symphony that is international relations.

In the captivating realm of international relations research, these topics serve as portals into the heart of our global narrative, inviting curious minds to embark on a journey through the complexities that define our interconnected world.

From the intriguing dance of technological diplomacy to the pressing challenges posed by climate change, each research avenue beckons exploration and deeper understanding.

As we navigate this intellectual landscape, the rise of artificial intelligence’s impact on global affairs, China’s ascendancy reshaping geopolitical dynamics, and the imperative for collective action on climate-related issues emerge as pivotal subjects.

These aren’t just topics; they are doorways into a world where every inquiry contributes to the ever-evolving story of our shared human experience.

The future of democracy faces crossroads, and the ethical dimensions of technology on human rights challenge us to contemplate the intersection of progress and ethical responsibility.

The multifaceted facets of international security weave a narrative that transcends borders, reminding us of our interconnected destinies.

As scholars and enthusiasts delve into these topics, the journal of international relations becomes not just a source of knowledge but a compass, guiding us through the intricate and dynamic terrain of our global society.

The landscape of international relations research is an open invitation to unravel, question, and actively participate in the ongoing dialogue that shapes our world. It’s a vibrant tapestry waiting to be explored by those curious enough to seek, understand, and contribute to the rich mosaic of our interconnected reality.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the key theoretical frameworks in international relations research.

International relations research draws on various theoretical frameworks, including realism, liberalism, and constructivism. Each offers unique perspectives on global affairs.

How does cultural diplomacy impact international relations?

Cultural diplomacy plays a crucial role in shaping international perceptions. It fosters understanding between nations and influences public opinion, contributing to soft power dynamics.

What are the pressing contemporary issues in international relations research?

Contemporary issues include geopolitical tensions, global health crises, and environmental challenges. Researchers delve into these topics to offer insights and solutions.

How does global governance contribute to international stability?

Global governance, facilitated by international organizations, contributes to stability by providing mechanisms for collaboration, conflict resolution, and the pursuit of common goals.

What role do case studies play in international relations research?

Case studies provide a practical application of theoretical frameworks to real-world scenarios. They offer nuanced insights into diplomatic challenges and successes.

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International Relations Dissertation Topics and Titles – Free Advice

Published by Owen Ingram at January 9th, 2023 , Revised On May 2, 2024

Introduction

International relations studies the relationships between different countries, economies, regions, and governments whilst considering the importance of trade, economic relations, foreign policies, international security, and diplomacy.

International relations do not focus on a single country but discuss how a particular event or incident affects countries in one or more regions. Thus, each country needs to ensure that its international and economic relations with other countries are valuable and longstanding.

International relations are essential to understanding current political events and their impact on different countries. Whether it is the world war, oil crisis, 9/11, Brexit, or any other major event, the subject of international relations explores them in detail and provides insight into how they will affect other countries.

Studying international relations helps us understand how the world operates, how countries connect, and how they are affected by policy changes in another country or when a major incident occurs.

To help you get started with brainstorming for international relations topic ideas, we have developed a list of the latest topics that can be used for writing your dissertation.

These topics have been developed by PhD qualified writers of our team , so you can trust to use these topics for drafting your dissertation.

You may also want to start your dissertation by requesting a brief research proposal from our writers on any of these topics, which includes an introduction to the topic, research question, aim and objectives, literature review, and the proposed methodology of research to be conducted. Let us know if you need any help in getting started.

Check our dissertation examples to get an idea of how to structure your dissertation .

Review the full list of dissertation topics here.

Topic: 2: Russia vs. Ukraine a Geostrategic or Ideological Conflict? An Analysis to Identify the Actual Cause of Russia-Ukraine from Geostrategic and Ideological Lenses

Research Aim: This study intends to analyse the actual cause of Russia-Ukraine from geostrategic and ideological lenses. It will be a comparative study using various international relations (IR) lenses such as realism, liberalism, geostrategic, geo-economics, geo-political, etc., to show which lens finds appropriate reasoning for the Russia-Ukraine going to war. Moreover, it will identify various economic, political, and social forces driving this war. Lastly, it will find out who will be the prime beneficiary of this war other than Russia.

Topic: 3: Political Economy of Global Terrorism- An Assessment of the Political and Economic Forces Behind Global Terrorism

Research Aim: This research sheds light on the political and economic forces behind global terrorism. It will find how various political and economic powers, such as states, organisations, business groups, politicians, etc., deliberately promote terrorism for their political and financial motives. It will use various case studies such as terrorism in Pakistan and other developing countries and significant conflicts such as Israel-Palestine, Russia-Ukraine, etc. Moreover, it will show how small governments can create a political-economic-security framework to avoid terrorism for the benefit of foreign powers.

Topic: 4: The Role of Western Powers in Israel-Palestine- A Third World Country Viewpoint

Research Aim: This research assesses the role of Western powers such as the US, UK, and EU in the Israel-Palestine conflict from a third-world country viewpoint, such as India, Pakistan, etc. It will show how third-world countries evaluate this conflict on political, economic, social, and national security bases. Moreover, it will show what lessons these countries can learn from this conflict to save themselves from significant future disputes and formulate their foreign policy according to these lessons. Lastly, it shows which side these countries take in Israel-Palestine and on which grounds.

Topic: 5: Why the Middle East is Crucial for the West? A Geo-economic and Geostrategic Analysis

Research Aim: This research will show why the Middle East is crucial for the West through a geo-economic and geostrategic analysis. It will find why Western powers, such as the US, Europe, etc., invaded the Middle East from a geo-economic and geostrategic lens. It will show what these powers gained and lost in these invasions. And do geo-economic and geostrategic factors incentivize Western powers to invade the Middle East again? Lastly, how can the Middle East protect its rights and gains in the future by applying geo-economic and geostrategic analysis?

Topic 6: Impact of Terrorism and Religion on Relations between Afghanistan and US

This research analyses the dynamics between terrorism and religion and their influence on the bilateral relations between Afghanistan and the United States, to understand how these factors have shaped diplomatic, political, and socio-cultural interactions.

Topic 7: An Analysis of the Afghanistan Peace Process

This study critically examines the complexities and challenges of the Afghanistan peace process. It focuses on understanding the various stakeholders involved, their motivations, the negotiation dynamics, and the impact of historical, political, and socio-cultural factors on the prospects for sustainable peace and stability in the region.

Topic 8: The Role of the Arab Nations in the Israel - Palestine Conflict

The research investigates the role of Arab nations in the Israel-Palestine conflict. It focuses on their historical, political, diplomatic, and socio-cultural contributions, interventions, and impact on the conflict dynamics and the prospects for peace in the region.

Topic 9: The Effect of USMCA on International Trade

The study explores the effect of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) on international trade. The research investigates USMCA’s impact on its economic, political, and social implications for the member countries and the broader global trade landscape.

Topic 10: An Analysis of Women's Participation in International Relations

This study critically analyses the participation of women in the field of international relations. It examines the factors influencing their involvement, the challenges they face, the contributions they make, and the implications for global governance, diplomacy, and security.

Topic 11: An Analysis of the Failure of the UN's Nuclear Disarmament Plans

The study analyses the factors contributing to the failure of the United Nations’ nuclear disarmament plans. It examines the historical attempts, diplomatic challenges, political obstacles, and the role of state actors, non-state actors, and international power dynamics in hindering progress toward global nuclear disarmament goals.

Topic 12: An Investigation of How the Syrian Crisis Turned Into A Civil War

The research aims to investigate the complex factors and events that led to the transformation of the Syrian crisis into a civil war, examining socio-political, historical, economic, and regional dynamics, as well as the roles of state and non-state actors, to gain insights into the escalation and perpetuation of the conflict.

COVID -19 International Relations Research Topics

Topic: 1: international relations and covid-19.

Research Aim: This study will address the geopolitical issues and International relations during COVID-19

Topic: 2: COVID-19 is a geopolitical instrument

Research Aim: COVID -19 has disturbed everything from health to the world’s economy, and it has also created tensions among the nations of the world. This study will identify whether Coronavirus is a geopolitical instrument or not.

Topic: 3: International Relations Scholars and COVID-19

Research Aim: This study will reveal the opinions and role of International relations scholars and COVID-19

Topic: 4: Meta-geopolitics and COVID-19

Research Aim: This study will focus on the meta-geopolitics during the COVID-19 crisis

Topic: 5: The global order post Coronavirus pandemic

Research Aim: This study will predict the global order of the Coronavirus pandemic, including international relations, geopolitics, and geo-economics after COVID-19.

International Relations Research Topics

Conflicts between india and china.

Research Aim: This research aims to address the conflicts between India and China, the history and current situation of the two nations, and their government’s role.

Organisation of Islamic cooperation during the pandemic

Research Aim: This research aims to conduct an in-depth study on the contribution of the organisation of Islamic cooperation during a pandemic

New immigration rules of the UK

Research Aim: This research aims to highlight the new immigration rules of the UK and their impacts on immigrants.

China’s economic growth- Its impact on the world

Research Aim: This research aims to highlight the impact of China’s economic growth on the world

The role of the UN in resolving the Indo-Pak conflict in Kashmir

Research Aim: This research aims to address the role of the UN in resolving the Indo-Pak conflict on the matter of Kashmir

9/11: How has it Shaped International Trade between the West and the Arab Countries?

Research Aim: There is no doubt that 9/11 is one of the major incidents that shook the entire world. An attack on the twin towers killed hundreds and left thousands injured. Loss of lives, property, and money were not the only losses resulting from this incident.

With Al-Qaeda accepting the attack’s responsibility, the American government cut ties with many countries responsible for funding the terrorist organisation. The country initiated the war on terror shortly after the incident; however, the effects were experienced worldwide and long-term.

This dissertation will focus on how trade was affected by post 9/11 and how the US ties with the Arab world were severely affected.

China’s Growth as the Superpower: Is the US threatened?

Research Aim: China is the next superpower; there is no second thought about it. However, the growth of this economic giant has left huge gaps in the international trade market. With America being the superpower for ages, the country is now threatened with China’s economic progress.

The two countries may have good terms on the surface; however, they compete on a whole new level in the international market. This research will talk about China’s progress, how the country has evolved as a superpower, and how it poses a threat to the United States of America. All aspects, including trade, policy framing, etc., will be discussed to provide a detailed analysis.

How Can ResearchProspect Help?

ResearchProspect writers can send several custom topic ideas to your email address. Once you have chosen a topic that suits your needs and interests, you can order for our dissertation outline service , which will include a brief introduction to the topic, research questions , literature review , methodology , expected results , and conclusion . The dissertation outline will enable you to review the quality of our work before placing the order for our full dissertation writing service !

Does Germany’s Foreign Policy Influence the Rest of Europe?

Research Aim: Germany dominates the European Union. Policies, tariffs, currency, trade, international business, etc., are designed keeping in mind Germany. This research will discuss how the European Union is dominated by Germany, particularly after the Brexit.

Every country can draft policies considering its economic position and ties with other countries. However, the European Union has to consider Germany while formulating any new foreign policy. The dissertation will discuss why this happens and how European countries draft their foreign policy considering Germany.

Exploring the Causes of Conflicts between the African Nations and their Relationships with the West

Research Aim: African countries have suffered a lot over the last several centuries. Some countries are poor and do not have enough resources to provide facilities to the country’s people, while the rest do not enjoy healthy political relations with the rest of the world.

Many African countries have different policies compared to the Western world, which is why conflicts arise. Moreover, racial discrimination is another major factor why the two regions have never shared healthy relations.

This research will investigate the underlying reasons for conflicts between the African and the Western world and how they can be bridged.

Is Africa a Concern for the Western World?

Research Aim: A few African nations are rich in natural resources but in political turmoil, so other countries have always tried to take advantage of them. However, all international trades must be conducted concerning foreign policies in place. It is only through international trade laws that such businesses must avoid any unfair and biased distribution.

Unfortunately, the western world has always dominated the African nations and have barely given them their right. This thesis will explore the notion that western countries always try and find a way to dominate the African countries even when they deserve a larger share of the pie.

Russia and the Western World: A look into History

Research Aim: The relations between Russia and the Western world, specifically the US, are known worldwide. The Cold War and the aftermath of the war will all be discussed in detail in this dissertation. Many histories and international relations experts believe that the cold war has not ended and is going on to date. This notion will be researched, discussed, and analysed in this research to provide a complete insight into the current political situation. However, a major part of the thesis will focus on the history of these countries and the events.

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China’s Economic Growth – The Effects and Consequences on the World

Research Aim: China is taking over the world – this is a fact. Whether a country or a nation accepts it or not, China is slowly making its way to becoming a superpower. Be it technology, daily products, banking, financial services, or any other thing. China has outclassed all other countries of the world.

Considering China’s rapid progress, many countries have accepted China as the future superpower and tried to maintain a good relationship. However, on the other hand, other countries do not accept China as the next superpower and are ready to fight for it.

An example is the United States, the current superpower and is not ready to lose China. This research will discuss China’s impact on its products and services and its consequences of becoming an economic superpower.

The Role of United Nations in Resolving the Arab-Israel Conflict

Research Aim: The Arab-Israel Conflict is an ancient battle. The war broke out for reasons that are not to all and is still going on to date. However, the stance of the Arab countries has not changed since Israel first started to occupy Arab lands.

The Arab world does not accept Israel as a state. Instead, it has been termed as a terrorist funding state. Moreover, the Israel-Palestine conflict has added fuel to the fire. Many Muslim countries, until now, are not ready to accept Israel. This research will talk about the conflict and how the United Nations have played their part in bridging the gap between the two nations.

Understanding the Role of the EU in International Relations

Research Aim: European Union is a critical region in trade, business, political relations, etc. Thus, the region has tremendous effects on the international relations of the world.

This thesis will discuss the role of the European Union in international relations, how European Union is a key player in international politics, and how other nations should work on their policies and frameworks to develop healthy relations with the EU.

Assessing the Role of the United Nations as a Law Enforcement Agency

Research Aim: The United Nations is an organisation formed to help countries and regions resolve conflicts between them. Issues such as Kashmir (India-Pakistan) and Israel-Palestine are longstanding and must be solved by the United Nations. There is a complete framework that forms the basis of the actions and decisions taken by the United Nations.

Votes are collected from the members on a particular issue, and then a decision or a statement is issued over the conflict. This research will assess the role of the United Nations in resolving world conflicts and how successful or unsuccessful the organisation has been in resolving world conflicts.

Important Notes:

As a student of international relations looking to get good grades, it is essential to develop new ideas and experiment with existing international relations theories – i.e., to add value and interest to your research topic.

International relations are vast and interrelated to many other academic disciplines like politics , law , geopolitics , history , and even business . That is why it is imperative to create an international relations dissertation topic that is particular and sound and actually solves a practical problem that may be rampant in the field.

We can’t stress how important it is to develop a logical research topic based on your entire research. There are several significant downfalls to getting your topic wrong: your supervisor may not be interested in working on it, the topic has no academic creditability, the research may not make logical sense, and there is a possibility that the study is not viable.

This impacts your time and efforts in writing your dissertation , as you may end up in a cycle of rejection at the initial stage of the dissertation. That is why we recommend reviewing existing research to develop a topic, taking advice from your supervisor, and even asking for help in this particular stage of your dissertation.

