A branch of political science that studies the behavior and power of sovereign states in the context of a world of interconnected international relationships. International politics has become a major subject of study because of the many international conflicts that have occurred in the last three centuries, and the fact that these conflicts have typically led to large-scale war. International politics has therefore come to be viewed as a discipline with a special responsibility for preventing such future conflict.
The study of international politics is an enormously broad one. The most commonly used analytical tools include law, diplomacy, economics, history, philosophy, psychology, anthropology, and sociology. But, no matter how broad a perspective may be, all of these approaches have a common core: the idea that the behavior of sovereign states is important and that some way must be found to understand it.
An era of globalization in which the rise of market economies and technological progress have greatly increased the size and scope of economic, military, and cultural contacts between nations. This has shifted the balance of power in favor of the developed world and given rise to new kinds of international problems.
The term also refers to the political problems that arise as a result of these developments and which are difficult to solve. Examples of such problems include the spread of nuclear weapons and the problem of global warming. In addition, the rapid pace of scientific discovery opens up a whole new area of international politics.