International Relations are a new field of Political Science. It became a subject of study and research after 1900 and especially after the First World War (1914-1918). Before 1900, it was only a part of diplomacy, that is, the art of negotiations between sovereign States.
International Relations studies not only relations between States or governments, but also studies power politics and also questions of war and peace, relations between individuals and foreign governments, commercial, cultural, intellectual, economic and other relations between nations and governments as well as between international organisations and agencies, the regional and international alliances and treaties, the role and functions of the United Nations Organisation (UNO), and such programmes and organisations as the questions of world peace and of world government as well as of human rights, ban on nuclear weapons, etc.
It may be noted that International Relations are studied not only by the governmental bodies but also by private individuals and thinkers.
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