Abstract:

Increasing glocalisation of our world and interconnection of people of different climes have thrown up more issues in the global scene than ever before. These issues include those of refugees, xenophobia, climate change, cross-border terrorism, migration of labour, light weapon proliferation and rapid spread of diseases from one part of the world to another. These emerging global issues have no doubt reinforced a form of study which looks at societal problems from global perspective and also analyses the way in which relations among nations influence these issues together with impact of international organisations. The academic discipline dedicated to this was diplomatic history which was later upgraded in a way to International Relations. Today, there is another academic title offered by many institutions which also has its content focused on the international system. That discipline is International Studies. This article takes a look at the evolution of International Studies. Literature on this topic is hardly available and the available ones erroneously trace the origin to the University of Aberystwyth where International Politics originated from. This study examines the difference between International Relations and International Studies with a view to establishing their evolution. Findings reveal that the content, though with little variations in scope of the two titles are substantially the same. Again, both adopt either qualitative or quantitate approach depending on the institution where they are offered. It is concluded that, the difference between International Relations and International Studies exists only in name and are of the same origin.