Since before I even started taking Political Science courses I’d always been fascinated with the field International Relations. I found myself watching world events and asking the question ‘why?’. Now after sitting in two weeks of lectures I can now say that the question ‘why?’ is not so easy to answer and that depending on where one might class themselves theoretically, the answers can vary greatly.

I had taken a 200 level International Relations course and had a general idea of what was in store. I was familiar with classic IR thought such as realism, liberalism and Marxism, and such big names as Hans Morgenthau and Thucydides. To me, the Melian Dialogue seemed like a logical way to explain why states went to war with each other. Now in our third week of class I have learnt that realism may not be as realistic as we thought. I believe my impression from my 200 level IR course left me slightly closed minded in regards to the world of IR thought. I didn’t even realize it, but I believe I was completely under the impression realism was the core paradigm of IR. It makes much more sense that as new world events continue to erupt so do new paradigms. While the variation of thought in IR that has been presented so far is rather overwhelming, I am excited to go beyond the classics.

What shocked me the most from our lectures so far though was how much IR is an anglo-american field of study. How can a field that involves all states be dominated by a few core states? If this isn’t a big enough sign to evolve IR from the classic thought, then what is? While IR can be dominated by a certain anglo-american way of thinking, it seems only necessary to start taking into account theories that other countries rely on. How are we suppose to understand the whole world while only focussing on the dominant way of thinking in our culture. What I then look forward to in this class is that we will go beyond this anglo-american school of thought and take others into consideration. If the way we think in Canada is completely opposite to the way China sees IR, to me it makes most sense to then understand how China sees IR. This brings me to the point that, like already emphasized in class, IR is most definitely NOT dominated by one core paradigm like the previous impression I was under. IR is dominated by many ways of thought and I’m nervous but excited to learn more about them.