The interactions between governments and other political entities have always been a topic of scholarly interest, and with the intensification of globalisation in recent centuries, this interest has only grown. The study of International Relations – varying defined as a subfield of Politics, or an interdisciplinary field that includes Politics alongside other disciplines – examines the ways in which state governments, inter-governmental organisations (IGOs), Non-governmental Organisations (NGOS) and others interact on a world stage, both describing these interactions as they are, and envisioning how they should be in the future. As with Political Science, research and study within International Relations incorporates both qualitative and quantitative methods. This dual focus means that an MA or MSc in International Relations can lead either towards further academic study, or towards the more applied space of working for the polities concerned in the realm of foreign policy and diplomacy.
