Institute of International Relations

The Department of International Political Relations was established within the structure of the Institute of International Relations established on September 1, 2023. Its creation was preceded by previous organizational structures for the study of international relations at UMCS, such as the Department of International Relations (2019-2023), the Department of International Relations (1981-2019) and, before 1981, the International Relations Group. The department is therefore the successor of institutionalized research on international relations at UMCS, initiated in the mid-1960s. A significant contribution to their development was made by the late. Professor Ziemowit Jacek Pietraś.

The thematic scope of research conducted at the Department includes:

1) theoretical thinking about international relations and dilemmas of the relationship between the ontology and epistemology of international relations in the conditions of their change, especially the emergence of the Late Westphalian international order;

2) the plane of international relations with a focus on the political plane and the evolution of diplomacy and international political leadership, taking into account other planes such as economic, cultural, social, military and ecological;

4) activities of international relations entities with a focus on the foreign policy of states and the activity of non-state entities;

5) international processes such as changes in the global international order, processes of globalization and interdependence, integration, regionalization, transnational processes, changes in the geopolitical space of the modern world and its polarities;

6) various forms of institutionalization of international relations, including international organizations, international regimes, network structures, global governance;

7) international relations in regions with a focus on: Central Europe, Eastern Europe, the Euro-Atlantic region and European integration, the Balkans, Scandinavia, the Middle East, the Indo-Pacific region, South America, North America;

8) strategic culture of states and non-state actors;

9) international historical memory, attempts to treat it instrumentally in the strategies and practices of states and non-state actors in the context of ontological security;

The research conducted at the Department of International Political Relations is given an identity, sometimes called the Lublin School of International Relations. They are distinguished by several features.

Firstly, considering the state as the main actor of international relations, research broadly takes into account non-state – transnational – entities, which means a departure from state-centric thinking about international relations. In relation to states, we have developed a specific approach to the analysis of foreign policy and diplomacy from the perspective of their change.

Secondly, the category of change in the world of historical acceleration, globalization processes, increasing social mobility, the importance of cyberspace and perhaps entering the period of the Anthropocene is particularly important for the identity of our research. In their context, we develop the concept of the late Westphalian international order.

Thirdly, we analyze cross-border activities, phenomena and processes in their broader context, taking into account independent variables and cause-and-effect relationships existing at the level of the international system, but also at the level of states' internal policies. Recognizing the particular importance of changes at the level of the global international system and regional systems as independent variables, we believe that contemporary international relations cannot be analyzed in isolation from the interior of states.

Fourthly, we attach great importance to the theoretical and methodological correctness of the research conducted, and to the use of the theoretical and methodological heritage of the discipline as research tools. In other words, the research we conduct is not reduced to the sum of facts on a given topic.

Fifthly, in order to present the results of our research, in addition to their theoretical and methodological correctness, the precision of the language and the use of a network of categories specific to the discipline of "international relations" are important.