Conceptualizing Global Studies/International Relations: Antecedents and Future Prospects.

International Relations (IR) deals with international political and economic organization, global issues of conflict, governance, development, the environment, and so on. In spite of the wide breadth of the discipline, there is a growing trend of separating Global Studies from International Relations, since -nation? in its various manifestations remains at the centre of IR analysis, thereby limiting the analytical perspective for some. The ongoing debates around IR epistemology, methodology and pedagogy, have not yet settled. The constantly changing realities of our globalizing era continue to redefine the boundaries of this border-defying discipline. Some would still argue whether IR is a discipline or just a field of enquiry. Indeed significant number of universities do not have free standing departments of IR but treat it as a sub-field of political science. The near total privatization of international capital, the growing role of transnational corporations, as well as transnational regimes, amongst other things, are constantly challenging the most fundamental definitions of IR. Amidst all these uncertainties, is there a field or discipline of Global Studies emerging? If so, why, and how? Instead of looking for answers in scholarship or the Great Debates alone, I would suggest that we take into account the application of this understanding and then engage with the ideological debate. How have different regions of the world conceptualized Global Studies and International Relations? What is the implication of this perceived trend on IR as a discipline? A wide selection of programmes in Global studies and/or International Relations offered at tertiary level in a representative cross section of different regions of the world, with their inherent political, economic and cultural diversity, will be used to find answers to some of the questions posed above, as well as to predict the future of GS and IR. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]