International relations
Description
1. The study of all the exchanges, transactions, contacts, flows of information and meaning, and the attending and resulting behavioural responses between and among separated organized societies, including their components. Such a study usually deals with actors (states, governments, leaders, diplomats, peoples) striving to attain certain ends, using means (such as diplomacy, coercion, persuasion) which are related to their power or capability.
2. A branch of political science concerned with relations between political units of national rank and dealing primarily with foreign policies, the organization and function of governmental agencies concerned with foreign policy, and the economic, geographic and other factors underlying such policies.