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The Globalization of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations

John Baylis, Patricia Owens (Primary Contributor), Steve Smith (Editor)

5 stars
385 (33%)
4 stars
453 (39%)
3 stars
248 (21%)
2 stars
51 (4%)
1 star
24 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
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Akshi
43 reviews68 followers
January 31, 2014
Everybody knows what an important book this is for the student of International Relations and it is considered one of the basic texts for all the right reasons. Giving one a glimpse of the evolution of the international system over the ages to explaining nearly all the relevant phenomenon through the lens of different theoretical paradigms, it keeps the much celebrated "globalization" central to its discussions. Specific chapters have been written by well known authors of the field and ever since my first meeting with this book last year, I've enjoyed reading it every time I've picked it up.

I bought the fifth edition for myself and was overwhelmed by the beauty of its colourful and glazed paper and attractive design. However, my only complain is that in the course of widening its scope, the new edition seems to have cut down on the depth of the analysis previous editions offered ( an example is the chapter on World history from 1900-1990). This compromise of depth in favour of breadth means that the book remains only a starting point, albeit, a thoroughly engaging, up-to-date and relevant one! This also enables it to be a book that would be accessible to both students of I.R. along with a person who may not belong to the academic field but may be intrigued by International Relations nevertheless.

Note : The sheer beauty of the book along with the ease of reading it makes it one of my most prized possessions :)
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Bookworm Amir
198 reviews95 followers
May 7, 2013
This textbook is a must for any International Relations student. As a newbie, it gives us the basic structure that we can use to comprehend the basics of IR, as well as the contemporary issues at hand.

One of my professors said that the book was so good, as each chapter was written by a renowned scholar of that field, that he fears students might just use that textbook for references and ideas.

The book has a useful glossary, questions at the end of chapters, further readings, colourful texts and photos, and for each sub-chapter, a review. I have been writing notes and underlining texts on this book.

My only concern that as a 2nd year student, while it has proved very useful for qualifying year, now it seems that what they talk about - to depth and width - is lacking. Say if I was to write about the issue of nationalism, this textbook will quickly give me the basics, but nothing more. I would have to go to JSTOR and other journals to get the more specific information which our paper requires. The textbook is great for beginners, and as the title of the book mentions, it is an introduction merely. I am happy to have read most of the book from cover to cover.
Manar
31 reviews52 followers
November 24, 2015
- a must for any International Relations student
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José
39 reviews8 followers
April 16, 2021
está regular
bastante más pesado que el de goldstein porque no tiene ejemplos ni vainas
aunque los primeros capítulos sobre las tradiciones de pensamiento son mejores y más teóricos que el manual de goldstein
no lo volvería a leer
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mal
40 reviews1 follower
October 10, 2021
hvor ville jeg dog være uden den her bestie
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Ambuj Sahu
30 reviews17 followers
November 12, 2017
4.5/5.
A nice and gripping starter to theories of Internstional Relations. The books is divided into three sections.
The first section traces the evolution of current international orders glancing through the prevailing systems in world history. It is supplemented by the theoretical tools used to understand the approaches towards the subject.
The second sections deals with various actors and their roles in the larger game of international politics. I specially enjoyed the chapter on war and feminist approaches.
The final section comprises of prevalent global challenges and issues faced by the international community. Ranging from poverty, security, environment, nuclear proliferation and terrorism, the authors provides interesting insights into the problems with many perspective.

Additional case studies and boxes help to test and track the understanding of concepts. Every chapter concludes with analyzing the theme with respect of globalization. The content of book is sheer justice to the title and reputation of the book. I deducted 0.5 because I still have a few chapters to finish (as the ones on international regime and private actors are too dry, factual and boring...)
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Ike Sharpless
169 reviews78 followers
November 28, 2011
This is the textbook I chose for my upcoming intro to IR course, which I'm teaching for the first time. So it'll be listed as "reading" for at least the next three months...
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Joe
204 reviews41 followers
May 10, 2017
First, let's talk about what John Baylis' "The Globalization of World Politics" is: a sweeping, relatively comprehensive overview of the field of International Relations. With five chapters on world history, another 7 on the major theoretical schools of IR, and then another 15+ chapters on various topics of importance such as international ethics, modern warfare, peacekeeping and diplomacy, international political economy, and others. Suffice to say, GWP is a massive, sprawling look at just about all the major topics in contemporary IR.

That being said, the depth of each topic necessarily can't be more than an overview, and while this may suffice for an "Intro to IR" course, it won't leave you with much beyond that. In addition to that, the strength of each chapter varies wildly; while I found his chapters on realism, constructivism, and Marxism pretty descriptive, sections like those about the impact of post-colonialism or feminism were largely lacking. However, Baylis wins points for having 5-15 "Further Reading" suggestions at the end of each chapter and topic, which serve as a basic jumping-off point for motivated students. He also includes a rather excellent Glossary at the end of the text, which prepares readers with precisely the kind of vocabulary needed to navigate a field as academic as international relations.

