International Studies; A New Introduction

The challenge of teaching international studies is to help students think coherently about the multiple causes and effects of global problems. In International Studies: Global Forces, Interactions, and Tensions, award-winning scholars Scott Straus and Barry Driscoll give students a clear framework that pinpoints how key factors―forces, interactions, and tensions―contribute to world events, with both global and local consequences.

The authors first show students how to look for common patterns in global issues by introducing four world-shaping forces: global markets, shifting centers of power, information and communications technologies, and global governance. They systematically trace how these forces prompt interactions among world actors and thus give rise to a set of tensions that spur key challenges. The framework enables students to ask and answer for themselves―Who is interacting? Where did such interactions develop? What policies or institutions govern them? Why are they getting certain global and local reactions? 

Students then apply the framework to the global problems that matter most to them: human rights abuses, economic inequality, terrorism, forced migration, pandemics and global health responses, climate change, food security, and more. International Studies raises the bar for the Introduction to IS course, moving beyond interdisciplinary, and into the realm of critical analysis to increase student relevancy and motivation.

Give your students the SAGE edge!
SAGE edge offers a robust online environment featuring an impressive array of free tools and resources for review, study, and further exploration, keeping both instructors and students on the cutting edge of teaching and learning. Learn more at edge.sagepub.com/straus1e.

Bundle and Save!
Your students only pay $5 for The CQ Press Career Guide for Global Politics Students when you bundle it with the print version of International Studies. 
Use Bundle ISBN: 978-1-5443-5204-6

Scott Straus is a Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He has published multiple books that pertain to genocide, human rights, and African politics, notably Making and Unmaking Nations: War, Genocide, and Leadership in Modern Africa (Cornell, 2015), which won the 2018 Grawemeyer Prize for Improving World Order, and The Order of Genocide: Race, Power, and War in Rwanda (Cornell, 2006). He also co-authored International Studies: Global Forces, Interactions, and Tensions (Sage, 2nd ed., 2022). You can learn more about him and his work here: https://sites.google.com/view/scott-straus/home

Barry Driscoll has completed PhD in Political Science from University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is originally from Galway, Ireland and made it to Grinnell by way of Leiden (Holland), Copenhagen, Washington, London, Oslo, and finally Wisconsin, either working in international development or researching themes in comparative politics. His work is on the political economy of development and the state in Africa, focusing on decentralization, local governance, taxation, state capacity, and political parties. His work has been published in Democratization, Studies in Comparative International Development, and Journal of Modern African Studies. At Grinnell College, he teaches classes on African Politics, International Political Economy, and the Political Economy of Development.