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Political Science (International Relations and Organisation)
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B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 4
2021 Oct (100 marks) Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 4 Political Science (International Relations and Organisation) 2021 Oct (100 marks) Question Paper with Solutions
First published on munotes.in on 21 October 2026.
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Contents
The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2021 Oct (100 marks) examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2021 Oct (100 marks) examination, reproduced as Karnataka State Law University set them, in the order it set them. Long reading passages are shortened to their first and last lines and our summary; the original paper prints them in full. Only the answers are ours. See the original question paper.
Duration 3 hours · Total marks 100 · 15 questions answered
How to use this volume
Solve the paper first, under exam conditions and against the clock. Then read the answers here and mark your own. Reading a solution before attempting the question feels productive and teaches very little, because recognising an answer is not the same as being able to write one.
Q1Explain the scope and importance of International relations.[16]
Answer
For full marks, cover: the meaning of international relations (Bentham's word "international"; the narrow and broad meanings) and two or three definitions (Morgenthau, Palmer and Perkins, a working definition); how the subject became a discipline (Aberystwyth, 1919) and why its scope keeps widening; the scope, head by head: the state system, power and national interest, foreign policy and diplomacy, war and peace, international law, international organisation, international political economy, non-state actors, global issues, and theory; the importance of the subject for every citizen (interdependence, war, shared problems, democracy, understanding India, careers) and for a law student (Constitution arts. 51, 73(1)(b) and 253; the Union List; Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan); its limits; a conclusion.
Meaning of international relations
The word "international" is younger than most people think. The English jurist Jeremy Bentham coined it in his Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, printed in 1780 and published in 1789. He used it for the branch of law then called the law of nations, the law between sovereigns. So the word was born meaning "between nations", and in practice "between states".
International relations has two meanings.
- The narrow meaning is the official dealings of governments with one another: diplomacy, treaties, alliances, war and peace. This is often called international politics.
- The broad meaning covers every interaction across national borders that matters to how the world is run. It includes trade, migration, international law, international organisations, companies, campaigning bodies and terrorist networks.
Most present-day courses use the broad meaning.
Definitions
Hans Morgenthau (1948) began his account with the sentence: "International politics, like all politics, is a struggle for power." His is a realist definition. It puts the state and its power at the centre.
Palmer and Perkins (1954) saw the subject's real purpose as the analytical study of interstate relations. Their definition insists on understanding what states actually do before saying what they should do.
A working definition joins these ideas. International relations is the systematic study of the interactions among states and other international actors, political, economic, legal and cultural. It also studies the international system within which they take place, and the causes of conflict and co-operation within it.
How the subject became a discipline
The First World War turned questions of war and peace into everyone's business. In 1919 the first professorship of international politics, the Woodrow Wilson Chair, was founded at Aberystwyth, then part of the University of Wales. Chatham House in London held its first meeting in 1920. In India, the Indian Council of World Affairs was set up in New Delhi in 1943. The School of International Studies became part of Jawaharlal Nehru University in 1970.
The scope of the subject has widened ever since. It began as the study of diplomacy and war between European states. It now covers a world of 193 states and many actors that are not states at all.
The scope of international relations
Scope means the range of matters a subject covers. On the broad meaning, it covers ten main heads.
1. The state system. The modern system of sovereign states, with its basic principles of sovereignty, equality, territorial integrity and non-intervention.
2. Power and national interest. What makes a state strong, how power is measured, and what limits it.
3. Foreign policy and diplomacy. How states decide what they want abroad and how they communicate and negotiate.
4. War, peace and security. The causes of war, alliances, the balance of power, collective security, deterrence, disarmament and peacekeeping.
5. International law. The rules states accept as binding, their sources, and the courts and tribunals that apply them.
6. International organisation. The League of Nations, the United Nations and its agencies, and regional bodies such as SAARC, ASEAN and the European Union.
7. International political economy. Trade, aid, debt, investment and the gap between rich and poor states, including the demand for a New International Economic Order.
8. Non-state actors. Multinational companies, non-governmental organisations, liberation movements, and terrorist and criminal networks.
9. Global issues. Climate change, pandemics, migration and refugees, human rights and human security.
10. Theory. The competing explanations of world politics: realism, liberalism, Marxism and constructivism. Theory tells the student what to look for in the facts.
The scope is not fixed. New problems such as cyber security and climate change keep adding to it.
Importance of the study of international relations
A. For every citizen
1. States are interdependent. A government can set its own tax rates, but not the world price of crude oil. What happens abroad reaches every home through prices, jobs and security. Understanding these outside forces is the first reason to study the subject.
2. War is still possible, and its cost is greater than ever. The UN Charter opens with the resolve "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind". Wars have not stopped since 1945, and nuclear weapons can destroy cities in minutes. A subject that asks why wars happen and how they can be prevented is of the first importance.
3. Some problems cannot be solved by one state. Climate change, pandemics, terrorism, refugees and the drug trade cross borders. Solving them needs co-operation among states that have no common government, which is exactly what the subject studies.
4. A democracy needs informed citizens. E. H. Carr recalled that before 1914 foreign policy was left to professionals. In a democracy today, voters judge governments on their handling of borders, trade and terrorism. They can judge sensibly only if they understand the international system.
5. It explains one's own country. India's wars, its non-alignment and its economic opening in 1991 make sense only against the background of world politics. So does its claim to a permanent seat on the Security Council.
6. It opens careers. The subject leads to the foreign service, international organisations, journalism, international business and, for a lawyer, international law and arbitration.
B. For a law student in particular
7. The Constitution makes foreign affairs a matter of law. Article 51 directs the State to "promote international peace and security" and to "foster respect for international law and treaty obligations". Article 73(1)(b) extends the Union's executive power to rights and authority held "by virtue of any treaty or agreement". Article 253 lets Parliament make laws "for implementing any treaty, agreement or convention". The Union List gives Parliament power over foreign affairs, the UN, treaties, war and peace, and extradition (entries 10 to 21).
8. Treaties shape the law Indian courts apply. The case is Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan, AIR 1997 SC 3011, (1997) 6 SCC 241.
- Facts. Social activists and organisations filed a petition under article 32 after the alleged gang rape of a social worker in a Rajasthan village. They asked the Court to protect working women from sexual harassment at the workplace. No Indian statute covered the subject. India was a party to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
- Held. On 13 August 1997, the Supreme Court held that an international convention consistent with the fundamental rights must be read into them. Articles 14, 15, 19(1)(g) and 21 were enlarged in this way. It found this implicit in article 51(c) and in Parliament's power under article 253. It then laid down binding guidelines until Parliament legislated.
- Why it matters here. A convention, the product of relations between states, became enforceable law in an Indian court. A lawyer who did not know what treaties India had joined could not have argued the case.
Limits of the subject
Palmer and Perkins called international politics "a very inexact 'science'", in fact "hardly a science at all". It cannot run experiments, so it deals in probabilities, not certainties. Its theories disagree with one another. Critics also say that much of it was written from the point of view of the Western powers. It must take fuller account of Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Conclusion. International relations is the systematic study of the interactions among states and other actors across borders. It also studies the system they form and the causes of conflict and co-operation within it. Its scope runs from the state system, power, foreign policy and war to international law and organisation. It also takes in political economy, non-state actors, global issues and theory, and it keeps widening. Its importance lies in a world of interdependence, nuclear danger and shared problems, and in the needs of a democracy. For a lawyer it matters even more, because, as articles 51, 73 and 253 and Vishaka show, international obligations become Indian law.
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