International Relations: All That Matters

Everybody these days needs to know about international relations, because their workings shape all our lives. This book, explaining the particular significance of the international level of world politics, offers a comprehensive, accessible, and challenging overview of what is at stake, and what you need to know.


World politics can be understood, simply, as Who Gets What, Where and How? (globally) to borrow a title from a famous old book by Harold Lasswell. International relations are a critical level in that business of determining who gets what across the world. Decisive things take place at the international level, and they directly or indirectly affect all our lives: war, trade, and the provision (or not) of human rights for example. This is why the practice of international relations matter. The reason academic International Relations matter is because it is the subject that asks the most fundamental questions about the politics of who gets what and how, and in the biggest political arena of all.

Ken Booth is a well-renowned expert in the field who has given talks in nearly 30 countries and his work has been translated into 10 languages. He won the 'Susan Strange Award' which recognises 'a person whose singular intellect, assertiveness, and insight most challenge conventional wisdom and intellectual and organizational complacency in the international studies community'. He is currently Senior Research Associate in the Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth University where he was formerly E.H. Carr Professor and Head of the Department and is a Fellow of the British Academy.