Keeping our advice in mind while developing a research topic will allow you to pick one of the best international relations dissertation topics that fulfil your requirement of writing a research paper and adds to the body of knowledge.

Therefore, it is recommended that when finalizing your dissertation topic, you read recently published literature to identify gaps in the research that you may help fill.

Remember- dissertation topics need to be unique, solve an identified problem, be logical, and be practically implemented. Please look at some of our sample international relations dissertation topics to get an idea for your own dissertation.

How to Structure Your Dissertation on International Relations

A well-structured dissertation can help students to achieve a high overall academic grade.

A Title Page
Acknowledgments
Declaration
Abstract: A summary of the research completed
Table of Contents
Introduction : This chapter includes the project rationale, research background, key research aims and objectives, and the research problems. An outline of the structure of a dissertation can also be added to this chapter.
Literature Review : This chapter presents relevant theories and frameworks by analysing published and unpublished literature on the chosen research topic to address research questions . The purpose is to highlight and discuss the selected research area’s relative weaknesses and strengths whilst identifying any research gaps. Break down the topic and key terms that can positively impact your dissertation and your tutor.
Methodology : The data collection and analysis methods and techniques employed by the researcher are presented in the Methodology chapter, which usually includes research design , research philosophy, research limitations, code of conduct, ethical consideration, data collection methods, and data analysis strategy .
Findings and Analysis : The findings of the research are analysed in detail in the Findings and Analysis chapter. All key findings/results are outlined in this chapter without interpreting the data or drawing any conclusions. It can be useful to include graphs, charts, and tables in this chapter to identify meaningful trends and relationships.
Discussion and Conclusion : The researcher presents his interpretation of the results in this chapter and states whether the research hypothesis has been verified or not. An essential aspect of this section of the paper is to link the results and evidence from the literature. Recommendations with regard to the implications of the findings and directions for the future may also be provided. Finally, a summary of the overall research, along with final judgments, opinions, and comments, must be included in the form of suggestions for improvement.
References : This should be completed following your University’s requirements
Bibliography
Appendices : Any additional information, diagrams, and graphs used to complete the dissertation but not part of the dissertation should be included in the Appendices chapter. Essentially, the purpose is to expand the information/data.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How to find international relations dissertation topics.

For international relations dissertation topics:

Examine global issues and conflicts.
Analyse diplomacy, treaties, or organisations.
Explore cultural, economic, or political influences.
Review current events and debates.
Consider regional dynamics.
Opt for a topic resonating with your passion and research scope.

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Afrobarometer Provides reports and datasets of public opinion surveys of various African countries.
AmericasBarometer Insights Series - LAPOP Studies based on surveys in 23 countries of the Americas in 2008, including North America, Central America, South America and the Caribbean.
Asian Barometer Access to public opinion surveys of people from Southeast Asian countries. more... less... Access the datasets requires submitting contact information and having the data sent to you through email.
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Small Arms Survey Principal international source of public information on small arms and light weapons, including weapon use and government policies.
Correlates of War Provides datasets from researchers focusing on the actions and impacts of war and post-war events on countries and regions.
Crimes of War Project collaboration of journalists, lawyers and scholars dedicated to raising public awareness of the laws of war and their application to situations of conflict.

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ElectionGuide Focuses on current elections, but includes previous elections back to 1998. Developed by a non-profit International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES), the world's premiere election assistance organization.
International Voter Turnout - IDEA Most comprehensive global collection of political participation statistics available, covers presidential & parliamentary elections, numbers of registered voters and information of false ballots.
Freedom House Provides scores, reports and statistics covering democracy and freedom across the world. There are reports on civil liberties, political rights, freedom of speech, freedom of press, and countries transitioning to democracy.
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Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) Website A non-profit, bipartisan group providing research and analysis on national and international security strategies.
Human Security Report Project Focuses on the impact of international involvement in wars, genocides and human rights abuses.
World Security Institute A non-profit group providing research and journalism relating to global affairs, including information by topic or region.
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Website Organization of 56 participating countries in Europe, Asia & North America focusing on preventing conflict and helping areas develop national security strategies.

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Human Development Index Ranks countries on the level of human development, such as poverty levels, health, life expectancies, education, equality of genders, etc.
Global Health Council Non-profit group's website focused on improving health of people throughout the world through education and health programs, including publications.
UNAIDS Providing information on the UN's AIDS initiative to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS.

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Population Reference Bureau (PBR) A non-profit organization providing statistics and publication on population trends throughout the world, focusing on the effects of population growth on economics, health and the environment.
World Population Trends - UN Provides information on population trends throughout the world including population growth, fertility, mortality, population policies, etc.
Census Bureau International Data Base Provides rankings of countries by population growth, growth estimates, demographic indicators and population pyramids.
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Importance of Choosing the Right Political Research Paper Topic

Choosing the right topic is important for several reasons:

It ensures that you remain engaged and motivated throughout the research process. A topic that genuinely interests you will make the research and writing phases more enjoyable and less burdensome.
A well-chosen topic aligns with the academic criteria and expectations, which can significantly impact your grades. According to general IB criteria, a relevant and challenging topic demonstrates your critical thinking skills and ability to conduct thorough research.
Selecting a topic with ample available resources and data ensures you can build a robust and credible argument, ultimately leading to a successful research paper.

The right topic enhances your academic performance and enriches your understanding of the subject.

Government Research Paper Topics

Democracy and Its Challenges
The Role of Political Parties in Democratic Systems
Electoral Systems and Their Impact on Governance
The Effectiveness of Parliamentary vs. Presidential Systems
The Influence of Political Lobbying on Legislation
The Role of Constitutions in Modern States
The Function of Checks and Balances in Government
Corruption and Its Impact on Governance
The Role of Local Governments in National Development
Government Accountability and Transparency

Public Policy and Administration

Healthcare Policy Analysis in Developed vs. Developing Countries
Education Reform Policies and Their Long-term Effects
Environmental Policy and Sustainable Development
Social Welfare Policies and Their Impact on Poverty
The Role of Public Administration in Policy Implementation
Taxation Policies and Economic Growth
The Influence of Public Opinion on Policy Making
Crisis Management and Government Response
Public Sector Reforms and Efficiency
The Role of Non-Governmental Organizations in Public Policy

150+ Political and International Relations Topics for Research Paper

Comparative Politics

Comparing Political Systems: Democracies vs. Authoritarian Regimes
Federal vs. Unitary States: Benefits and Drawbacks
Case Studies of Successful Governments in Small States
The Political Dynamics of Coalition Governments
Electoral Systems and Voter Turnout
The Role of Political Culture in Different Countries
The Impact of Colonialism on Modern Political Systems
Political Stability in Multi-Ethnic Societies
Comparing Welfare States: Nordic vs. Anglo-Saxon Models
The Role of Political Institutions in Economic Development

International Relations Research Paper Topics

Foreign policy research paper topics.

U.S. Foreign Policy Strategies in the 21st Century
China’s Role in Global Politics
European Union’s Foreign Relations and Global Influence
The Impact of Brexit on International Relations
Russia’s Foreign Policy and Its Global Implications
The Role of Emerging Powers in International Relations
The Influence of Non-State Actors on Foreign Policy
The Impact of Globalization on National Sovereignty
Foreign Policy Decision-Making Processes
Comparative Analysis of Diplomatic Strategies

Diplomatic Relations

The Art of Diplomacy in Modern Politics
The Impact of International Sanctions on Diplomacy
The Role of Embassies and Consulates in Foreign Relations
Conflict Resolution through Diplomatic Channels
Diplomatic Immunity and Its Implications
The Role of Cultural Diplomacy in International Relations
Case Studies of Successful Diplomatic Negotiations
The Influence of Economic Diplomacy on Trade Relations
The Role of Multilateral Diplomacy in Global Governance
The Impact of Digital Diplomacy on Traditional Diplomatic Practices

United Nations Research Paper Topics

The Role of the United Nations in Peacekeeping
The Effectiveness of the UN Security Council
The Impact of the UN on Global Health Initiatives
The Role of the UN in Promoting Human Rights
The Influence of the UN on International Law
The Role of the UN in Sustainable Development
The Impact of the UN General Assembly’s Resolutions
Case Studies of Successful UN Interventions
The Role of the UN in Addressing Climate Change
The Future of the United Nations in Global Politics

Terrorism and National Security Research Paper Topics

Counterterrorism strategies.

The Evolution of Terrorist Tactics Over Time
The Impact of Counterterrorism Policies on Civil Liberties
Case Studies of Successful Counterterrorism Operations
The Role of Intelligence Agencies in Counterterrorism
Cyberterrorism and National Security
The Influence of International Cooperation on Counterterrorism
The Role of Technology in Modern Counterterrorism Efforts
The Impact of Radicalization on National Security
Counterterrorism Strategies in the Middle East
The Role of Community Engagement in Preventing Terrorism

National Security Policies

The Importance of Cybersecurity in National Security
Border Security Measures and Their Effectiveness
The Role of Intelligence Agencies in National Security
The Impact of Defense Spending on National Security
National Security Policies in the Age of Globalization
The Role of Military Alliances in National Security
The Influence of Political Stability on National Security
National Security Challenges in the 21st Century
The Role of Civil-Military Relations in National Security
The Impact of Technological Advancements on National Security

Immigration Policy Research Paper Topics

Immigration and society.

The Economic Impact of Immigration on Host Countries
Immigration Laws and Reforms in Different Countries
The Social Integration of Immigrants into Host Societies
The Role of Immigration in Demographic Changes
The Impact of Immigration on Labor Markets
Immigration Policies and Human Rights
The Influence of Public Opinion on Immigration Policies
Comparative Analysis of Immigration Policies
The Role of Immigration in Cultural Exchange
The Impact of Illegal Immigration on National Security

Refugee Crisis

Causes of Global Refugee Crises
Policies for Refugee Protection in Host Countries
Case Studies of Successful Refugee Resettlement Programs
The Role of International Organizations in Addressing Refugee Crises
The Impact of Refugee Crises on International Relations
The Influence of Media on Public Perception of Refugees
The Role of Civil Society in Supporting Refugees
The Economic Contributions of Refugees to Host Countries
Legal Challenges in Refugee Protection
The Future of Global Refugee Policies

Globalization Research Paper Topics

Economic globalization.

The Role of Multinational Corporations in Global Trade
Global Trade Agreements and Their Impact on Economies
The Impact of Globalization on Developing Countries
The Influence of Global Financial Institutions
The Role of Technology in Economic Globalization
The Impact of Globalization on Labor Markets
The Influence of Globalization on Income Inequality
Comparative Analysis of Globalization Policies
The Role of Free Trade Agreements in Economic Growth
The Future of Economic Globalization

Cultural Globalization

The Spread of Cultural Norms and Values Through Globalization
The Role of Global Media in Cultural Exchange
The Impact of Globalization on Local Cultures
The Influence of Globalization on Language and Communication
The Role of International Tourism in Cultural Globalization
The Impact of Cultural Globalization on Identity
Comparative Analysis of Cultural Globalization Policies
The Influence of Globalization on Education Systems
The Role of Social Media in Cultural Exchange
The Future of Cultural Globalization

Middle East Conflict Research Paper Topics

Historical context.

The Origins of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
The Role of Colonialism in Middle Eastern Conflicts
Key Events in the History of Middle Eastern Wars
The Impact of the Cold War on Middle Eastern Politics
The Role of Religion in Middle Eastern Conflicts
The Influence of Oil Politics on Middle Eastern Conflicts
Comparative Analysis of Middle Eastern Conflicts
The Impact of Nationalism on Middle Eastern Politics
The Role of External Powers in Middle Eastern Conflicts
The Future of Peace in the Middle East

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Contemporary Issues

The Impact of the Syrian Civil War on Regional Stability
The Role of International Actors in the Middle East
The Influence of Terrorist Organizations in Middle Eastern Conflicts
The Impact of the Arab Spring on Middle Eastern Politics
Comparative Analysis of Peace Processes in the Middle East
The Role of Media in Shaping Public Perception of Middle Eastern Conflicts
The Influence of Refugee Crises on Middle Eastern Politics
The Role of Human Rights in Middle Eastern Conflicts
The Impact of Economic Sanctions on Middle Eastern Countries
The Future of Middle Eastern Politics

Selecting a research paper topic in political and international relations can be enriching. From government structures to global conflicts, there are endless possibilities to explore. This list of topics at Writing Metier helps you find the perfect subject for your project. Your unique perspective and analysis make your paper stand out, so dive in and let your curiosity guide you.

Free topic suggestions

Laura Orta is an avid author on Writing Metier's blog. Before embarking on her writing career, she practiced media law in one of the local media. Aside from writing, she works as a private tutor to help students with their academic needs. Laura and her husband share their home near the ocean in northern Portugal with two extraordinary boys and a lifetime collection of books.

200 Term Paper Topics in Different Fields

Our extensive collection of term paper topics, meticulously curated to cater to diverse interests and fields of study. From the intricacies of argumentative essays to the innovative realms of experimental research, discover the perfect topic to ignite your curiosity and challenge your academic prowess.

50+ Visual Arts Extended Essay Topics for IBDP

This extensive list of IB Visual Arts extended essay topics covers a wide range of artistic mediums, cultural contexts, and conceptual frameworks. From examining the use of unconventional materials in avant-garde sculpture to investigating the influence of ancient art forms on modern graphic design, these topics are designed to spark creativity and critical thinking.

Best Biology Research Paper Topics | 50+ Custom Examples

As a branch of Science, Biology deals with living organisms' study and looks into their functions, structures, growth and evolution. Biology, as a subject, holds significant importance because of the topics it deals with. Having this said, it is important for one to always understand the topic they are fully aware of before writing a Biology research paper.

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213 International Relations Dissertation Topics – Your Ultimate List

If you are looking to start working on your dissertation, you are probably in the process of searching for the best topics. You probably know that finding exceptional international relations dissertation topics takes time and effort. You can’t skip this step either because the topic has the potential to make or break your thesis. You need the absolute best and most interesting topics, period. Obviously, i t is not easy to write a dissertation paper . The good news is that we have 213 original, highly interesting topics right here. So, to get a good topic, all you have to do is go through our list of ideas and pick the one you like. We have split the list into 21 categories, so it should be fairly easy for you to find the perfect topic in just a couple of minutes. We know, you are probably wondering why you should choose our topics and not continue your search on the Internet.

Best International Relations Dissertation Topics Online

The truth is that our dissertation topics in international relations are the best on the Web. In addition, they are all original. This means that your peers won’t probably pick any of these ideas. The last thing you want to do is write a paper on a topic that has already been selected by one of your peers.

Another very important benefit of choosing our topics is that you don’t have to pay a dime to use them. Our list of ideas is 100% free to use. You can even reword the topics, if you so desire. And no, you don’t have to give us any credit. Remember, this list is updated periodically. So, if you can’t find the perfect topic now, return to this page in a few days and look at the new topics we’ve added.

