Research Issues in International Relations and Regional Politics

The present volume intends to bring together several research endeavors undertaken by students of the Faculty of European Studies, under the coordination of professors Ana Pantea and Laura Herța. Topically and methodologically, the chapters included here are meant to reveal the interplay of sub‐ fields such as International Relations, Comparative Politics, Area Studies, and Regional Politics. The evolution of all the aforementioned sub‐fields entails opposing views within the academia (with respect to clear‐cut disciplines or new disciplinary boundaries) and cross‐cutting approaches or theoretical claims. Also, the historical trajectory is indicative for transformations reflected by the ways in which the study of international politics changed from the inter‐war period to the Cold War period and the post‐Cold War one. The academic discipline of International Relations was formed in 1919 when the Department of International Politics was created in Aberystwyth; the initial scientific goal was to design means in order to prevent war and this is precisely why David Davis (Welsh industrialist) set it up.