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The Institute of International Relations was established in 2023. Several factors conditioned its creation. Firstly, the decision taken in 2022 to separate "international relations" in Poland as a scientific discipline in the field of social sciences. The Institute is authorized to award doctoral and habilitated doctor degrees in the discipline of "international relations". Secondly, traditions and experiences in the study of international relations as a sphere of social reality with a shaped identity, dating back to the mid-1960s, called the "Lublin school of international relations". Thirdly, the dynamic development of human resources potential, which currently numbers approximately 40 academic teachers with, in many cases, outstanding, internationally recognized achievements. An important feature of this potential is its increasingly international composition. Scientific research at the Institute of International Relations of UMCS is currently conducted in two departments: 1) Department of International Political Relations and 2) Department of International Security. It is planned to create further cathedrals. Research activity is also carried out in the Laboratory of International Memory Studies, the Center for European Documentation, the Laboratory of Internationalization of Higher Education and the Laboratory of International Political Communication. The thematic scope of research conducted in both departments and other structures 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 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 actors; 5) international processes such as changes in the global international order, processes of globalization and interdependence, integration, regionalization, transnational processes; 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) security studies with a focus on non-military dimensions of security (ecological, food, energy, health); 9) change in the geopolitical space of the modern world and its polarity; 10) strategic culture of states and non-state actors; 11) 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; 12) identification of the dynamics, variability and diversity of security threats, military and non-military, from states and non-state actors, including threats in cyberspace. Scientific research at the Institute of International Relations of UMCS is distinguished by several features identified with the Lublin school of international relations. First, considering the state as the main actor of international relations, we broadly include transnational actors in our research. 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. 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. Sixth, we internationalize our research, systematically expanding the range of international partners. |
