International Relations and Comparative Politics Research Essay

This essay delves into the intertwined fields of international relations and comparative politics, highlighting their significance in today's world. The author explores the definition, importance, and current relevance of both disciplines, emphasizing the role of international relations in addressing global issues such as diplomacy and its impact on nations, while comparative politics provides a framework for understanding governance, democracy, and conflict. The essay uses the recent xenophobia case in South Africa as an example to illustrate how international relations are affected by social issues between countries, specifically Nigeria and South Africa. The author also discusses the importance of comparative politics in examining governance structures, democratization, and welfare policies. This essay underscores the necessity of both fields in navigating the complexities of the global landscape and highlights the significance of ongoing research in these areas to address pressing global challenges.

Running head: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND COMPARATIVE POLITICS 1
International Relations and Comparative politics
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INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND COMPARATIVE POLITICS 2
International Relations and Comparative politics
The first topic of interest in research involves international relations. The contact between
nations, states, and organizations without putting aside political parties is what is known as
International relations (Baylis, Owens, & Smith, 2017). International relations cover a number of
critical issues including economy, political arena, human rights and also poverty. This clearly
explains the importance of Internal Relations in solving problems facing most of the countries
globally. Even though International Relations and Comparative Politics go hand in hand,
Comparative Politics is defined as the study about politics in relation to their institutions and also
their systems. Furthermore, comparative politics covers matters dealing with conflicts.
Due to the fact that international relations cover critical issues globally, it has a lot of
significance in today’s world (Mingst, McKibben, & Arreguin-Toft, 2018). A more defined
example involves diplomacy within third world countries or developing countries like the recent
xenophobia case in South Africa. It is important to know the new relationship level of South
Africa and Nigeria after all the recent xenophobic attacks because the attacks are social issues
that have affected how the two countries relate. One has to bear in mind the fact that Nigeria had
to close the South African embassy. Closing an embassy of a foreign country in one’s country
means that diplomacy and international relations between the two parties are affected so this
definitely affects the economy of both countries because South Africa has huge companies in
Nigeria which benefits both the South African and Nigerian governments. Apart from peace
promotion, it plays a major role towards the growth of the economy between many nations as it
encourages effective policies on trade covering the importation of goods and also raw material to
the countries where they are not available. In addition to that, it has been able to counter poverty
growth rate through the encouragement of international trade. Equally important, is the issue of

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culture which can be put under human rights. Through international relations culture has been
enhanced through cultural exhibitions worldwide.
Despite the fact that international relation has been there since time in memorial, an
interesting thing about it is that it is still facing challenges and so the countries need to look for
proper solutions to these challenges (Miskimmon, O'Loughlin, & Roselle, 2017). International
relations covers a variety of current issues among them are: conflicts among countries of the
world especially those in the Middle East, matters on nuclear threat something that has been
going on between North Korea and America, countries having to scramble for natural resources,
different nations competing for sovereignty.
The second topic am interested in is comparative politics which is the study of politics in
relation to their institutions and also their systems (Wiarda, 2018). Furthermore, it covers topics
dealing with conflicts (Newton & Van Deth, 2016). It is of great importance in the sense that it
covers issues to deal with governance of other countries and this enables a person to have a
better know how of the outside world. Additionally, it opens up for other countries in case they
are interested in offering any assistance. Through comparative politics it has been easy for
political scientist to be able to stress their interest on the political structure of both developed and
developing countries.
Interesting part about comparative politics is that it not only tackles matters to do with
politics alone but also issues to do with poverty, democracy, health, peace and also war between
countries. Comparative politics can be used in handling matters concerning poverty through
researching on better ways to counter the pandemic. It is also interesting to know that
comparative politics can promote democracy through political analyst who most of the time
analyses politics together with the issues affecting people.

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There are various current issues that require this topic they includes (Caramani, 2017).
Among them are religion, democratization and welfare. Religion has a very vital role in politics
even though most people tend to ignore it. Religion deals with ethics something which most of
the politician’s lack something that is clearly seen in their speeches during political rallies. Apart
from that for democratization to be effective it requires comparative politics which will help the
politicians in comparing different systems of governance from different countries in the world
both developed and developing countries and be able to implement them in their own countries.
Regarding welfare, comparative politics is of great importance as it will be able to deal with
ensuring that people live in happiness and this will be made possible by doing a bench mark on
other countries and learning how different countries make the lives of their citizens comfortable
through governance.
From the analysis, both international relations and comparative politics have a great
significance in the current world in issues regarding politics, health, conflict, religion among
others. For any nation to develop well, it is required to put into consideration matters on
international relations and comparative politics.
References

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Baylis, J., Owens, P., & Smith, S. (Eds.). (2017). the globalization of world politics: An
introduction to international relations. Oxford University Press.
Caramani, D. (Ed.). (2017). Comparative politics. Oxford University Press.
Mingst, K. A., McKibben, H. E., & Arreguin-Toft, I. M. (2018). Essentials of international
relations. WW Norton & Company.
Miskimmon, A., O'Loughlin, B., & Roselle, L. (2017). Forging the world: Strategic narratives
and international relations. University of Michigan Press.
Newton, K., & Van Deth, J. W. (2016). Foundations of comparative politics: democracies of the
modern world. Cambridge University Press.
Wiarda, H. J. (2018). New directions in comparative politics. Routledge.