Baylis also takes an approach largely agnostic from bias; while you can tell based on his attention to detail about certain topics where his expertise lies, he also largely avoids the very common trap of completely neglecting heterodox schools of thought or uncomfortable facts about popular perspectives. Perhaps this is due to his European academic heritage. All I know is, I was genuinely surprised to find an entire section about Antonio Gramsci's contributions to IR written without bias-- this is something you'd never find from a professor at, say, the University of Texas, and I found it incredibly refreshing. Ditto for Baylis' asides on the spread and growth of economic inequality as a side effect of globalization and interdependence, for another example. Really one of the strongest aspects of the book.

"The Globalization of World Politics" suffers from the misfortune of trying to introduce students to a gigantic and relevant field of study, and while it mostly accomplishes the goal, it can't possibly get all the way. I don't hold it against Baylis, because this effort is sure the best one I've come across so far, but it is what it is. If you're looking for an exhaustive, 2000-page tome that covers every aspect of IR in depth, I'm not sure it exists. But for an educating and interesting introduction? GWP has you covered in spades.
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Luke
73 reviews
March 20, 2021
I rarely read text books cover-to-cover, but I did so with this one. I appreciated the natural progression of the work--from discussing theories of international politics and questioning the very existence of globalization, to addressing factual matters such as the functioning of the UN and other international actors and discussing world problems seen daily in periodicals.

I found that the authors presented a fair-minded analysis of each subject in an intelligent, comprehensible way and almost always struck a great balance between educating and informing the reader about the issues, viewpoints, etc. while letting the reader comes to his/her own conclusions where points of view may differ among the experts.

Finally, I like this book as it provides a wealth of additional information to guide the student. From a detailed glossary and index at the back of the book to multiple summaries of chapter subsections and carefully-crafted annotated bibliographies for further exploration at the end of each chapter, this book left me with a wealth of further reading suggestions and easy ways to come back to it for reference.
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Phuong Anh
7 reviews
June 11, 2020
Should be 3.5 to be honest. Finished this textbook in 1 month! Such a laborious journey. The book did a good job as a textbook! But it is also a testimonial for why noone wants to read textbook. Sentences are like 10 line long, which makes readers go through the same passage again and again. I wonder is there any way to make international relations an interesting topic?!!
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Muhammad Murad
49 reviews15 followers
June 8, 2018
Read many of its chapters over the last couple of years. It helped me a lot in my concept making related to the subject, especially the theories of world politics. I will recommend it to those who have interest in the subject of world politics and world politics.
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Ian Pitchford
67 reviews12 followers
March 5, 2020
This is - and deserves to be - one of the most popular textbooks on international relations in the globalised era. It has good historical context and thorough accounts of the various theoretical approaches, both of which are genuinely enjoyable to read.
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Michelle
77 reviews2 followers
August 6, 2019
I mean, this was my textbook for INR2001 so how good could it really be?
I learned a lot tho. Plus I’m a nerd. 3/5
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Nicola
82 reviews5 followers
December 11, 2020
I totally forgot to mark this one as finished! Really great book for those new to IR - definitely helped me to grasp the basic concepts.
Sumaira
1 review
April 10, 2021
Awesome
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Sham Al-Ghazali.
Sham Al-Ghazali
52 reviews44 followers
February 9, 2017
An incredibly huge help with my university degree however history is written by the "winners" and this somewhat looks on globalization all too favorably
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Mikaela
21 reviews21 followers
December 27, 2013
One of the best introductions to International Relations and global politics. For students (or readers) who are looking for an informative text on World Politics, this textbook is comprehensible and filled with examples. However, like many Western published textbooks, much of the content swings to Western culture and society. Understandably so, as the history of academic international relations were popularized by the West, however, for an introduction to politics and comparative politics, the text is easy to read.
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Declan Ellis
109 reviews30 followers
October 3, 2020
Decent IR textbook. Lots of jargon in parts of it, so probably mainly for IR students. Some decent explanations of certain topics. There were a variety of authors, but some of them were not that clear in how they wrote. I certainly didn't agree with many of the conclusions, either - there seemed to be a lot of chapters written by liberals and critical theorists (from what I remember). Bring on the realists!
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Linnea
27 reviews1 follower
May 19, 2015
One of the best overviews of international politics and globalization. A great introductory book with all the essentials, from political international theory to bureaucratic issues. Also very pedagogic with examples and a nice structure.

Lacked critical reflection by the authors, but this is understandable since it's just a basic-level introduction.
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Amanda
89 reviews
December 4, 2014
Very informative. I plan to keep this book as a reference. The prose, though difficult, was well done and the divisions between topics were orderly and helpful. There are even nice key point boxes at the end of sections to help review in a pinch.
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Mervyn Cartwright
56 reviews
April 19, 2015
Reading this book as part of a short course entitled TheCauses of War. It has views on many aspects of International Politics. Particularly interesting are the definitions of war as seen from differing perspectives. The book also has online links for case studies of contemporary conflicts.
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Andy
8 reviews1 follower
August 13, 2009
This book is aweful. Riddled with grammatical and spelling errors...it's as though they completely forgot to proofread it. The content is okay though.
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Rachna
16 reviews2 followers
May 28, 2013
a must book in case u r a student of international relations... its succinct and up to date.. evry single concept has been xplained beautifully..
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews

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