International Relations

International relations (IR) is defined as the study of the relationships between and among nation-states and the international system in general. Scholars of IR seek to understand the behavior, actions and struggle for power among international actors from different perspectives (i.e. idealist or realist) and at different levels of analysis (systemic, foreign, domestic, and individual). This guide is designed to support international relations coursework in the following Penn programs.

Academic, scholarly, and peer-reviewed books, journals, and articles are considered appropriate sources for college-level research and writing assignments. Here are a few tips when searching for books, journals, and articles:

• The library catalog contains books, journal articles, databases, CDs and DVDs, and other items in the Penn Libraries' collections.
• If you need articles for which you already have the title or citation, use Articles+ or the PennText Article Finder citation tool.
• Start your search for articles in a general database such as EBSCO MegaFILE.
• Use a subject database such as Worldwide Political Science Abstracts for political science-specific articles.
• If your assignment requires scholarly, academic, or peer-reviewed journal articles, use a scholarly database such as JSTOR.
• If you cannot locate a book or journal article in Franklin, request it through the Borrowdirect/EZBorrow & Interlibrary Loan.

Two major commercial database vendors—EBSCO and ProQuest—are widely used to provide e-books, political science journals, and peer-reviewed articles. Universities will usually provide access to databases from one or both vendors. Important things to know about EBSCO and ProQuest.

• Both provide access to dozens of individual subject databases that use a single search interface.
• Both provide a varied mix of scholarly journals, trade publications, general magazines, and newspaper resources.
• Both are multidisciplinary, which means they cover many subject areas, including political science.

Area studies are interdisciplinary fields of research related to specific geographical, national/federal, or cultural regions. The following links are to area studies research guides that will be of help if you have a particular geographic research need.

• African Studies & African History
• Arab and Middle Eastern Studies
• East Asian Studies
• Latin American Studies
• Russian & East European Studies
• South Asian Studies