IB DP Global Politics – Core topic – Theoretical perspectives in global politics Revision Notes

These revision notes condense the core topic “Theoretical perspectives in global politics” for IB Diploma Programme Global Politics. It follows the IB Diploma Programme Global politics guide (first assessment 2026, published February 2024), the course examined from the May 2026 session onwards. The topic is part of the core, which is identical for SL and HL.

For full explanations and a worked case, read the study guide. Test yourself with the practice questions. Course links: IB DP Global Politics hub and printable checklist.

What the guide prescribes

• Three items of prescribed content: theories, models and analytical frameworks; their use and applicability to political issues; their bias and limitations.
• No named theory is prescribed. The guide strongly encourages a range, naming realism, liberalism, and the critical theories feminism, postcolonialism and social constructivism.
• The uses it lists: organising, evaluating, critically reviewing, simplifying, explaining (causes, consequences, motives), predicting and prescribing.
• It also asks you to weigh the successes and limitations of theories when studying real cases.

Definitions

Term	Meaning
Theory	Linked assumptions that claim to explain political behaviour
Model	A simplified picture or set of categories for one part of politics (e.g. hard, soft, smart power)
Analytical framework	A structured set of questions or levels for examining a case (e.g. scale: global to local)
Anarchy	No authority above sovereign states – not the same as chaos
Self-help	Each state must secure its own survival
Security dilemma	One state’s defensive build-up makes others feel less safe, so they arm too
Relative gains	Gains measured against a rival’s gains
Absolute gains	Gains measured against your own starting point
Complex interdependence	Many channels link societies; military force loses usefulness (Keohane and Nye, 1977)
Norm	A shared expectation of proper behaviour for actors with a given identity
Norm entrepreneur	An actor that promotes a new norm (e.g. a campaigning NGO)
Gender as a category	Analysing how ideas of masculinity and femininity shape politics
Eurocentrism	Treating European or Western experience as the universal standard

The five perspectives at a glance

Perspective	Main actors	Core assumption	Key names to cite
Realism	States	Anarchy forces states to pursue power and security	Morgenthau; Waltz (1979); Mearsheimer
Liberalism	States, IGOs, companies, NGOs	Institutions and interdependence make cooperation likely	Keohane and Nye (1977)
Social constructivism	States and norm-promoting actors	Ideas and identities shape interests	Wendt (1992)
Feminism	People, including those the state ignores	Gender shapes power, security and the economy	Enloe
Postcolonialism	Former colonies, Global South, peoples	Colonial hierarchy still structures world politics	Said (1978); Mignolo

Key concepts by perspective

	Power	Sovereignty	Legitimacy	Interdependence
Realism	Relative, material	Foundation of the system	Effective control	Vulnerability
Liberalism	Diffuse; soft power counts	Can be pooled	Consent and law	Reduces conflict
Constructivism	Includes ideas	Changing social institution	Shared norms	Builds identity and trust
Feminism	Power over vs power with	Can hide private harm	Who is excluded?	Gendered labour chains
Postcolonialism	Historical hierarchy	Limited in practice	Who sits at the table?	Dependency

Method in steps

Applying a perspective to a case

1. Name the political issue as a question.
2. State the perspective’s core assumption.
3. Apply it to specific facts of the case.
4. Link to at least one key concept.
5. Say what it explains well.
6. Say what it misses, and which lens fills the gap.

Evaluating a theory

1. Unit of analysis: who counts as an actor?
2. Change: can it explain a shift, or only continuity?
3. Prediction: does it make a testable forecast?
4. Standpoint: whose experience was it built on?
5. Effect: could believing it change behaviour?

Reading a source for theory (Paper 1)

1. Find the actor the source treats as most important.
2. Find what it treats as the motive (security, gain, identity, justice).
3. Match the pattern to a perspective.
4. Name what a rival perspective would say about the same source.

Worked reminders

Realism on an alliance. A state joins a defence pact because a neighbour’s army is growing. Realist reading: balancing against a threat to survival. Concept: power and sovereignty.

Liberalism on a trade bloc. Members cut tariffs and accept a shared dispute body. Liberal reading: an institution lowers the cost of cooperation and each member gains in absolute terms. Concept: interdependence; sovereignty is pooled.

Constructivism on R2P. At the 2005 World Summit, UN member states endorsed the Responsibility to Protect. Constructivist reading: a new norm redefined sovereignty as a responsibility. Realist reply: selective use shows power decides.