We know you are anxious to see what we have in store for you. Here are the best 213 international relations dissertation topics on the Internet:

Politics and International Relations Dissertation Topics

Take a look at some of our most interesting politics and international relations dissertation topics and choose the one you like right now:

Discuss realism and liberalism
The terror attacks of 9/11
The International society theory
Japan’s international relations with China
India: the next superpower?
Discuss the concept of neoliberalism
Future relations between China and the United States
The withdrawal of US troops from Germany
An in-depth analysis of the dependency theory
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Realism versus constructivism
An analysis of feminism in international relations
Discuss the concept of sovereignty
Discuss the concept of power blocks

International Relations Dissertation

When you need to write an international relations dissertation, you need a good topic – that’s for sure. Check out these excellent ideas:

The history of international relations
Define constructivism
Discuss the concept of national interest
The history of realism
An analysis of the Marxist theory
The regime theory: an in-depth analysis
Polarity in modern power blocks
Discuss the concept of non-state actors in international relations
The role of religion in international relations
Interdependence of European Union nations
Well-known regional security arrangements in Asia
Human rights in Africa

Political Science Ideas

Writing about political science is not easy, we know. However, we can assure you that writing about one of our political science ideas will make your job a lot easier:

Discuss Presidential Democracy as opposed to Parliamentary Democracy
The power struggles around the Arctic Circle
Compare and contrast liberalism and post-socialism
Discuss election ethics in the United States
Best community improvement methods in the UK
Discuss privacy laws in the European Union
Discuss the Human Rights Act of 1998
Religion: a modern social power
Pardoning powers in Asian countries
An in-depth look at Plato’s The Republic
Lenin’s communist approach
Discuss protests on social networks
Best way to solve the Yemen conflict
The foreign policy of the US
The foreign policy of the UK

Historical International Agreements

An easy way to write a thesis is to pick a relatively simple topic. Why don’t you analyze one of the many historical international agreements? Here are some ideas:

The Convention for the Preservation of Wild Animals, Birds and Fish in Africa
The Cuban–American Treaty of Relations of 1903
The Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1904
The Second Geneva Convention
The Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910
The Treaty of Bucharest of 1913
The Treaty of London of 1915 (also called the London Pact)
The Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Sèvres
The Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance
The United Nations Charter
The Treaty of London (1949)
The ANZUS Treaty
The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations
The Outer Space Treaty
The Paris Agreement of 2015
The Cotonou Agreement

Politics Dissertation Ideas

Writing a politics dissertation doesn’t have to be a daunting task. It doesn’t have to take months. Take a look at these interesting politics dissertation ideas and start working on your paper today:

Discuss comparative politics in Europe
Discuss a major political theory
Discuss political geography in Africa
Political extremism in UK politics
The impact of the news on politics in Taiwan
Relations between terrorism, religion and politics
Television propaganda effects in China

Terrorism Dissertation Ideas

Yes, you can analyze a topic related to terrorism in your dissertation. In fact, here are some of the most important terrorism dissertation ideas you can write about:

Domestic terrorism in the United States
The state of terrorism in 2023
Domestic terrorism in the United Kingdom
The rise of Al-Qaeda
Thwarting terror attacks in Europe
Terrorism in modern Turkey
The attacks of 9/11
The death of Osama bin Laden
A biography of Ayman al-Zawahiri
Terrorism in India
Pakistan’s support for terror organizations
Peshmerga’s fight against ISIS
The retreat of US forces from Afghanistan (2023)
Modern techniques to detect terror attacks
The Kurds and their fight against Islamic State

International Diplomacy Thesis Ideas

Discussing international diplomacy is an excellent way to get some bonus points (professors love these topics). Here are some great international diplomacy thesis ideas:

The upcoming US-Japan trade deal
Impact of cryptocurrencies on international diplomacy
The steps of negotiating an alliance
The steps of negotiating a truce in the Gaza Strip
Trade agreements in effect in Europe
Discuss parliamentary diplomacy in the United States
Discuss the concepts involved with cultural diplomacy

Complex International Relations Topics

Do you want to write a paper on a more complex topic? No problem, we’ve got your covered. Here are some more complex international relations topics:

The First Iraqi-Kurdish War
The Second Iraqi-Kurdish War
Discuss the concept of foreign policy
What is neo-classical realism?
The democratic peace theory
Discuss the variants of liberalism
Liberalism versus constructivism
Offensive liberalism vs. defensive liberalism
Discuss human right in Sub-Saharan Africa
Globalization and the problems it poses
Discuss the concept of global ethics
Discuss the concept of global poverty
What is military diplomacy?

Political Socialization Ideas

Are you looking for the best political socialization ideas? Our expert academic writers have compiled a list of the best ones for you. Check these out:

Discuss the concept of political socialization during Plato’s time
Economic opportunities of political socialization
The art of the propaganda war
The importance of social studies education for politicians
Political socialization through the use of humanitarian aid
The cumulative aspect of political socialization
Political socialization compared to political culture

Human Rights Dissertation Topics

Writing a dissertation about human rights dissertation topics can take a very long time because of the research involved. Here are some of our most interesting ideas:

Human rights problems in Palestine
Human rights issues in Israel
Discuss the monitoring of human rights in Europe
The right to peaceful assembly in Asia
The freedom of expression in China
Discuss the right to life and liberty
Armed conflict and its effects on human rights
Attacks on journalists in the Middle East
The spread of misinformation at state level
Gender discrimination in education in the United States
Housing discrimination based on race in the UK

International Relations PhD Ideas

Are you looking for some of the best and most interesting international relations PhD ideas? Pick one of the topics on this list and start working on your paper right away:

The China-India conflicts
China’s role in Taiwan in 2023
The Indo-Pakistani conflict in Kashmir
The surge in global terrorism
Discuss the relations between India and Central Asia
Problems in the South China Sea
China’s Cold War Against the US
Africa: a rising international power
Discuss the concept of revisionism (status quo)
Discuss the concept of interdependence
Religion in international relations

Topics That Professors Really Like

Our experienced dissertation writers know exactly what professors like. Check out this list of topics that professors love and pick the one you think works for you:

The US withdrawal from Afghanistan
Discuss the Afghan peace process
The impact of the US-China trade war on Europe
Immigration laws in the US compared to those in Europe
The CPEC and the economy of Pakistan
Discuss the reasons behind UK’s Brexit
Chinese involvement in African political issues
Analyze the United States policy towards Africa
United Nations and their role in the Yemen conflict
The United States’ foreign policy on Russia
Donald Trump’s views on Russian foreign policy
Bitcoin and its effects on international relations

Topics in International Relations in the Middle East

Are you interested in writing about topics in international relations in the Middle East? We have managed to create some unique topics that you will surely appreciate:

Religious differences in the Middle East
Shia and Sunny Muslims clashes
Discuss the Iran–Saudi Arabia proxy conflict
The decline in oil prices
OPEC members and their effects on Middle Easters countries
Discuss the Arab Spring demonstrations
Discuss women’s rights in the Middle East
Rise in terrorist threats in the Middle East
Terror training camps in Iran
The rise of ISIS (the Islamic State)
America’s war in the Middle East

Persuasive International Relations Topics

If you need to write a persuasive academic paper, it’s time to take a look at our list of awesome persuasive international relations topics:

The importance of the American Interest Promotion System
The influence of realism on modern geopolitics
Discuss International Refugee Law
The disadvantages of the Chinese Maritime Strategy
China is gaining a foothold in Africa
The value of electronic documents in international trade
State sovereignty problems in Asia
Labor power is diminishing across the world
Negative aspects of foreign investments in emerging economies
The concept of hard power in international relations

International Relations Thesis Topics

If you are looking to a captivating topic for your next thesis, it’s definitely time to take a look at our list of international relations thesis topics:

The benefits of military alliances in Asia
The negative aspects of military alliances in Europe
Analyze a developing country of your choice
Discuss the main characteristics of international diplomacy
The history of NATO
Analyze the Standard Realism theory
Discuss the concept of commercial liberalism

Argumentative International Relations Topics

If you are required to write an argumentative paper, you should pick one of the following argumentative international relations topics right away:

Norms in international relations
Social learning in European international relations
The role of international institutions
Discuss the main Rational Choice theories
The relations between civil society and the military
Persuasion used in international relations
Discuss the origins of domestic conflict in the US

Easy Topics in International Relations

We have a list of easy topics in international relations, of course. These ideas are for students who want to spend as little time as possible working on their thesis or research paper:

Political refugees in the US
The Arab Spring movement
The foreign policy of Russia
Current state of the European Union
Post-Brexit relations between the UK and the EU
The importance of exchange students
Define international diplomacy
Discuss international education

Controversial International Relations Topics

Why would you be afraid to write a thesis on a controversial topic? You professor will surely appreciate it if you choose one of these controversial international relations topics:

The role of foreign labor in the EU
Foreign labor in the United States
Discuss humanitarian assistance in Africa
Pros and cons of NATO
Protecting human rights in Asia
The freedom of expression on the Internet
Discuss OPEC’s price-fixing strategy

Latest Topics in International Relations

Our writers keep up to date with the latest topics in international relations. Here are some of the most interesting ideas:

The role of terrorist organizations in the Middle East
Peace prospects in Afghanistan
Curbing Russia’s nuclear power
The advantages of globalization
Discuss UK’s Brexit
Weapons trade inside the EU
Adopting the Euro in the European Union

International Law Thesis Topics

Our experienced writers can help you if you are looking for international law thesis topics. We know, it’s very difficult to find topics about international law. Pick one of these ideas today:

Analyze international human rights laws
Discuss international criminal law
Analyze private international law
Discuss public international law
A closer look at international humanitarian law
Discuss maritime international laws
The three sources of international law

International Relations Research Topics for College

Are you a college student who needs to write a research paper on international relations? Here are the best international relations research topics for college:

Discuss international customs
Artificial intelligence in international security applications
Covid-19 effects on international trade
Relations between democratic and communist states
Achieving peace in Asia
Analyze the neoclassical approach to conflicts
Covid-19 effects on international relations

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International Law Guide

International Courts and Tribunals
International Organizations
Private International Law
Selected Topics in Public International Law

General Guides and Resources for Public International Law

GlobaLex Research guides to international law (by subject) and foreign law (by jurisdiction) from NYU's Hauser Global Law School Program.

ASIL Research Guide to Public International Law An up-to-date guide to treaty and other public international law research with an emphasis on online resources. From the American Society of International Law.

Criminal Law

ASIL Research Guide to International Criminal Law
Research Guides to the International Criminal Courts for the Former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone From GlobaLex.
Comparative Criminal Procedure: A Selected Bibliography From GlobaLex.
International Criminal Court Legal Tools Provides access to documents important to international criminal law, including treaties, judgments and decisions, summaries of domestic criminal justice systems in many countries including relevant statutes or codes, and commentary on international criminal law and other aspects of international law.

Environmental Law

ECOLEX: A Gateway to Environmental Law
United Nations Environment Programme
ASIL Research Guide to International Environmental Law
A Basic Guide to International Environmental Legal Research From GlobaLex.

Human Rights and Humanitarian Law

UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
OHCHR Jurisprudence Database Contains recommendations and findings from the various UN human rights committees that consider complaints from individuals.
Refworld UNHCR's comprehensive information source on refugee status includes treaties, legislation and court decisions, as well as information organized by country and topic.
European Court of Human Rights Pending cases, judgments, basic texts and a complete index to all ECHR judgments.
Bayefsky.com: The United Nations Human Rights Treaties
ICRC's Customary International Humanitarian Law Database A free online version of their two-volume publication.
University of Minnesota Human Rights Library
Human Rights Library: Collections on the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and Inter-American Commission on Human Rights From the University of Minnesota.
ESCR-Net Caselaw Database Database of domestic, international, and quasi-judicial cases and decisions on economic, social and cultural rights.
U.S. Department of State - Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
Project Diana: An Online Human Rights Case Archive From Yale Law School.
ASIL Research Guide to International Human Rights
ASIL Research Guide to International Humanitarian Law
International Human Rights Research Guide From GlobaLex.
ICJ E-bulletin on Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights International Commission of Jurist's free monthly publication of legal developments in the fields of counter-terrorism and human rights.

Intellectual Property

WIPO: World Intellectual Property Organization
WIPO Lex Collection of intellectual property legislation (in English) from WIPO member countries.
AIPPI - International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property An international NGO devoted to the "the development and improvement of intellectual property." The Questions/Committees section contains country-by-country reports on specific intellectual property law topics.
European Patent Office
U.S. Patent & Trademark Office General information, forms, and a free searchable patent and trademark database.
U.S. Copyright Office Copyright basics, law, forms, and other materials available through the Library of Congress, the entity responsible for copyrights.
ASIL Research Guide to International Intellectual Property Law
IP Precedents Database Database of English translations of precedential domestic court decisions on IP topics; from the Research Center for the Legal System of Intellectual Property.

Law of the Sea

United Nations: Oceans and Law of the Sea
International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea
International Seabed Authority
UVA Center for Oceans Law & Policy
ASIL Research Guide to Law of the Sea

Trade, Investment or Economic Law

GATT Documents Online From the WTO.
GATT Digital Library From Stanford University.
WorldTradeLaw.net
International Trade Database: Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods From Pace University.
Trans-Lex.org Research platform for transnational commercial law from the Center for Transnational Law, Cologne University, Germany.
SICE - Foreign Trade Information System From the Organization of American States.
United States International Trade Commission
United States Trade Representative
Harmonized Tariff Schedule

ASIL Research Guide to International Economic Law
ASIL Research Guide to International Commercial Arbitration
Research Guide on the Harmonization of International Commercial Law From GlobaLex.

Women's Rights

Women's Human Rights Resources From the University of Toronto.
Women's Human Rights Documents From the University of Minnesota.
Women's Rights Links From the University of Minnesota.
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Beginners Guide on International Relations Essay Topics

Updated 15 Feb 2024

Students who decide to study International Relations can help significantly in managing politics when they finish their studies. Choosing the right topic to deal with is essential, as it tackles one of the most burning issues.

International relations essay topics can sometimes be given by teachers, usually in lengthy lists that students can choose from. All of these assignments require outstanding research and a prolonged reading activity from the student and that's why you may ask "how can I write my essay with all these complicated guidelines?" and therefore seek out professional help on essay writing services such as Edubirdie.

These students must act as professional researchers in their local library and online to try and solve some unresolved issues from the past. Therefore, choosing just the right topic is essential as it can unlock and find solutions for burning issues from the past and apply them to the present and future.

This way, students of International Relations become politicians in a way, as they address and analyze deeply rooted problems and causes for conflict between nations.

What is an International Relations Essay?

The essence of an essay on the subject is that it aims to expand the students’ knowledge and further educate them. It is an essay where students convey great ideas from analyzing past events, and solutions are offered to be applied to the future of a nation.

They’re not just about finding a solution - they’re about finding the best solution. If you consider the Nuclear Deal of Iran, which you know the importance of, and have a written essay with an in-depth analysis of it, you may come to a better understanding of why it took place.

In such cases, the cause and effect essay topics are the best. You analyze the causes, see what effects they made, and write an essay covering the main reasons for why it happened precisely the way it did.

The structure of this type of paper is conventional and includes the following sections:

Introduction Includes some key issues, the problem to be discussed and the outline of the essay stages.
Main Body Has subheadings that break the entire essay into thematic sections. Includes key definition, facts, analysis and further discussion. Here is where all arguments are to be supported by the sources.
Conclusion Summary of the key points (in other words). Includes analytical conclusion and your final opinion.

Also, you may come and will come to a better understanding of what can be done to prevent such an event from ever occurring again. Choosing the right topic for International Relations isn’t always easy, which is why you can read the tips below followed by a 200-example list of essay topics.

