Methodology in the study of international relations

The development of any social science seems to include an initial phase marked by considerable ambiguity of terms. The studies of international affairs share this fate with analogous branches of learning. It may, therefore, be necessary at the out set of this work to explain a few basic terms which are fre quently used in the following chapters.

It may be appropriate to begin with the fundamental concept which is expressed by the term international affairs. It is used in this study to denote all kinds of relations traversing state boundaries, no matter whether they are of an economic, legal, political, or any other character, whether they be private or official. But the term international is not quite exact, since there are states which have several nationalities within their borders, and dealings inter such ethnic groups are naturally very different from international affairs as defined above. How ever, to retain the term international in this context may be to envisage the gradual decline of state boundaries in their present sense, while national peculiarities still remain.

The term international politics is used to denote only official relations, that is, relations between states as such, not relations between private institutions or individuals in different states. The term politics implies a more restricted meaning than does affairs since it seems to exclude non-political as pects, whatever they may be. It should, however, be added that the term is apparently far from always used in this restricted sense in the international literature.