International relations (IR) or international affairs (IA)—commonly also referred to as international studies (IS), global studies (GS), or global affairs (GA)—is the study of politics, economics and law on a global level. Depending on the academic, it is either a field of political science, an interdisciplinary academic field similar to global studies, or an independent academic discipline that examines social science and humanities in an international context.

In all cases, international relations is concerned with the relationships between political entities (polities) such as sovereign states, inter-governmental organizations (IGOs), international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), other non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and multinational corporations (MNCs), and the wider world-systems produced by this interaction. International relations is an academic and a public policy field, and so can be positive and normative, because it analyses and formulates the foreign policy of a given state.

For example, international relations draws from the fields of politics, economics, international law, communication studies, history, demography, geography, sociology, anthropology, criminology and psychology. The scope of international relations encompasses issues such as globalization, diplomatic relations, state sovereignty, international security, ecological sustainability, nuclear proliferation, nationalism, economic development, global finance, terrorism, and human rights.