Tips for Choosing International Relations Topics for an Essay

The following three tips should help each individual choose the best topic for your future writing.

Convey and combine ideas you already learned from your teacher and choose a topic you will be able to cover with the knowledge you already have at hand.
Choose a topic connected to a burning issue from the past but can connect to the present.
Choose a topic that requires research you can find online or in your local library.

Save your time! We can take care of your essay

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200 International Relations Essay Topics

Here’s a list of 200 creative and helpful essay topics for international relations:

America and its allies will benefit from rising China
Globalizations from a socio-economic point of view
Origins, objectives, and development of Al Qaeda
The conflict between America and Russia
The foreign policy of America
Cold War and American hegemony
The Iranian revolution and the influence of America on it
“Soft Power” Joseph Nye - analysis
The foreign policy of America - analysis
The importance of domestic policies and its relation to word’s situation
International trade legislation and anti-dumping as its necessary part
The analysis of decision making in foreign policies
International Relations, concepts, and study in the Caribbean
American involvement in Peru Tacna-Arica and Chile
Economy, politics, and history of China
Relations between China and Australia
International Relations in colonial times
Trade with Japan and Matthew Perry
Realist and constructivist perspectives on Darfur and Rwanda genocide
The global concept of security
The theoretical critique of constructionism
The 2014 crises - Ukraine and Crimea
Darwin’s evolutionary theory and International Relations
Communication across cultures
Conflicts between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots in Cyprus
International students and their impact on world’s education system
Cooperation between world’s countries and their dynamics of change
The war of the Pacific and the early American-Chilean relations
The dispute between Japan and China over Senkaku Island - effects
Indonesian official tourism website - analysis
International Relations and ethics
China’s intervention in the African Continent - challenges
Youth Movement Protest - analysis
The future of the English language
World’s security committee and disarmament
International Relations and gender
American - German relations
Communication on a global level
International Relations and globalization
Regional Institutions and globalization
The new world group and Guyana
Bilateral relations through history
American foreign policy and South Sudan destabilization - effects
How can we achieve world peace?
International Relations - why do people choose to study them?
The impact of World’s Organizations on the US
International Relations and human nature
Human rights on the global discourse
The complete analysis of the humanitarian intervention
Relations between world’s countries, realism, and idealism
How does globalization affect people?
International Relations and the impact of the Great Depression on them in the 1930s
Public relations - analysis of world’s affairs
A complete analysis of global businesses
All about international communication
The UN and its global governance
Intercultural Relations’ international journal
A comprehensive analysis of global businesses and their impact on the world economy
Global Politics and International Relations
The three theories of International Relations
World Politics and its influence on an average citizen
Are International Relations a form of a moral compass?
International Relations from a realist and liberalistic point of view
Joseph S. Nye and Robert O. Keohane and their theory about world’s politics
Midterm International Relations
Asian business model and its influence on the global market
Djibouti International Relations
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the global affairs
Will there be more global businesses within the next 100 years?
Questions and answers about world’s politics and global businesses
Humanitarian intervention and word’s situation
The theories and liberalism of International Relations
The main theorists of International Relations
Terrorist attacks on September 11 and how they influence the world
International politics and hierarchy change
How humans perceive politics in past and present
America, Lebanon, and Beirut and the impact on the rest of the world
Engagement of Japan with China - what to expect in future
Why have populists become the reality of 21th century political arena?
International security on the example of different countries
World’s trade and globalization
Arabic and Chinese international relations - investigation and analysis
All about the affair Iran-Contra
Foreign direct investment and Ireland’s attractiveness
Did the desire for oil drive the US foreign policy in the Middle East?
India - an emerging power or not?
The UN and analysis of whether Turkey is ready to be a part of it?
Analysis of the future relations between China and America
All about the foreign policies of Latin America
Did mainstream global businesses exclude the diversity of issues and voices?
We must end the war before the war ends us
Using foreign policies to maximize national security
Turkey versus Afghanistan
International Relations and the negotiations related to it
International Relations as a framework to compare Liberalism and Neo-Realism
All about the migrant flow from Nepal to Qatar
A realistic interpretation of Korea’s world’s politics
Geopolitics - an overview
America and Russia during the Early Cold War - misperceptions and perceptions
The South African Government and the policy brief addressed to it about Intervention
Is the power of politics overestimated?
The Sea Region and its power
Overseas military bases and their common problems
An analysis of Public Diplomacy
The three types of realism - offensive, structuralist, and classical
Constructivism and realism
The Cold War - realism and liberalism
The 1994 Rwanda Genocide and realism
American and Iranian relations
What will global politics face in the near future?
Feminism and its influence on global politics and the perception of peace
Korean War - a detailed review
Saudi Arabia and its oil - benefits for the country
An analysis of the Scottish Separatist Movement
Will UK citizens regret Brexit within the next 50 years?
The Russia-Ukraine conflict and whether the United States should get involved
The embargo on Cuba - should America lift it?
The United Nations Security Council and whether veto power should be abolished
World’s politics and the participation of South Africa
Declining significance of sovereignty and why such cases still take place
Is there a chance to prevent war on the diplomatic level?
The Mathias Risse and Thomas Pogge debate - summary
Naming the Island - why is it so important for the Communist Party of China?
Terrorism and its global spread
The UN and the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
Haiti, Bosnia, and Somalia cases and their impact on the American foreign policy
Islam and its changing nature
The historical background of the Civil War in Sudan
The Soviet Union and its collapse - analysis
Is the Columbian Exchange a huge step towards globalization or not?
What Would the world look like if there was only one country?
Authoritarian and democratic states and their contrasting development
Why are nuclear weapons equally dangerous and needed?
All about Democratic Peace Theory
Human trafficking in South Africa and its devastating effects
American political and economic policies regarding Nafta, Wto, Balance of Trade and EU
Imperialism and its effects
A Via Media - all about the English School
Matteo Legranzi about the changing Middle East - Economic coordination, security, and diplomacy
How does Brexit influence other countries and their politics?
An analysis of the Good Neighbor Policy
What are the most significant causes of War?
The impact of International Relations and climate change on the Philippines
Global business and their impact on Zambia and China
Modern liberalism and its main features
How vital are military ethics in War?
Saudi Arabia and the importance of their oil
United Nations Security Council and its importance
Intergovernmental authority - all about its development
The order and disorder of the International System
Thomas Massaro and his description of the Just War Theory
Did the feminist approaches arrive late regarding International Relations Theory?
Economic future of Hong Kong
How does the maturation of war develop?
World politics and the negative impact of realism
International System and the New Sovereignty
Global politics and the effects of the Nixon Doctrine on them
How can humanity use historical facts to prevent losses in future?
How crucial are the problems of Oversea Military Bases?
The UN and its process of reformation
Globalization and the approach towards it
The notion of gender and its influence on global cooperation
Indian and Chinese raise - analysis
American Policy Stance for Iraq
International Relations - a realist approach
The UK and the UN relations
Global politics and the role of diplomacy in the 19th century
How crucial are the functions of the Carnegie and Rockefeller foundations?
Second Industrial Revolution and world’s politics during that time
Skeptic theory of morality and period of its main influence
Relations between America and the UN
International Relations - a structural theory
Theories of past that took place in modern politics
The UK and the United Arab Emirates
The American Agency of International Development
Theory and foreign policy: any differences?
International theory and its three traditions
The impact of the Zimmerman Telegram on America in WWI
Creation of Israel and Truman
Turkey - between Islam and the West
South Africa and its labor relations, unemployment, and trade unions
Why do global politics influence each country separately?
Defense Policies and America
American foreign policies in the past and present
Chile and Peru and the involvement of America
How important is energy independence for America?
China and America - in conflict or cooperation?
The forthcoming between China and America
The Russo-Ukraine War
Prospects for cooperation and conflict regarding water in the Middle East
Djibouti - a road to a more substantial foothold
International Political Administration - its strengths and weaknesses
Security concerns and the Western states
China or Russia? - which is a more significant threat to American National Security
Why should I study International Relations?
Why is power in the center of realist perspectives?
The pact of non-aggression in 1939 - why did the Soviet Union sign it?
What are the benefits of a good neighbour policy?
How imperialism affected global politics and trade
The Gulf and its Internal Relations

Essay Examples Relevant to International Relations

International Relations
Globalization
Foreign Policy
International Trade
Human Rights

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Foreign and International Law: Topics: Human Rights

Arbitration
Comparative Civil Procedure
Constitutions and Constitutional Law
Criminal Law and Criminal Tribunals
Elections and Political Participation
Environment
Foreign Investment
Global Warming
Health and Population
History and Government

Human Rights

Humanitarian Law
Immigration
Indigenous Peoples
Intellectual Property
International Affairs
International Business
International Law
International Security
International Sports Law
International Taxation
International Trade
Law and Economics
Law Reform Commissions
Legal Information Institutes
Reference-General Sources
Refugees/Asylum
Statistics/Data Archives

Topics in Foreign and International Law

Reference--General Sources
Amnesty International Under Library link find text of annual reports, campaign reports, publications arranged by country, country reports from 1994, and selected thematic reports and news releases.
ASIL Electronic Resource Guide: International Human Rights Prepared by Marci Hoffman, Lecturer in Residence; Associate Director, Law Library; International & Foreign Law Librarian University of California, Berkeley School of Law Library (updated in 2011).
Bibliography for Research on International Human Rights Law Univ. of Minnesota Human Rights Library. By Marci Hoffman and David Weissbrodt.
European Court of Human Rights Full-text judgments are only available from October 1996 to date, with a list of decisions from 1959. Information on pending cases, basic texts including European Convention on Human Rights and its protocols, and the Rules of Court. Speeches and press releases also available.
The European Human Rights System On GlobaLex. By James W. Hart (2011).
The Exploitation of Women and Children: A Comparative Study of Human Trafficking Laws between the United States-Mexico and China-Vietnam On GlobaLex. By Christina T. Le (2013).
FINDOC database From the Institute for Human Rights in Finland. Has entries for books, articles and seminar reports from 1966 on.
Human & Constitutional Rights, Columbia University International conventions, comparative law bill rights collections, country, regional and international sections. No longer updated as of March 2008.
Human Rights Organizations Database The Human Rights Organizations Database is Human Rights Internet's most comprehensive listing of institutions working in the field of human rights
Human Rights Library The University of Minnesota Human Rights Library houses one of the largest collections of more than eighty-five thousand core human rights documents, including several hundred human rights treaties and other primary international human rights instruments. The site also provides access to more than four thousands links and a unique search device for multiple human rights sites.
Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch, the largest human rights organization based in the United States, conducts fact-finding investigations into human rights abuses in all regions of the world, issues reports, and generates global attention on the situtation. Site has information by country and by topic.
Inter-American Human Rights Database In English and Spanish. From the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at the Washington College of Law, American University. Collection of documents adopted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights since its first session in 1960. Available in both English and Spanish versions. Contains reports on the Commission's individual cases and reports of its early work sessions, and will eventually include special country reports and thematic reports.

The Inter-American System of Human Rights: A Research Guide On GlobaLex. By Cecilia Cristina Naddeo; update by Francisco A. Avalos (2016).
International Centre for the Legal Protection of Human Rights INTERIGHTS defends and promotes human rights and freedoms worldwide through the use of international and comparative law.
International Human Rights Research Guide On GlobaLex. By Grace M. Mills (2014).
A Review of the Progressive Development of International Human Rights Framework on Capital Punishment By Michelle Miao.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Includes documents, publications and a searchable Treaty Bodies Database. The database was established to monitor the implementation of human rights treaties and can be searched by treaty, country, symbol, or type.
U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants Searchable database of country conditions and statistics from its annual World Refugee Survey of 120 countries. Full-text articles on such topics as detention, internally displaced persons, repatriation, religious persecution, women and child, safe havens, etc. are also available.
Women in International Law: Research Resources Prepared by Lyonette Louis-Jacques of the University of Chicago Law Library. Last updated 2002.

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111 International Studies Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best international studies topic ideas & essay examples, ⭐ simple & easy international studies essay titles, 📝 good research topics about international studies, 🔍 interesting topics to write about international studies, ❓ research questions about international studies.

