Beschreibung

Goldstein & Pevehouse (2006) strictly defines IR as the relationships among the world's governments and its interaction with other state actors. It overlaps several other fields such as international politics, economics, history, sociology and other sub-disciplines such as comparative politics, international security and international political economy (IPE). IR scholars look at IR in terms of the mix of conflict and cooperation in relationships among nations (Ch. 1, pp 1-5). Traditionally IR has focused on questions of war and peace, a sub-field of international security studies. It is deuced from this that some time immediately preceding , during, after World War 1, but prior to World War II, theories such as realism, hegemony, colonialism etc. compounded with ethnocentrism bestowed upon the superpowers the idea that the only answer to lasting sustainability would be through wielding state power. After World War II it still continued but a new sub-field began to emerge in IR, i.e. IPE. Goldstein & Pevenhouse (2006) note that in the 1970's and 1980's, 'as economies became increasingly central to international relations, the subfield of IPE grew and became the counterpoint to international security studies as a second main subfield of IR'. Goldstein & Pevehouse (2006) explain that 'scholars of IPE study trade relations and financial relations among nations, and try to understand how nations have cooperated politically to create and maintain institutions that regulate the flow of international economic and financial transactions. These topics mainly relate to relations among the world's richer nations. But since the 1990's growing attention has been paid to global North-South relations between rich and poor nations, including such topics as economic dependency, debt, foreign aid, and technology transfer.' Goldstein & Pevehouse (2006) link the field of IR to Development through the sub-discipline, IPE (Ch.1, pp 5).
This paper will critically assess the position that IR and Development started with the post World War II time. It will provide some definitions around IR and development, trace IR over time and examine whether or not development has really taken hold using the North-South as a basis for the hypothesis that development started with the post WWII time. The paper will also briefly speak to what might happen in the next 50 years.

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