Level of Analysis in International Relations

Abstract

International relations, or the relationships and interactions between different nations and ethnicities, is inherently complex, both in practice and as an academic discipline. Since the publication of Kenneth Waltz's Man, the State, and War in 1959, scholars and diplomats have found it useful to think about the numerous factors that shape international relations by breaking them into different levels of analysis-INDIVIDUAL, STATE and INTERNATIONAL or SYSTEMIC LEVELS. These different levels of analysis illuminate different reasons for why countries go to war, sign treaties or pursue alliances-is it due to the personalities of individual leaders, the values of particular nations as a whole or the characteristics of the international system as a whole?