International Students Attitudes Towards Online Shopping The researcher strived to answer three key questions, which sought to find out students’ attitudes towards online shopping, the nationality of students who make the largest number of online purchases, and the barriers that prevent […]
Coping Strategies for International Students with Language Barriers More importantly, there still exist gaps in knowledge on the most successful coping strategies that international students can adopt to overcome the challenge presented by the problem of language barrier in the pursuit of their […]
Cultural Assimilation of International Students The problem of assimilation is not new and can be linked to the first travels of folks and populations and their attempts to understand and live by the culture and established rules of the people […]
Homesickness in International Students Homesickness in international student is caused by culture shock and the failure to meet the high expectations that the international students have about their lives in the new country.
Admission of International Students to the U.S. Universities All in all, to overcome all these problems a lot of social support, is required from both the lecturers and students themselves.
International Student on Improving Performance in Educational Settings This unique approach to interacting with the learning environment stems from my view of the student learning environment from the outward-in, as opposed to the inwards-out method used by resident students.
Consumer Behavior of International Students Foreign students are likely to flood an outlet that is frequented by many locals because that way, they can be sure that they will buy items at the same price with the locals.
Fashion Impact on International Students in London The proposal looks at the personal experiences of a small group of international students living and studying in London, utilizing first-hand accounts of how they make sense of their university experiences abroad and integrate them […]
Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on International Students in Canada It is the responsibility of the relevant stakeholders to implement policies that support preventive mechanism and the welfare of the group due to the profound contribution to the socio-cultural and economic foundations of the nation.
Studying in Paris as an International Student If you choose to immerse in the culture deeper and study in French, it is easy to improve your level of knowledge in one of the language schools.
Improving the Experiences of International Students: Philippine and US One of the main differences between the state of education in the Philippine and within the U.S. is the fact that plagiarism is treated far more severely here.
Enhancing Voices of International Students in the UK Stemming from this background, the focus of the proposed study will be on enhancing the voices of international students to improve the quality of educational leadership in the UK.
Local and International Student’s Anxiety In addition to that, international students suffer from anxiety that is caused by the necessity to live in a new environment and culture.
International Students and Their Challenges in Australia According to the Victorian government statistics, the enrolment rate of international students has been on the rise since 2002 to present.
International Students Behaviour in KICL College So the main aim of this research was to establish an understanding of the factors that affect the consumption behaviour of the international students in KICL College.
International Students’ Attitude and Counseling Service For instance the students from Vietnam students are reluctant to seek counseling help due to the stigma associated with mental problems.
The Difficulties of Being an International Student in the USA According to the statistical data, the number of international students in the United States has significantly increased since the middle of the twentieth century.
International Studies: The Meaning of Appeasement To get to the root of the reasons that made the appeasement policy so popular in Britain and also making the then prime minister Chamberlain a hero, one must look deeply at the French and […]
Creating an Educational Agency to Recruit International Students From China Educational agencies serve the purpose of linking students with universities that would help them to achieve their personal and career goals.
Tourist Destination Role in International Students’ Choice of Academic Centre On the institution versus destination factors question the mainstay of the research the researchers established that the destination factors were superior to the university factors 4.
Challenges Faced by International Students at the University of Tampa The present research proposal explains the need for studying the challenges faced by international students at the University of Tampa and outlines the research objectives and methodology for the proposed study.
American Copyright Law Training for International Students However, they later come to discover that this is not so in the United States and that it is criminal not to pay attention to copyright law.
International Students Problems in Australian Universities These rules can also impact the behavior of female students who may be unwilling to use the services that can promote their sexual and reproductive health.
Plagiarism Among International Students: Omnibus Report In essence, therefore, the credibility of the whole report is built upon the concise details provided in the cover letter, and which include: identifying what plagiarism constitutes in the context of the United States; providing […]
Deakin University’s International Student Support The program is supported by the fact that the University operates on a student-focused culture and is a sector leader insofar as student satisfaction is concerned.
International Students’ Studying in the United States A majority of the students from the Middle East opt to study in the United States. The desire to advance my knowledge in art and design is what forced me to go to the United […]
International Students and Mobile Services in Australia At this point, we are going to advance a hypothesis that these customers pay most attention to such criteria as the price of international phone calls, the ease of use, the variety of mobile services, […]
International Students’ Guide for Living in the UK It will highlight some of the content in the magazine and will also address some of the queries that readers have.
Food’ Role in International Students Interaction One of the greatest challenges to international students is achieving a successful connection to the culture of the country where they are studying.
On Language Grounds: Discrimination of International Students The need to preserve one’s culture and position though language-based discrimination is likely to persist in the US to show that Americans are in control and foreign students must learn English to coexist with them.
International Students Discrimination in the USA International students lose their focus having to go through the process of adaptation to the new culture and new society, their lack of social and academic command of the English language is causing a lot […]
International Students Experience in English Environment Although combining studying and childrearing is especially hard for the students that are not the native speakers of English and, therefore, will have issues with understanding and learning the course material under the pressure of […]
Benefits of Attending Churches for International Students This proposal includes several elements: the design of brochures and leaflets about the churches in California; distribution of these leaflets; evaluation of students’ experiences and attitude toward churches.
International Student Self-Identity and Self-Concept According to Baumeister, due to the continuous evolution of the identity theory, there is no definite concept attached to identity; but the concept can be well understood by dissecting it into three key characteristics which […]
International Student Recruitment Program The internationalization can significantly improve the practice of teaching and learning in both countries through the implementation of adaptive techniques to communicating with international students.
Learning Styles in Asian International Students It is important for universities in foreign countries to implement teaching and learning styles and a curriculum that addresses the predicament of such students to promote effective learning.
Open Ontario: International Students Difficulties in Canada A research on the problems likely to be encountered will assist the government in creating an effective online Ontario institute that addresses the emerging and existing problems of the students.
Why International Students Find It Hard to Make Friends On the other hand, in societies that promote a high power distance, less powerful individuals accept their position in the chain of command and acknowledge the strengths of their superiors in the hierarchy.
International Students Effective Participation in Host Cultures The theories describe the characteristics of newly formed groups, the search for purpose and position, the place of acting out the group’s purpose, and in some cases, the point where the group disintegrates.
Exempted From Paying Taxes: International Students Who Are Not Working According to Dwyer, 2009, international students refer to those individuals who are seeking education in other countries and they will stay in that country for the period they will be studying.
Academic Achievement Among International Students and Associated Issues These include economic conditions, the extent of the students’ success, and the effect of peer programs on International students in terms of their adjustment.
Trends in the Enrollment of International Students to US Institutions The second section of the research involves the analysis of readily available data and relevant literature to identify international enrollment trends in the US with regard to the countries of origin, target states, major education […]
International Students Participation in ELICOS Australia The main objective of the report is to examine the factors which can influence the fact of falling of the number of those students from Colombia and Saudi Arabia who attend ELICOS in 2011 and […]
Exploring the International Students as a Community These challenges are usually the origin of the international student as a community. International students’ community is also present in the social websites such as Facebook and tweeter.
Scholarship for International Study on Education
International Education Problem That Affects Chinese Students
Accounting for Public Expenditures on Education: An International Panel Study
Agency, Education and Networks: Gender and International Migration From Albania
International and National Determinants of Change in Education Policy Making
Private Providers Comparison With Public Providers of International Education
Business Cycles and Investment in Human Capital: International Evidence on Higher Education
Relations of Citizenship and International Development Education
Constitutional Rights and Education: An International Comparative Study
International Entrepreneurship Education: Issues and Newness
Demographic Change, International Migration, and Public Education
Cross-Country Models of Education, Industry and Fertility and International Comparisons
Economic Growth and Education: A New International Policy
Education and Health: Insights From International Comparisons
Enhancing Education for International Students
International Society for Technology in Education
European and International Dimensions of Education
Factors Influencing International Students’ Choice of an Education Destination
Higher Education Institutions: Satisfaction and Loyalty Among International Students
Ideal School for International Education
Income-Contingent Loans for Higher Education: International Reforms
International Education and Economic Cooperation in Asia and the Pacific
The Relationships Between International Students and Overseas Higher Education
International Students, Immigration, and Earnings Growth
Mass Education, International Travel, and Ideal Ages at Marriage
The Benefits and Drawbacks of International Education
The Challenges Facing International Students in Higher Education
The International Baccalaureate Program Education Overview
Myth About Universal Higher Education: Russia in the International Context
Who Chooses Which Private Education? Theory and International Evidence
Alcohol Consumption Among International Students
Analysing the Culture Shock for International Students
Challenges Affecting International Students in Australia
The Relative Job-Market Performance of Former International Students
Cross Cultural Integration: International Students and Higher Educational Institutions
Difficulty That International Students Encounter
Environmental Factors Influence International Students
English Language Requirements for International Students
Essential Life-Hacks for International Students
What Is the Meaning of International Studies?
What Are the Benefits of International Studies?
Where Can International Studies Work?
Which Country Is Difficult to Study?
What Are the Top Jobs That International Students Do?
How Does the International Society for Technology Manifest Itself in Education?
What Does the Ideal School for International Education Look Like?
How Can Education Be Improved for International Students?
Which Country Has the Easiest Study?
What Is the Relationship Between Citizenship and International Development of Education?
Which Country Is Best for International Study?
What Are the Focus of International Studies?
Why Is International Studies Important?
What Are the Approaches in Studying International Relations?
Which Are the Main Theories of International Studies?
What Are the Main Branches of International Relations?
What Are Business Cycles and Investment in Human Capital?
What Are the Levels of International Relations?
What Is the Importance of Good Relations Between Countries With Respect to the Economy?
Why Is the Problem of Deterrence Especially Important in International Relations?
What Are the Subjects in International Relations?
How Are Demographic Changes, International Migration and Public Education Interrelated?
What Is the Difference Between Economic Growth and Education in the New International Politics?
Which Theory in International Relations Provides the Most Compelling Account for World Politics?
What Resource Has a Significant Effect on International Relations?
Bilingual Education Essay Ideas
Study Abroad Research Topics
Brain-Based Learning Essay Titles
Integrity Questions
Workplace Diversity Research Ideas
Public-Private Partnerships Questions
Distance Education Topics
Immigration Titles
Chicago (A-D)
Chicago (N-B)

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Bibliography

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Debate Topics

Need to write an argumentative essay? Preparing for an upcoming debate? ProCon.org has over 100 topics complete with pro and con arguments, quotes and statistics from experts, historical information, and other pertinent research.

Abortion – Should abortion be legal?

Alternative Energy – Can alternative energy effectively replace fossil fuels?

American Socialism – Should the U.S. become socialist?

Animal Dissection – Should K-12 students dissect animals in science classrooms?

Animal Testing – Should animals be used for scientific or commercial testing?

Artificial Intelligence – Is artificial intelligence good for society?

Banned Books – Should parents or other adults be able to ban books from schools and libraries?

Binge-Watching – Is binge-watching good for you?

Bottled Water Ban – Should bottled water be banned?

Cancel Culture – Is cancel culture (or callout culture) good for society?

CBD for Pets – Is CBD good for pets?

Cell Phone Radiation – Is cell phone radiation safe?

Cheerleading – Is cheerleading a sport?

Churches & Taxes – Should churches (including mosques, synagogues, etc.) remain tax-exempt?

College Education – Is a college education worth it?

Congressional Term Limits – Should term limits be imposed on U.S. Senators and Representatives?

Constitutional Carry of Handguns – Should permitless, “constitutional carry” of guns be legal?

Corporal Punishment – Should corporal punishment be used in K-12 schools?

Corporate Tax Rate – Should the federal corporate income tax rate be raised?

Cuba Embargo – Should the United States maintain its embargo against Cuba?

DACA & Dreamers – Are DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) and the DREAM Act good for America?

Daylight Saving Time – Should the United States keep daylight saving time?

DC AND Puerto Rico Statehood – Should Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico be granted U.S. statehood?

Death Penalty – Should the death penalty be legal?

Defund the Police – Should police departments be defunded, if not abolished?

Dress Codes – Should dress codes be implemented and enforced?

Drinking Age – Should the drinking age be lowered from 21 to a younger age?

Drone Strikes – Should the United States continue its use of drone strikes abroad?

Drug Use in Sports – Should performance-enhancing drugs be accepted in sports?

Election Day National Holiday – Should the election day be made a national holiday?

Electoral College – Should the United States use the electoral college in presidential elections?

Employer Vaccine Mandates – Should employers be able to mandate vaccinations?

Felon Voting – Should people who have completed felony sentences be allowed to vote?

Fighting in Hockey – Should fighting be allowed in hockey?

Filibuster – Should the U.S. Senate keep the filibuster?

Fracking – Should the United States continue fracking

Free College – Should public college be tuition-free?

Fur Clothing Bans – Should fur clothing be banned?

GMOS – Should genetically modified organisms (GMOs) be grown?

Gold Standard – Should the United States return to a gold standard?

Golf – Is golf a sport and are golfers athletes?

Gun Control – Should more gun control laws be enacted?

Historic Statue Removal – Should historic statues be taken down?

Homework – Is homework beneficial?

Illegal Immigration – Should the U.S. government provide a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants?

Internet – Is the internet “making us stupid?”

Kneeling during the National Anthem – Is kneeling during the national anthem an appropriate form of protest?

Mandatory National Service – Should the United States have mandatory national service?

Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) – Should medical aid in dying be legal?

Medical Marijuana – Should medical marijuana be legal?

Milk – Should humans consume dairy milk?

Minimum Wage – Should the federal minimum wage be increased?

Net Neutrality – Should the U.S. have net neutrality laws?

Obesity – Is obesity a disease?

Olympics – Are the Olympic games an overall benefit for their host countries and cities?

OTC Birth Control Pills – Should birth control pills be available over-the-counter (OTC)?

Penny – Should the penny stay in circulation?

Pit Bull Bans – Should breed-specific legislation (“pit bull bans”) be enacted?

Pokémon – Is Pokémon Go good for our society?

Police Body Cameras – Should police officers wear body cameras?

Prescription Drug Costs – Should the U.S. federal government regulate prescription drug prices?

Presidential Election, 2024 – 2024 Presidential Election Site

Private Prisons – Should prisons be privatized?

Recreational Marijuana – Should recreational marijuana be legal?

Reparations for Slavery – Should the federal government pay reparations to the descendants of slaves?

Right to Healthcare – Should all Americans have the right (be entitled) to health care?

Sanctuary Cities – Should sanctuary cities receive federal funding?

Santa Claus – Is there really a Santa Claus?

Saturday Halloween – Should Halloween be moved permanently to Saturday?

School Uniforms – Should students have to wear school uniforms?

Social Media – Is social media good for society?

Social Security Privatization – Should social security be privatized?

Space Colonization – Should humans colonize space?

Standardized Tests – Do standardized tests improve education in America?

Student Loan Debt – Should student loan debt be eliminated via forgiveness or bankruptcy?

TikTok Bans – Should TikTok be banned?

Uber & Lyft – Are ride-hailing companies a benefit to society?

Universal Basic Income (UBI) – Should the United States implement a universal basic income?

U.S. Supreme Court Packing – Should packing the U.S. Supreme Court ever be considered?

Vaccines for Kids – Should states be allowed to mandate vaccines for school attendance??

Vaping E-Cigarettes – Is vaping e-cigarettes safe?

Vegetarianism – Should people become vegetarian?

Video Games & Violence – Do violent video games contribute to youth violence?

Voting Age – Should the voting age be lowered to 16?

Voting Machines – Are electronic voting machines the best method for voting?

Zoos – Should zoos exist?

Archived Topics

Please note that ProCon no longer updates these debates.

ACLU – Is the ACLU good for America?

Big Three Bailout – Should the big three car manufacturers be bailed out by the U.S. government?

Born Gay – Is sexual orientation determined at birth?

Climate Change – Is human activity primarily responsible for global climate change?

College Football Playoffs – Should college football replace the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) with a playoff system?

Dakota Access Pipeline – Should the Dakota Access Pipeline be completed?

D.A.R.E. – Is the D.A.R.E. program good for America’s kids (K-12)?

Gay Marriage – Should gay marriage be legal?

Congressional Insider Trading – Should insider trading by Congress be allowed?

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict – What are the solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

Obamacare – Is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) good for America?

Paying College Athletes – Should colleges and universities pay college athletes?

President Bill Clinton – Was Bill Clinton a good president?

President Ronald Reagan – Was Ronald Reagan a good president?

Presidential Election, 2008 – Which candidate would make the best U.S. president?

Presidential Election, 2012 – Which candidate should be U.S. president in 2012?

Presidential Election, 2016 – The candidates and where they stand on the issues

Presidential Election, 2020 – 2020 Presidential Election Site

Prostitution – Should prostitution be legal?

School Vouchers – Should states have school voucher programs?

Tablets v. Textbooks -Should tablets replace textbooks in K-12 schools?

Teacher Tenure – Should teachers get tenure?

Under God in the Pledge – Should the words “under god” be in the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance?

U.S. Drone Shot down by Iran – Was the U.S. drone shot down by Iran over international waters?

U.S.-Iraq War – Should the U.S. have attacked Iraq?

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80+ International Business Research Paper Topics With Samples

Business students who look for academic paper topics have a great variety of subjects to choose from. International business research paper topics are one of the options. We’ve gathered the collection below to inspire you and give you some ideas about your future paper. You can also check out our examples of business research papers – follow the links in our list!

The list is quite impressive – more than 80 examples of research paper topics about business from our college paper writer . Good luck finding your perfect idea!

International business topics for research papers on general concepts

What are the main business cycles and how do they affect world economics?
Why are master programs in international business popular among applicants?
How does social media affect international business activity?
How do modern technologies affect international business?
How does e-commerce affect international business?
What is cultural imperialism? Is it caused by international business?
What structures are available to international business?
How does the foreign exchange market work?
How does terrorism affect global economics?
The importance of strategic management in international business.
How does shadow banking affect global financial stability?
List and analyze three advantages and disadvantages of international business.

International business research paper topics on companies

How does BBC get profits from the Olympic Games?
International eBay business.
Toyota company: value chain model.
Zara company: international business case study .
Apple Inc.: the role of social media marketing .
How does Disney enter the Chinese market?
International business: General Electric.
How did Walmart become internationally successful?
Competitive advantage theory: McDonald’s.
How did IKEA become international?
Give examples of companies that have failed on the international market but succeed on the national market. Why have they failed?
The soap company Savon de Marseille insists that the government should give them the label of originality because cheap Chinese and Turkish knockoffs try to force them out from the market. What should the government do in this case?

