It’s that time of summer when stores start advertising “back to school” sales, professors start preparing syllabi and students ready themselves for another year of classes. For those studying international relations, that can mean undergraduates taking their first introductory IR 101 class or graduate students beginning advanced degrees focused on international politics and policy.
But some people, including some of those very students, might wonder: Why bother? Why take a class on international politics, major in international relations or earn a graduate degree focused on the intricacies of diplomacy and foreign affairs? Stated simply, why study international relations academically? Isn’t diplomacy and foreign affairs something that, if necessary, you can just learn by doing? After all, how many people who study or earn degrees in international relations actually practice international relations, whether by working for a global NGO or serving as a diplomat in their nation’s foreign service?
One way to answer that question is to point to the value of the social sciences more generally, of which international relations is a part. For all of the biggest challenges facing humanity, whether the existential risks posed by climate change, out-of-control generative artificial intelligence or a pandemic such as COVID-19, the truth is that we can’t simply “tech” our way through. Solutions to these and other challenges require addressing the underlying political, societal, economic and behavioral factors driving them. It’s not enough to get the “science” right if you get the social science wrong. To understand why, just look at the resistance across broad swathes of the population to COVID-19 vaccines, despite the scientific evidence that they are effective.