Book Description

The world is becoming an ever smaller place-through globalization, finance and economics, technology, media, and the many global issues that transcend borders. As a result, the study of Global Politics and International Relations by students in their first year of college needs a moreintegrated, applied, and practical approach. Authors Mark Boyer, Natalie Hudson and Michael Butler, through their many years of teaching and studying in this field, have developed an approach to the subject that integrates historical context where necessary in the discussion of global issues andintegrates the mainstream theoretical approaches within every chapter to provide students a rich and meaningful way to understand and critically analyze what is happening in the world today. This approach helps students to go beyond the abstract and challenging presentation of concepts, theories,actors and events that exists in most undergraduate level Global Politics texts, to using the findings from this field in applied and practical ways. This approach directly engages the goals most professors in the field articulate-which is to teach students how to think about their world and thethings that are happening in it right now.The text covers all of the standard topics covered in the undergraduate level IR/Global Politics course, and also provides more robust coverage of global ecology; gender and race; the different security challenges of our day that go beyond armed conflict; IPE coverage that highlights the divergentpaths of the global north and south; and the growing reliance upon international law, international organizations, and global and regional governance. Within a familiar organization and emphasis of topics, the authors have developed a compelling narrative and features to captivate students who areboth "worldy" and "naive" at the same time.