International business research paper topics for college students about countries

Imitation jewelry business in India.
Why is it so hard to do business with Chinese?
The government policy toward international companies in Indonesia.
How does political lobbying in the USA affect international business?
Analyze the international business environment of Bahrain.
Expanding international business to Great Britain: pros and cons.
What is the business relationship between the USA and South Africa?
How does international business evolve in Saudi Arabia?
Is India an appropriate environment for international companies?
Indian companies in Arab states of the Persian Gulf.
What impact did the election of Donald Tramp have on international business in the USA?
Why is China essential for global business?
How do social systems in Arab countries affect international business?
International trade in Costa Rica.
China has advanced much further in mobile technologies than the US. What are the factors that influence the development of the mobile industry in China?
The economic impact of immigration in the United States in the last five years: How do immigrants affect the US economy in general?
How does Brexit influence the economics of the EU?
The British government has rejected the deal on a nuclear power station. Predict the economic consequences of this decision.
Try to explain why the prices on houses have increased after Brexit.

Argumentative business topics for research papers

What will be the most important digital marketing trend.
Do cultural differences have an impact on international business relationships?
The importance of cryptocurrency for international companies.
What country is a leader in the international cocoa industry?
What ethical dilemmas are the most frequent when it comes to international business?
Is globalization coming to the end, and how should international companies react?
Should managers in international companies concentrate on the cultural similarities or differences more?
What are the main reasons for internationalizing of business?
What is the best strategy of cross-cultural negotiations?
What are the most common political risks for international companies?
What countries have the biggest influence in the global energy industry?
Should expatriate employees be a part of international HR strategy?
Should international companies have different standards for customer service?
What were the most effective advertising campaigns in 2016?
Which big international companies are likely to go bankrupt if they fail to change their strategy as soon as possible?
Do you think that all big companies should be present in social media?
What ways do you know to predict US recessions? Which of them is the most effective in your opinion?
The US government urges wars in Africa with the aim to distribute guns. Prove or disapprove this opinion.

Analytical business research paper topics for college students

How to bring a product into a new country successfully?
How to start an international business?
Describe and analyze three possible levels of involvement in international business.
How was international business possible without online trading?
What role does climate change play in international business development?
Explain why aviation has always been treated as a special case in international business.
How do different religions affect international business?
Describe and analyze three attitudes that managers might have toward international business.
Describe how regional trading alliances are reshaping the international business environment.
How do governments profit from war? What kinds of companies grow in the conditions of constant war?
What would be the consequences for the poor if all countries live only on the products that they manufacture?
There’s a tendency in logo design to change the shape of the design to flat. Who started doing this first and why?
What other languages besides English could be international languages for business?

Examples of research paper topics about business: definitions

Define the abbreviation MNC.
What are the BRICS countries? What role do they play in international business?
What is an export credit guarantee?
Define “international business” and “international trade” and compare these terms.
Define the term “relationship marketing.” Is it important for international business?

Compare and contrast business topics for research papers

Compare and contrast international business development in Eastern Europe and Western Europe.
Is there any difference between the decision-making in international and national companies?
Compare and contrast economic environments for the international businesses in China and USA.
Does business ethics in international companies differ from local businesses?

It’s hard to pick one option when you have so many of them. Need some help with your choice? Read the tips below!

Choosing business topics for research papers

If you are assigned to write a research paper, your primary task is to choose your topic. You should consider the following things:

– Even if your professor offers several topics, try to choose the one that interests you. – Ensure that your international business research paper topic isn’t too narrow or too general.

– You’ll find a lot of materials if you are looking for information on broad topics, and not enough facts in the latter case. – Once having chosen a subject, look through the library catalog and internet databases for good ideas. – Look up current events and news on international business sites. – Look through several reference books (handbooks, encyclopedias, reports, dictionaries) when choosing international business research paper topics. They will provide you with the necessary background information and general topic overview.

How to research business research paper topics

Your topic is chosen! Now, make sure you plan and conduct your research properly:

Determine the sources and materials within the particular time frame and other limitations.
Pay special attention to the supervisor’s assistance and a working bibliography.
Start data collecting at once after choosing a particular topic.
Ensure the quality of your resources.
Check the age of the source – it is extremely important when you are going to write a research paper on a relevant international business topic.

We hope that our instructions will make the whole writing process easier for you! If you need write my college essay help, you can get academic assistance at EssayShark.com!

International business research paper topics help

Business research papers are usually assigned to college and university students. This type of paper is a part of a student’s semester work and influences the final marks. From the very beginning of the semester, supervisors put an emphasis on the importance of writing well-thought-out research papers.

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Post-Neoliberal Globalization: International Trade Rules for Global Prosperity

This paper analyzes frameworks for the design of the rules for international trading, assuming that it is possible to have some rule of law. In the Arrow-Debreu benchmark, where there is no economic power and political power is seemingly irrelevant, there is no need for trade agreements – free trade is the optimal policy for each country. But under even minimal deviations from that benchmark, trade agreements matter. We focus on environments in which there are market failures, technology is endogenous, and there is political power. Power dynamics play, for instance, a critical role in the design, implementation, and enforcement of agreements, with the latter being a critical difference between international agreements and domestic contracts and a key determinant of the feasibility and consequences of agreements. With endogenous technology, trade rules proscribing industrial policies may lead to lower growth and greater cross-country inequalities. Finally, we develop a framework which may be useful in the design and implementation of trade rules.

The authors would like to acknowledge the very thoughtful and constructive comments from David Vines, Simon Cowan, Giovanni Dosi, participants of seminars of the Oxford Review of Economic Policy, the University of Sao Paulo (Brazil), and The Foundations of Complex Evolving Economies Conference at Sant’ Anna School of Advanced Studies (Pisa, Italy), the excellent editorial work of Meaghan Winter, and the financial support of the Sloan and Hewlett Foundations. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

MARC RIS BibTeΧ

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The Opioid Crisis, CEO Pay, and Shareholder Activism

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The Maximal Length of q -ary MDS Elliptic Codes Is Close to

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Determining the maximal length of MDS codes with certain dimension is one of the central topics in coding theory and finite geometry. The MDS Main Conjecture states that the maximal length of a non-trivial |$q$| -ary MDS code of dimension |$k$| is |$q+1$| except when |$q$| is even and |$k=3$| or |$k=q-1$|⁠ . We prove that the maximal length of non-trivial |$q$| -ary MDS elliptic codes is close to |$\frac{q}{2}$|⁠ , which gives an affirmative answer to a conjecture of Li, Wan, and Zhang. Moreover, we apply our result to derive an answer to a question on subset sums in finite abelian groups from elliptic curves.

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International Relations Research Paper

This sample international relations research paper features: 6500 words (approx. 22 pages), an outline, and a bibliography with 41 sources. Browse other research paper examples for more inspiration. If you need a thorough research paper written according to all the academic standards, you can always turn to our experienced writers for help. This is how your paper can get an A! Feel free to contact our writing service for professional assistance. We offer high-quality assignments for reasonable rates.

Introduction

Liberal beginnings, realist critics, marxist alternatives, economic interdependence and global security challenges, feminist international relations, constructivist international relations, environmental international relations, new security threats, development strategies and humanitarian crises, ecological challenges.

Bibliography

International Relations Research Papers:

Balance of Power Research Paper
Democratic Peace Research Paper
Deterrence Theory Research Paper
Foreign Policy Analysis Research Paper
Idealism and Liberalism Research Paper
International Law Research Paper
International Trade Research Paper
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Realism and Neorealism Research Paper
War Research Paper

As a field of study, international relations (IR) is a young discipline. Its genesis can be traced back to the period immediately following World War I. In the aftermath of the war, philanthropists, scholars, and diplomats in Europe and the United States sought an understanding of the causes of war and the means by which to promote international peace and security. At its core, the initial study of IR was both normative and empirical. Normative IR theory seeks to provide a set of values that policymakers, diplomats, and other actors should follow in order to better the human condition. Empirical IR theory seeks to explain the underlying causes of political events. Originally, IR had the normative desire to achieve pacific relations between states and an empirical concern with investigating the underlying causes of war and conflict.

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With this narrow focus on interstate conflict, the original scholars in the field drew their theoretical insight from philosophy, history, law, and economics. Early scholars began a practice in IR of drawing on the philosophical works of Thucydides, Niccolo Machiavelli, Hugo Grotius, Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant, and others in search of a proper understanding of the causes of war and the potential for peace. The study of past historical events was used to develop general principles that might be employed to resolve current and future conflicts. The growing importance of international law as a tool for states would be used by IR scholars to frame theoretical approaches promoting peace and security. In the decades following World War I, departments of IR emerged in Great Britain, Switzerland, and the United States to train diplomats and policymakers and further the theoretical study of the discipline.

Although the discipline began by focusing on the causes of war and the potential for peace, the complexities of world politics and the emergence of globalizing forces throughout the 20th century expanded the scope of IR to include the study of human rights, migration, environmental cooperation, economic development, ethnic conflict, nationalism, terrorism, and international crime. Today, IR scholars have developed sophisticated theories and models in order to study an ever-expanding set of issues and concerns. Constituting one of the main subfields in political science, IR continues to demonstrate how political power defines this growing set of issues and concerns.

In the discussion that follows, the historical emergence and intellectual scope of the discipline are explored by examining the development of international relations theory throughout the 20th century as well as the broadening list of empirical issues analyzed by IR scholars. Following this review, the future direction of IR is discussed. At the end of this research paper, a list of further readings is provided that introduces the reader to the themes introduced and the concepts explored.

Historical and Theoretical Developments in International Relations

In 1919, a wealthy Welsh industrialist by the name of David Davies provided funds to the University of Wales at Aberystwyth for the purpose of studying international relations. After witnessing the carnage of World War I, Mr. Davies was intrigued by the ideals represented in the League of Nations and dedicated funds to endow the Woodrow Wilson Chair of International Politics with a belief that humankind could overcome war. Sir Alfred Zimmern, a British historian, became the first scholar of international politics when he accepted the post of Wilson Chair. His work is characteristic of early scholarship in IR and focuses on issues of economic interdependence and cooperation through international treaty law. Believing that scholars could make a difference in the world around them, Zimmern and other liberals of his time sought practical institutional solutions for the problems of conflict in the world. This focus on institutional solutions would come to dominate early discussions in the discipline and exemplifies liberal IR theory. He had an interest in and affinity for the League of Nations as a mechanism to prevent conflict and promote prosperity and peace among states. Many of the liberal IR scholars of the time, including Alfred Zimmern and Norman Angell, were active in League affairs and accepted the political position of contemporary leaders like Woodrow Wilson, who argued that self-determination for peoples and state membership in organizations like the League could create the foundation for international cooperation and the transcendence of war as a policy of the state. The pinnacle of liberal IR thinking that understands law as the basis for peace is the Kellogg–Briand Pact, an international treaty formally titled the Pact of Paris that outlaws war as a policy tool for states in the conduct of their foreign affairs. This treaty was signed by more than 60 states and exists today as a reminder of institutional attempts to transcend conflict through international law. By outlawing war among the signatories, the treaty established a legal basis for trying state actors who violated the provisions of the treaty. Further, the treaty provided a solid foundation for a set of international norms limiting the use of violence in international conflict and constraining the actions of states.

For early liberal international relations scholars, the international community had the potential to use international organizations, international treaty law, and state diplomacy to solve problems. When constructed correctly, agreements negotiated by diplomats, written into law, and managed by proper organizations could resolve long-term international conflicts. Political challenges posed by World War II and the cold war would require certain refinements to liberalism in the 1970s, but the core belief in the possibility for change and the potential to overcome conflict still remains among liberal theorists.

Throughout the interwar period, as the period from 1919 to 1939 would come to be called, scholars concerned with a focus on institutional mechanisms to overcome interstate violence challenged liberal international relations theorists by emphasizing how enduring laws of power and the inevitable consequences of an international environment defined by a lack of a global government (anarchy) undermined institutional attempts to achieve peace. Exemplified in the classic E.H. Carr (1940) book The Twenty Years’Crisis: 1919–1939, realist IR theory focused on state concerns with security and the ever-present quest for power. There had been great concern among realists that liberal scholars and diplomats had a naive interpretation of international affairs and an idealistic faith in legal and institutional solutions as a means to solving potential conflicts. Accordingly, liberals had underestimated the potential for states to dismiss their legal (treaty) commitments and withdraw membership from international organizations when their national interest ran contrary to that law or organization.

Realists argued that scholars needed to develop a more sophisticated understanding of the causes of war. The normative desire to prevent war, although noble, undermined a clear understanding of its causes. As IR scholars, realists insisted that scholars seek a better understanding of what caused international violence in the first place. Writers such as E. H. Carr (1940), Hans Morgenthau (1948), John Herz (1950), and others labeled liberal IR scholarship “utopian” because of the liberal reliance on institutional solutions. These realists offered a vision of international politics where the potential for war required scholars and diplomats to mitigate its effects rather than seek its transcendence. According to realists, there was a set of conditions that prevented humankind from transcending war as policy. Human nature, often defined as a quest for power, and the anarchical environment limited the effectiveness of institutional solutions to prevent war. Reviewing the Kellogg–Briand Pact that liberals extolled as a sign of moral and political development in international affairs, realists noted that by the beginning of World War II, many of the pact’s signatories were occupied by, or at war with, other signatories.

Policymakers, realists argued, should recognize and internalize the important lessons of the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648). The peace treaty that ended this European war established sovereignty as a defining principle of each state and required each state to defend against external aggression rather than rely on other states for their defense. Sovereignty, or the principle that states have control and autonomy over their physical territory and the citizens or subjects in that territory, would come to dominate realist scholarship.

During this early period of theory development, a third approach to understanding the causes of war and the mechanisms for peace was emerging as a critique of both liberal and realist international relations theory. Emerging from the works of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and others in the last half of the 19th century, Marxian scholars introduced a radical retelling of international relations. These scholars explored how particular class interests captured the power of the state and harnessed its foreign policies in order to promote their interests. This approach challenged both liberal and realist conceptions of the state as a neutral agent with regard to the citizens or subjects within. When understood to be in the interest of the propertied (or bourgeois) class, the state was engaged in a policy of expansion and imperialism. War, as state policy, could be understood as the means by which states would expand access to commodities and markets abroad. Moreover, opportunities for increased profits during war made it a profitable enterprise for the capitalist classes. Since the burden of battle was borne by the lower classes, Marxist IR scholars emphasized how war was the result of a particular economic system.

This radical approach to IR challenges liberalism and realism in two ways. First, as a moral critique, Marxism explores how capitalism, as an economic theory, undermines the human capacity for empathy. As a basis for the economic ordering of society, capitalism results in the exploitation of certain human beings and the alienation of all human beings. Once alienated, human beings become objects to be used just as the state might use any other weapon of war. Georg Lukacs (1971), a German philosopher writing in the early part of the 20th century, explores these moral criticisms of capitalism in History and Class Consciousness. His examination of human alienation has been used by subsequent Marxist IR scholars to explain how modern warfare dehumanizes people. Marxism also critiques the empirical rationale for war. Because capitalism requires that markets grow, war becomes a necessity. Capitalists must employ the state in war making in order to increase profits. V. I. Lenin (1916/1964), in his analysis of the causes of World War I, explores this issue in Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism.