Feminism on peace talks. UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) called for women’s participation in peace processes. Feminist reading: excluding women weakens both the legitimacy and durability of peace.

Postcolonialism on the Security Council. Five permanent members hold a veto; no African state holds a permanent seat. Postcolonial reading: the institution’s legitimacy rests on a post-1945 order that most former colonies had no part in shaping.

Liberalism vs realism on sanctions. A group of states imposes trade sanctions on a rival. Realist reading: economic pressure is a tool of power to weaken the target. Liberal reading: sanctions work best when coordinated through institutions, and interdependence gives them force. Evaluation: both assume states are the key actors, so a feminist or postcolonial lens asks who inside the target state bears the cost.

Using theory in the papers

• Paper 1 is source-based and draws on the core topics, so a source may reason like a realist or a liberal. Name the pattern and quote the words that show it.
• Paper 2 section B asks integrating questions linking the thematic studies and the core. Two or three lenses, each with a limit, meet the markband demand for diverse perspectives.

Must-know distinctions

• Relative vs absolute gains – realism vs liberalism on why cooperation is hard or easy.
• Theory vs model – a theory explains why; a model sorts and describes.
• Explanatory vs critical theory – realism and liberalism explain behaviour; critical theories also ask whose interests a view serves.
• Constructivism vs idealism – constructivism is about how ideas shape interests, not a hope that states behave well.
• Classical vs structural realism – human nature vs the structure of the system as the cause of power-seeking.
• Anarchy vs chaos – anarchy means no world government; order can still exist.
• Actors vs stakeholders – a theory focused on actors (who exercise power) may ignore stakeholders who are affected but lack agency.

Quick self-test

1. Name the five perspectives the guide encourages teachers to review.
2. Which three are grouped as critical theories?
3. Is any political theory prescribed content?
4. Define the security dilemma in one sentence.
5. Which perspective relies on absolute gains?
6. Who wrote Theory of International Politics, and in what year?
7. Give one example of a norm entrepreneur and the norm it promoted.
8. What did UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) address?
9. How would a postcolonial perspective read interdependence?
10. Give two uses of theory listed in the guide besides explaining.
11. Which markband feature in Paper 2 does applying several theories help you reach?
12. State one limitation of constructivism.

Answers

1. Realism, liberalism, feminism, postcolonialism, social constructivism.
2. Feminism, postcolonialism and social constructivism.
3. No. The guide encourages a range but prescribes none; the skill of using theories is prescribed.
4. One state’s defensive measures make others feel threatened, so they respond and all end up less secure.
5. Liberalism.
6. Kenneth Waltz, 1979.
7. The International Campaign to Ban Landmines, promoting a ban on anti-personnel mines (Ottawa Treaty, 1997).
8. Women, peace and security – including women’s participation in peace processes and protection in conflict.
9. As dependency: former colonies often rely on exporting raw materials to richer states on unequal terms.
10. Any two of: organising, simplifying, predicting, prescribing, evaluating, critically reviewing.
11. Diverse perspectives explored and evaluated (13-15 band).
12. Any one: weak at prediction; explains change mainly after the event; hard to measure norms.

Where marks are usually lost

• Defining all five theories in a block, then never applying them to the case.
• Writing “realists would say” with no specific fact from the case to back it.
• Using theory without linking it to power, sovereignty, legitimacy or interdependence.
• Treating feminism or postcolonialism as a single sentence of disagreement.
• Stating a theory’s claim as a fact (“states are selfish”) instead of as an argument.
• Relying on cases older than about two decades without tying them to the present.
• Mixing up the terms, for example calling self-help “anarchy” or absolute gains “relative gains”.
• Giving no limitation for the perspective you use, which caps evaluation.
• In Paper 1, labelling a source “realist” without pointing to the words in it that show this.

Related pages

• Key-concept guides: power, sovereignty, legitimacy, interdependence and stakeholders and systems.
• Assessment revision notes – how each paper is built.
• Peace and conflict revision notes – cases to test realist and feminist readings.
• Rights and justice revision notes – cases for liberal and postcolonial readings.

Official syllabus

International Baccalaureate Organization, Diploma Programme Global politics guide, first assessment 2026 (published February 2024). Core topics: “Understanding power and global politics” – prescribed topic “Theoretical perspectives in global politics”.