Subfield Coordinator: Vinod Aggarwal
International Relations at Berkeley focuses on the study of contemporary and historical problems in world politics, including in international security and international political economy.
Current research interests pursued by our group include the causes and consequences of inter-and intrastate peace and war, the political economy of trade and finance, the inter-relationship between domestic politics and international relations, intelligence and counter-intelligence, American foreign and national security policy, the role of ideas and identities shaping international affairs, the link between business and politics, and the interaction between religion and global politics.
A core part of our group is our weekly seminar series, MIRTH, as well as ongoing workshops, such as the one on the nexus of international relations and comparative politics. In addition to resources in the political science department, our work is reflected and supported by various centers across campus: the Institute for International Studies (IIS), the Berkeley Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Study Center (BASC), the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy (BRIE), among other institutes and centers. In addition, the journal Business and Politics is edited by one of our faculty members.
Our methodologies are eclectic, ranging from socio-historical analysis to quantitative empirics to experiments to neuroimaging to formal modeling. Much of our research is interdisciplinary, drawing from fields as disparate as economics, psychology, sociology of religion, or history. We take theory seriously but not to the exclusion of interesting and important global problems. Our overarching goal is to contribute to an understanding of how international politics is organized and how it functions around substantive issues that matter to political actors and human beings.