After World War II, the historical trajectory of international relations was altered by two significant factors in world politics. First, the emergence of a new international economic order, increasing global trade and financial flows among states, prompted scholars to adjust the mainstream theories of liberalism and realism. In 1944, policymakers of the Allied states met at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in the United States to negotiate institutional structures to manage the postwar global economy. At the conclusion of this international conference, the states in attendance agreed to create the World Bank (known originally as the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (which became the World Trade Organization in 1995). These institutions, and the norms of free trade, financial transparency, monetary stability, and economic integration that uphold these institutions, offered IR scholars additional variables to study in order to understand the causes of war and the potential for peace.

In a historical context, the development of these economic institutions demonstrated the importance of the liberal economic idea that global peace would be enhanced if states cooperated through trade and monetary policies. Often called neoliberals, scholars have explored how states in international relations create long-term cooperative arrangements that endure throughout the decades. Scholars such as Robert Keohane (1984) continue to study the implications of an increasingly global economic order. Their focus is on the complex web of governance rules. International governance occurs in conditions of anarchy, where government does not exist. However, even without formal government, neoliberals demonstrate how governance rules proliferate among the states in international relations and order their behavior. It is often the case that these governance rules proliferate because international regimes have been created to enhance the cooperation among states. The term international regimes refers to sets of principles, norms, rules, and decision-making procedures around which actors converge on a given issue area (Krasner, 1983). These regimes exist without the need of a formal government structure. Regimes function to provide a level of ordered and predictable governance among states in international society. An example of how regime cooperation has limited the spread of nuclear weapons follows.

In addition to scholarship on international governance and the importance of regimes, neoliberal scholars have employed the shared values that democratic states have in maintaining liberal economic conditions to study a separate peace that appears to develop among democratic states. Scholars such as Michael Doyle (1986) have explored this democratic peace hypothesis, arguing that sovereign states with market economies, limited government, civil rights, and representative government do not go to war with each other. This represents a direct theoretical challenge to realism. If neoliberals are correct and the type of government matters in terms of the potential for interstate peace, then the proliferation of democratic states should reduce the likelihood of war in the future. A world made up of democratic states could allow for the transcendence of interstate war as a policy possibility.

A second challenge to traditional international relations theory emerged after World War II with the advent of nuclear weapons and the global security threat posed by U.S. and Soviet hostilities during the cold war. Previous security threats involved state aggression and the proper international response to that aggression. The threat posed by great-power nuclear weapons required scholars to imagine global nuclear annihilation. A deterrence strategy known as MAD, or mutually assured destruction, emerged among strategic studies scholars and influenced the national security strategies of both the United States and the Soviet Union. In the 1960s, IR theorists debated the relative stability of an international system in which nuclear weapons existed as a global threat. Many realists (Art &Waltz, 1971; McNamara, 1968; Newhouse, 1973; Schelling & Halperin, 1961) outlined the merits of a MAD environment where states would learn that use of nuclear weapons would result in their own demise. This, they argued, would create a level of stability in international affairs and minimize the likelihood of system-wide wars. Scholars in other traditions (Bennett, 1962; Clancy, 1961; Dyson, 1979) contended that the potential for accidents or the irrational actions of one individual who did not learn the lessons of MAD could place billions of lives in peril.

Although the theoretical and moral debates remain ongoing in IR theory, the presence of nuclear weapons in world politics has led to broad agreement among diplomats and policymakers that access to nuclear technology should be regulated at the international level. The international community has developed an intricate set of principles, rules, norms, and decision-making procedures to limit access to nuclear technology and minimize its proliferation beyond a small group of declared nuclear states. These components constitute the nuclear nonproliferation regime. Actors in this regime include declared nuclear powers, the United Nations Security Council, and the International Atomic Energy Agency. The regime is centered on a multilateral treaty, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Each of these components includes a set of principles, norms, rules, and decision-making procedures that guide the behavior of states on the issue of nuclear nonproliferation.

Regimes exist in all areas of international affairs, including human rights, security, the environment, trade, finance, and cultural preservation. The study of international regimes has become a central research area in IR. Regime analysis has emerged as a useful approach to understanding conflict and cooperation. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, scholars in IR (Keohane, 1984; Krasner, 1983; Young, 1989, 1994) produced numerous works that furthered our understanding of and appreciation for international regimes. This literature helps explain how governance without government is possible and why international politics is most often ordered and predictable. Sophisticated theoretical studies of regimes provide a more comprehensive picture of international affairs than the earlier theoretical work conducted during the interwar period. Because regimes include multiple actors (such as states, international governmental organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and transnational corporations), their study provides theorists with a more detailed model of international affairs. In addition, because regimes involve institutional rules (like international law) and socially appropriate practices (like international norms), their study provides an opportunity for a more comprehensive approach to the study of continuity and change in world politics.

Alternative Challenges to Mainstream International Relations Theory

Although the inclusion of factors such as globalizing economic structures and the presence of nuclear weapons offers international relations scholars a new set of factors to include in their studies of international affairs, the treatment of these and other issues by mainstream scholars in the field has been viewed as inadequate by scholars critical of a focus on states instead of individuals and national security instead of human security. Alternative voices emerged throughout the 1980s that sought to critique both the mainstream IR scholarship of realists and liberals and the foreign policies that they studied. Although these alternative voices do not represent a single theory or approach to the study of world politics, they share a common concern that the discipline of IR and the practice of international politics have relied on concepts such as state sovereignty and the state system at the expense of other concepts. This state-centric emphasis marginalizes a set of concerns that need to be explored further if theorists wish to provide compelling and comprehensive answers to current and future problems.

The state, what constitutes it, what the implications are of particular foreign and security policies pursued by it, and where its national interests come from have been left underanalyzed and unquestioned. These questions represent a different type of question than those posed by realist and liberal scholars. Mainstream questions focus on the international environment and leave the internal assumptions of the theories themselves unexamined. Questions that critique the assumptions within theories are termed critical questions and require theorists to reexamine and reconstruct the theoretical foundations of international affairs. Often, this means that IR theory needs to be reformulated in order to remain coherent.

This alternative manner of theorizing has had a profound influence on the IR discipline. Feminist, constructivist, and environmental scholars represent important challenges to the traditional study of IR. Each of the approaches is examined below. Note that although each approach is different in its focus and the critical question that it poses, all of the approaches are similar in that they challenge liberal and realist IR theory.

By asking an alternative set of questions, feminist scholars (Carpenter, 2006; Enloe, 1989; Tickner, 1992, 2001) have been able to provide insight into gender issues that remain hidden by standard approaches in the discipline. The general focus of the discipline on war and economic affairs marginalized gender inequality. Feminist scholars in the 1970s argued that traditional gender roles in society undermined inclusion of women in international affairs. Divisions of labor in both advanced industrial and traditional societies mandated that women remain in the private sphere while men participate in the public sphere. Because war and diplomacy were public acts, women—and the issues of most concern to them—would be discounted. Similarly, because the home was part of the private sphere, feminist concerns of family, education, health care, and children would be marginalized, and issues of state GDP and increased trade would be emphasized. In both cases, feminist IR scholars articulated a new set of questions to challenge mainstream IR scholarship.

Consider the following example. Both realist and liberal international relations scholars accept the state as a necessary actor in international affairs and argue that its presence enhances the security of individuals by protecting them (collectively) against potential harm that exists in the international (or external) environment. Realists argue this by employing a concept like the national interest, and liberals emphasize this by employing a concept like collective security through international law. In either case, both theoretical approaches accept that the state is a central variable in the maintenance of international peace and security. Feminist IR scholarship challenges this assumption and questions whether the state might reinforce social structures that oppress and exploit particular groups. Domestically, IR theories that promote the idea that states protect the national interest and maintain national defenses are participating in a public debate about where to spend limited tax revenues collected by the state. Given a limited amount of state funds that can be spent on all public goods, this has the effect of steering money away from social programs that might be used to educate children, provide welfare and child care assistance, and promote health care for vulnerable groups. If public funds cannot be provided to supply these goods, the burden of supplying these goods often falls on women. Internationally, IR theories that emphasize issues such as balance of power and alliance structures or foreign direct investment and increased global trade are reinforcing a set of social structures that exploit women. In an important early critique of IR, Cynthia Enloe (1989) argues that mainstream IR theory neglected to study the social implications of cold war bases around the world. In Bananas, Beaches, and Bases, Enloe directs the attention of the reader away from a standard view of international politics as a struggle for power and security and toward an analysis of the implications of foreign military bases in third world countries. Recognizing that these bases reinforce stereotypical views of masculinity and perpetuate the exploitation of women who work in and around military bases, Enloe challenges traditional assumptions of international politics.

A second alternative challenge to traditional international relations scholarship has emerged among scholars interested in challenging the origin of state interests. Constructivists (Hopf, 2002; Katzenstein, 1996; Lapid & Kratochwil, 1996; Wendt, 1992) focus on the formation of national identity as a prerequisite for understanding and explaining national interests. Issues of identity and the norms that shape and constrain it remain hidden by mainstream approaches to IR that assume a given and predetermined national interest exists among all states. As with the feminists, these scholars ask a set of critical questions that requires a reexamination of traditional theories. The aim of constructivist IR scholarship is to challenge the underlying motivations that both liberal and realist scholars assume states have when conducting their foreign policies. By challenging the essence of these mainstream theories, constructivists are engaged in more than correcting a perceived flaw in IR scholarship; they are also engaged in reimagining the conduct of international affairs and allowing alternative interpretations of historical events to emerge.

Consider the following example. During the cold war, American and Soviet identities were based on a consideration of the other as an enemy. Each state had a negative perception of the other based on the qualities one possessed as distinct from what the other possessed. The United States perceived itself in positive terms because it upheld democratic values and political and civil rights. It perceived the Soviet Union in negative terms because it claimed the Soviet Union did not possess these traits. The Soviet Union perceived itself in positive terms because it was concerned with economic and social equality. It perceived the United States in negative terms because it claimed the United States did not possess these concerns. As a result of these identity constructions, each state determined the other to be an enemy and subsequently viewed the other’s actions as hostile and threatening. Constructivists argue that this scenario is what is missing from the work of mainstream IR scholars when they seek an understanding of the national interest. Only by identifying how national identities are created can the interests that form from those identities be understood. The events of the cold war come to be seen as a set of identity performances that reinforce a self–other dynamic in international politics rather than the logical outcome of two states pursuing predetermined national interests. As one prominent constructivist, Alexander Wendt (1992), has stated, anarchy is what states make of it; it is not an enduring cause of war in itself.

Constructivist international relations scholarship has become an important voice in understanding terrorism, ethnic conflict, and religious violence. Constructivists have developed detailed case studies exploring how the formations of particular identities among one group exclude membership for other groups. These studies point out that these identities do not cause war but do give rise to a self–other dichotomy that can be exploited by political entrepreneurs seeking power.

A third alternative approach to understanding international relations requires scholars to reexamine the ability of the state and the state system to solve pressing ecological problems that are transnational in scope and require cooperation among multiple actors. With the rise of national environmental movements in the United States, western Europe, and New Zealand in the 1960s and 1970s, the international community held its first global environmental conference in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1972. The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment was first proposed by Sweden in 1967 and was later supported by the United States. Scientists and policymakers were becoming increasingly concerned that economic activity in one region of the world was affecting the quality of the environment in other regions of the world.

As international relations scholars turned their attention to environmental issues, it soon became apparent that the mainstream theoretical emphasis on states, state sovereignty, and the national interest was not an adequate approach to resolving the pressing problems associated with the transnational dimension of the environmental problems. Realism and liberalism were constrained by a state-centric understanding of international politics. The world map that defines both theories is political. The world is divided into states with clearly defined borders. Ecosystems and environmental pollution, however, do not respect state borders. Environmental IR theorists (Haas, 1990; Luterbacher & Sprinz, 2001; Newell, 2006) questioned the disciplinary focus on a political world map and sought to reimagine the map as physical in nature. Political solutions to environmental problems require states, nongovernmental organizations, scientific groups, multinational corporations, and others to cooperate in ways that realists and liberals may not emphasize. Unlike peace agreements after major wars or security alliances during times of peace, solutions to environmental problems usually require the cooperation of more than just state actors. For example, state participation in a security alliance requires the cooperation of key government agencies within a state (the foreign and defense ministries, the chief executive, and a legislative body) but does not require much in terms of changes to the behaviors of the average citizen. Solving transnational environmental pollution, however, might require international governmental organizations, state agencies, corporations, and citizen groups to be involved in changing individual behaviors. Moreover, environmental problems are often linked to economic issues. Solving environmental problems can require states to forego economic development plans and limit short-term economic gains for the sake of improved long-term environmental sustainability.

These challenges to traditional international relations scholarship require theorists to construct alternative understandings of international relations. Scholars in this area of IR have researched how environmental scarcity can be a cause of war. Thomas Homer-Dixon (2001) argues that under certain conditions, environmental degradation can contribute to international conflict. Scholars have also examined how the international community has responded to environmental concerns. By examining the institutional structures created since the first international conference in 1972, scholars such as Oran Young (1989) and Peter Haas (1990) have contributed to the field by including epistemic communities (or groups of scientists with a vision of the problems and potential solutions) and regimes into the study on environmental IR.

In the aftermath of the 1972 conference, the international community has been active in institutionally managing the international environment. The United Nations created the United Nations Environmental Programme and held a subsequent international conference in Rio de Janeiro (the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development) in 1992. Broad international treaties to manage the oceans (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea III), air pollution (Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution), the movement of hazardous waste (Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal), and global climate change (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) have been negotiated.

Future Directions in International Relations

The discipline of international relations is adapting to new challenges at the dawn of the 21st century. States are confronted with emerging security threats including terrorism, cyber crime, and ethnic conflict. Challenges posed by uneven development, poverty, inequality, and malnutrition undermine possible state-centric responses. Humanitarian crises caused by political violence, corruption, and environmental disasters require substantial cooperation among international actors. A growing awareness of ecological interdependence demands that practitioners, scholars, and ordinary citizens reconceptualize international politics. Many of these new challenges are caused by a process of globalization that has been occurring for centuries. Globalization manifests itself in many ways but is most often referred to as a shortening of time and space that allows human beings to interact more directly than in times past. With rapid changes in communications technologies and information systems, groups once limited by time and space play an increasingly important role in international politics. These nonstate actors challenge IR scholars to incorporate additional variables into more complex theories of world politics.

Although terrorism is not a new issue in international politics, the globalizing forces that allowed for increased economic trade and wealth also allow terrorists to strike at larger targets. State-sponsored terrorism has been a concern among IR scholars for decades. New forms of terrorism involve nonstate terrorist groups with political grievances against states. Terrorism is generally defined as a premeditated, politically motivated violent act meant to cause fear among noncombatants. Nonstate terrorist groups challenge states in two ways. First, terrorist groups undermine the political fabric of domestic societies by invoking fear among the populous and undermining the legitimacy of the state to maintain peace and security. Second, terrorist activities challenge the foundation of international society by compromising sovereignty. IR scholars have adapted mainstream IR theories to incorporate terrorist activities. Current analysis seeks to understand the rationality of terrorist organizations and the security responses that states make in order to minimize terrorism.

