How The World Works

How the World Works: A Brief Survey of International Relations provides the detailed, micro-level knowledge readers need to understand world politics, harnessing their curiosity about global current events. The text covers the continuing swirl of events that dominate world politics in our present–from the Arab Spring, to the Russian invasion of Crimea, to the rise of ISIS, to the Ebola crisis in West Africa.

The Third Edition makes improvements upon the book in general while maintaining its core mission: to tap into reader interest in current events and help each reader build a conceptual and theoretical sophistication that remains when these current events become a part of history. The text challenges readers to question their assumptions about the world and what they may think they already know about international relations. Overall, the text makes it clear that even scholars and politicians disagree about the world’s political and economic interactions, and makes a point to introduce readers to all paradigms–encouraging them to form their own opinions about how the world works.