Cybercrime is another emerging security threat that international relations scholars have begun to investigate. A growing amount of national and international commerce and communication takes place electronically. Disruptions to the electronic infrastructure of global commerce threaten national economies and undermine the welfare of societies. In addition, states must protect electronic databases and the classified information they contain. New directions in security studies have been developed to understand and account for the challenges that states face with regard to cybercrime.

Increasingly, conflict between groups involves intrastate ethnic conflict rather than interstate conflict. This represents a theoretical challenge to a discipline founded to transcend or mitigate interstate conflict. As the preceding discussion demonstrates, mainstream IR theories have focused on understanding international wars and promoting effective mechanisms for peace. IR scholars recognize the need to develop a much more sophisticated understanding of conflict that can incorporate both intra- and interstate dimensions of conflict. For instance, recent works by Robert Jackson (1990) and Mohammed Ayoob (1995) explore the internal dimensions of conflict and provide a sophisticated understanding as to how the complex statemaking process creates certain states beset by internal conflict and strife. Moreover, these studies demonstrate how these states undermine regional stability. Future research in this area will be necessary in order to develop increasingly useful theoretical models to predict potential areas of conflict and employ international resources prior to their onset.

In September 2000, member states of the United Nations adopted a set of millennium development goals to reduce poverty and to increase education, access to health care, and gender equality by 2015. These development goals provide evidence of the continued shift away from the traditional issue areas of international politics. Increasingly, states recognize the need to cooperate on a number of issues that were once considered internal or domestic issues. With the challenges posed by the new security threats and a growing awareness and appreciation for cosmopolitan values, state actors recognize the need to share development strategies and improve the human condition for all. This concern over the welfare of all human beings and a broad interest in humanitarian responsibility challenges earlier normative concerns in IR. Recent studies in IR involving issues of economic development, poverty, inequality, malnutrition, and humanitarian crises suggest a new normative shift in the norms and values examined by IR scholars. These new values are enshrined in concepts like a responsibility to protect those individuals and groups in states who are not being protected by their own states. This departure from traditional understandings of state sovereignty and the principle of nonintervention suggests a new debate about what constitute appropriate sovereignty is currently emerging among practitioners and theorists.

In response to the first global environmental issues in the 1970s, states developed complex institutional mechanisms to manage these problems. The persistence and proliferation of these problems has increased the need to further study cooperative strategies for managing them. Declining biodiversity, a looming energy crisis, and challenges to adequate food supplies are three key areas of environmental concern. However, the most difficult environmental problem to solve appears to be global climate change. Insufficient compliance with the Kyoto Protocol and the development demands of industrializing states such as China, India, Brazil, and Russia require states to resolve long-standing collective action problems in order to construct effective treaties for solving climate change. Collective action problems involve scenarios where the most rational actions taken by individual actors are suboptimal for achieving group success. That is, the best option for the group is not necessarily the best action for each individual member of that group (Olson, 1965). Global climate change is often perceived to be a classic collective action problem. IR scholars interested in this subject are seeking more sophisticated theoretical approaches to resolving climate change by invoking complex and varied incentive strategies to achieve cooperation (Luterbacher & Sprinz, 2001; Newell, 2006).

Although a young discipline, international relations has developed increasingly sophisticated approaches to explaining international conflict and the myriad issues that have emerged over the past 100 years. The complexities of world politics and rapid globalization require contemporary IR scholars to investigate more complex issues than those who originally developed the discipline. Although mainstream theoretical approaches to the study of international politics are still important in the field today, alternative theoretical emphasis on gender, norms, and environmental interdependence require scholars to consider a set of important theoretical questions left unexamined by mainstream approaches. Further, new security, humanitarian, and ecological challenges appear to undermine state-centric approaches in the discipline and require scholars to push the boundaries of the discipline in new directions.

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The state of AI in 2023: Generative AI’s breakout year

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The latest annual McKinsey Global Survey on the current state of AI confirms the explosive growth of generative AI (gen AI) tools . Less than a year after many of these tools debuted, one-third of our survey respondents say their organizations are using gen AI regularly in at least one business function. Amid recent advances, AI has risen from a topic relegated to tech employees to a focus of company leaders: nearly one-quarter of surveyed C-suite executives say they are personally using gen AI tools for work, and more than one-quarter of respondents from companies using AI say gen AI is already on their boards’ agendas. What’s more, 40 percent of respondents say their organizations will increase their investment in AI overall because of advances in gen AI. The findings show that these are still early days for managing gen AI–related risks, with less than half of respondents saying their organizations are mitigating even the risk they consider most relevant: inaccuracy.

The organizations that have already embedded AI capabilities have been the first to explore gen AI’s potential, and those seeing the most value from more traditional AI capabilities—a group we call AI high performers—are already outpacing others in their adoption of gen AI tools. 1 We define AI high performers as organizations that, according to respondents, attribute at least 20 percent of their EBIT to AI adoption.

The expected business disruption from gen AI is significant, and respondents predict meaningful changes to their workforces. They anticipate workforce cuts in certain areas and large reskilling efforts to address shifting talent needs. Yet while the use of gen AI might spur the adoption of other AI tools, we see few meaningful increases in organizations’ adoption of these technologies. The percent of organizations adopting any AI tools has held steady since 2022, and adoption remains concentrated within a small number of business functions.

It’s early days still, but use of gen AI is already widespread
Leading companies are already ahead with gen AI
AI-related talent needs shift, and AI’s workforce effects are expected to be substantial
With all eyes on gen AI, AI adoption and impact remain steady

About the research

1. it’s early days still, but use of gen ai is already widespread.

The findings from the survey—which was in the field in mid-April 2023—show that, despite gen AI’s nascent public availability, experimentation with the tools is already relatively common, and respondents expect the new capabilities to transform their industries. Gen AI has captured interest across the business population: individuals across regions, industries, and seniority levels are using gen AI for work and outside of work. Seventy-nine percent of all respondents say they’ve had at least some exposure to gen AI, either for work or outside of work, and 22 percent say they are regularly using it in their own work. While reported use is quite similar across seniority levels, it is highest among respondents working in the technology sector and those in North America.

Organizations, too, are now commonly using gen AI. One-third of all respondents say their organizations are already regularly using generative AI in at least one function—meaning that 60 percent of organizations with reported AI adoption are using gen AI. What’s more, 40 percent of those reporting AI adoption at their organizations say their companies expect to invest more in AI overall thanks to generative AI, and 28 percent say generative AI use is already on their board’s agenda. The most commonly reported business functions using these newer tools are the same as those in which AI use is most common overall: marketing and sales, product and service development, and service operations, such as customer care and back-office support. This suggests that organizations are pursuing these new tools where the most value is. In our previous research , these three areas, along with software engineering, showed the potential to deliver about 75 percent of the total annual value from generative AI use cases.

In these early days, expectations for gen AI’s impact are high : three-quarters of all respondents expect gen AI to cause significant or disruptive change in the nature of their industry’s competition in the next three years. Survey respondents working in the technology and financial-services industries are the most likely to expect disruptive change from gen AI. Our previous research shows that, while all industries are indeed likely to see some degree of disruption, the level of impact is likely to vary. 2 “ The economic potential of generative AI: The next productivity frontier ,” McKinsey, June 14, 2023. Industries relying most heavily on knowledge work are likely to see more disruption—and potentially reap more value. While our estimates suggest that tech companies, unsurprisingly, are poised to see the highest impact from gen AI—adding value equivalent to as much as 9 percent of global industry revenue—knowledge-based industries such as banking (up to 5 percent), pharmaceuticals and medical products (also up to 5 percent), and education (up to 4 percent) could experience significant effects as well. By contrast, manufacturing-based industries, such as aerospace, automotives, and advanced electronics, could experience less disruptive effects. This stands in contrast to the impact of previous technology waves that affected manufacturing the most and is due to gen AI’s strengths in language-based activities, as opposed to those requiring physical labor.

Responses show many organizations not yet addressing potential risks from gen AI

According to the survey, few companies seem fully prepared for the widespread use of gen AI—or the business risks these tools may bring. Just 21 percent of respondents reporting AI adoption say their organizations have established policies governing employees’ use of gen AI technologies in their work. And when we asked specifically about the risks of adopting gen AI, few respondents say their companies are mitigating the most commonly cited risk with gen AI: inaccuracy. Respondents cite inaccuracy more frequently than both cybersecurity and regulatory compliance, which were the most common risks from AI overall in previous surveys. Just 32 percent say they’re mitigating inaccuracy, a smaller percentage than the 38 percent who say they mitigate cybersecurity risks. Interestingly, this figure is significantly lower than the percentage of respondents who reported mitigating AI-related cybersecurity last year (51 percent). Overall, much as we’ve seen in previous years, most respondents say their organizations are not addressing AI-related risks.

2. Leading companies are already ahead with gen AI

The survey results show that AI high performers—that is, organizations where respondents say at least 20 percent of EBIT in 2022 was attributable to AI use—are going all in on artificial intelligence, both with gen AI and more traditional AI capabilities. These organizations that achieve significant value from AI are already using gen AI in more business functions than other organizations do, especially in product and service development and risk and supply chain management. When looking at all AI capabilities—including more traditional machine learning capabilities, robotic process automation, and chatbots—AI high performers also are much more likely than others to use AI in product and service development, for uses such as product-development-cycle optimization, adding new features to existing products, and creating new AI-based products. These organizations also are using AI more often than other organizations in risk modeling and for uses within HR such as performance management and organization design and workforce deployment optimization.

AI high performers are much more likely than others to use AI in product and service development.

Another difference from their peers: high performers’ gen AI efforts are less oriented toward cost reduction, which is a top priority at other organizations. Respondents from AI high performers are twice as likely as others to say their organizations’ top objective for gen AI is to create entirely new businesses or sources of revenue—and they’re most likely to cite the increase in the value of existing offerings through new AI-based features.

As we’ve seen in previous years , these high-performing organizations invest much more than others in AI: respondents from AI high performers are more than five times more likely than others to say they spend more than 20 percent of their digital budgets on AI. They also use AI capabilities more broadly throughout the organization. Respondents from high performers are much more likely than others to say that their organizations have adopted AI in four or more business functions and that they have embedded a higher number of AI capabilities. For example, respondents from high performers more often report embedding knowledge graphs in at least one product or business function process, in addition to gen AI and related natural-language capabilities.

While AI high performers are not immune to the challenges of capturing value from AI, the results suggest that the difficulties they face reflect their relative AI maturity, while others struggle with the more foundational, strategic elements of AI adoption. Respondents at AI high performers most often point to models and tools, such as monitoring model performance in production and retraining models as needed over time, as their top challenge. By comparison, other respondents cite strategy issues, such as setting a clearly defined AI vision that is linked with business value or finding sufficient resources.

The findings offer further evidence that even high performers haven’t mastered best practices regarding AI adoption, such as machine-learning-operations (MLOps) approaches, though they are much more likely than others to do so. For example, just 35 percent of respondents at AI high performers report that where possible, their organizations assemble existing components, rather than reinvent them, but that’s a much larger share than the 19 percent of respondents from other organizations who report that practice.

Many specialized MLOps technologies and practices may be needed to adopt some of the more transformative uses cases that gen AI applications can deliver—and do so as safely as possible. Live-model operations is one such area, where monitoring systems and setting up instant alerts to enable rapid issue resolution can keep gen AI systems in check. High performers stand out in this respect but have room to grow: one-quarter of respondents from these organizations say their entire system is monitored and equipped with instant alerts, compared with just 12 percent of other respondents.

3. AI-related talent needs shift, and AI’s workforce effects are expected to be substantial

Our latest survey results show changes in the roles that organizations are filling to support their AI ambitions. In the past year, organizations using AI most often hired data engineers, machine learning engineers, and Al data scientists—all roles that respondents commonly reported hiring in the previous survey. But a much smaller share of respondents report hiring AI-related-software engineers—the most-hired role last year—than in the previous survey (28 percent in the latest survey, down from 39 percent). Roles in prompt engineering have recently emerged, as the need for that skill set rises alongside gen AI adoption, with 7 percent of respondents whose organizations have adopted AI reporting those hires in the past year.

The findings suggest that hiring for AI-related roles remains a challenge but has become somewhat easier over the past year, which could reflect the spate of layoffs at technology companies from late 2022 through the first half of 2023. Smaller shares of respondents than in the previous survey report difficulty hiring for roles such as AI data scientists, data engineers, and data-visualization specialists, though responses suggest that hiring machine learning engineers and AI product owners remains as much of a challenge as in the previous year.

Looking ahead to the next three years, respondents predict that the adoption of AI will reshape many roles in the workforce. Generally, they expect more employees to be reskilled than to be separated. Nearly four in ten respondents reporting AI adoption expect more than 20 percent of their companies’ workforces will be reskilled, whereas 8 percent of respondents say the size of their workforces will decrease by more than 20 percent.

Looking specifically at gen AI’s predicted impact, service operations is the only function in which most respondents expect to see a decrease in workforce size at their organizations. This finding generally aligns with what our recent research suggests: while the emergence of gen AI increased our estimate of the percentage of worker activities that could be automated (60 to 70 percent, up from 50 percent), this doesn’t necessarily translate into the automation of an entire role.

AI high performers are expected to conduct much higher levels of reskilling than other companies are. Respondents at these organizations are over three times more likely than others to say their organizations will reskill more than 30 percent of their workforces over the next three years as a result of AI adoption.

4. With all eyes on gen AI, AI adoption and impact remain steady

While the use of gen AI tools is spreading rapidly, the survey data doesn’t show that these newer tools are propelling organizations’ overall AI adoption. The share of organizations that have adopted AI overall remains steady, at least for the moment, with 55 percent of respondents reporting that their organizations have adopted AI. Less than a third of respondents continue to say that their organizations have adopted AI in more than one business function, suggesting that AI use remains limited in scope. Product and service development and service operations continue to be the two business functions in which respondents most often report AI adoption, as was true in the previous four surveys. And overall, just 23 percent of respondents say at least 5 percent of their organizations’ EBIT last year was attributable to their use of AI—essentially flat with the previous survey—suggesting there is much more room to capture value.

Organizations continue to see returns in the business areas in which they are using AI, and they plan to increase investment in the years ahead. We see a majority of respondents reporting AI-related revenue increases within each business function using AI. And looking ahead, more than two-thirds expect their organizations to increase their AI investment over the next three years.

The online survey was in the field April 11 to 21, 2023, and garnered responses from 1,684 participants representing the full range of regions, industries, company sizes, functional specialties, and tenures. Of those respondents, 913 said their organizations had adopted AI in at least one function and were asked questions about their organizations’ AI use. To adjust for differences in response rates, the data are weighted by the contribution of each respondent’s nation to global GDP.

The survey content and analysis were developed by Michael Chui , a partner at the McKinsey Global Institute and a partner in McKinsey’s Bay Area office, where Lareina Yee is a senior partner; Bryce Hall , an associate partner in the Washington, DC, office; and senior partners Alex Singla and Alexander Sukharevsky , global leaders of QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey, based in the Chicago and London offices, respectively.

They wish to thank Shivani Gupta, Abhisek Jena, Begum Ortaoglu, Barr Seitz, and Li Zhang for their contributions to this work.

This article was edited by Heather Hanselman, an editor in the Atlanta office.

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40+ Best International Relations Research Topics: Global Dynamics Unveiled

International Relations Research Topics

Theories of International Relations

Constructivism

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