IB DP Global Politics – HL extension – Global political challenges and Paper 3 Study Guide

This study guide covers the HL extension of IB Diploma Programme Global Politics: global political challenges, and the Paper 3 exam that assesses it. It follows the IB Diploma Programme Global politics guide (first assessment 2026, published February 2024), the course examined from the May 2026 session onwards. Everything on this page is HL only. SL students sit Papers 1 and 2 but not Paper 3.

Use this page with the revision notes for this unit and the Paper 3 practice set. For the whole course, see the IB DP Global Politics hub and the printable checklist.

What this unit covers

Area of the guide	What you must be able to do	SL/HL
Purpose of the HL extension	Explain its three emphases and how it builds on the core topics and thematic studies	HL only
The eight HL topic areas	Describe each area and link it to course content and to the other areas	HL only
Case studies	Research at least two cases across at least two topic areas, using the guide’s research questions	HL only
Guiding lines of inquiry	Use the six lines of inquiry to organise evidence and answer Paper 3 question 3	HL only
Paper 3	Know the structure, marks and marking method, and answer each question type	HL only

How the HL extension fits the course

The HL extension has 80 of the 240 HL teaching hours. The guide prescribes no extra content for it. Your extended inquiries build on the four key concepts (power, sovereignty, legitimacy, interdependence), the core topics and the three thematic studies.

The guide gives the extension three emphases:

1. Interconnection – challenges overlap and feed each other.
2. Complexity and tension – addressing one challenge can create costs or conflicts elsewhere.
3. Solutions – you look for possible courses of action, not just causes.

The guide wants these links spotted while you cover the common syllabus, not saved for the end. It names three ways to connect:

• Explicit mention in prescribed content – for example identity as a cause of conflict, environmental factors of development, or conceptions of poverty.
• Expanding a prescribed topic – for example treating environmental rights as part of human rights.
• Integrating thematic-study elements into a topic area – for example treating identity as a right of individuals and groups, a marker of political development, and a potential source of conflict.

The eight HL topic areas

The guide lists eight areas: borders, environment, equality, health, identity, poverty, security and technology. It stresses that they overlap, so study what connects them.

Topic area	What the guide’s orientation stresses (paraphrased)	Natural links to the common syllabus
Borders	Physical borders between states, and social borders of class, ethnicity and gender; sometimes the challenge is the lack of a border, as with capital flows; migration and trafficking	Sovereignty; rights and justice; peace and conflict
Environment	Problems cross national boundaries; climate change needs international cooperation; resource depletion; growth versus sustainable development	Interdependence; development and sustainability
Equality	Inequality creates power imbalances, instability and exploitation of vulnerable stakeholders; equality with diversity	Power; rights and justice; development
Health	Local and national public health compared with global actors such as the WHO and NGOs; epidemics cross borders; health reflects wider socio-economic conditions	Interdependence; development; legitimacy
Identity	Cultural, religious, gender and ethnic identities can become political; the public/private line; identity in genocide and ethnic violence	Rights and justice; peace and conflict; legitimacy
Poverty	Globalisation and poverty; cooperation between state and non-state actors; human rights perspective; poverty’s role in some conflicts	Development and sustainability (inequality)
Security	Military power, war, arms and non-state actors, but also food, water and energy security; rights violations as attacks on personal security	Peace and conflict; sovereignty
Technology	Internet and social media change how actors organise; new forms of power such as cyber capabilities; need for norms in cyberspace	Power; interdependence

Choosing and building case studies

Two ways in

The guide suggests two starting points:

• Topic area first. You pick an area, such as health, then find a case that lets you study it in depth.
• Case first. You start from a situation that interests you, then map it onto every topic area it touches.

Either way, the minimum is fixed: at least two case studies and at least two topic areas. One case touching four areas is not enough on its own.

What to research

The guide sets out research questions in three groups. Turn them into a case file.

Group	Questions to answer in your file
1. Background, data and issues	What is happening? Who are the actors and stakeholders? What data exist, and how valid or contestable are they? Which key terms matter? Which similar cases help?
2. Causes, impact and responses	What causes the situation? What are the political, social and economic impacts at different levels? How do different actors respond and interpret it? What will shape how it plays out?
3. Reflection	Which course concepts and theories explain it? Which wider trends does it show? Why does this case matter? What other views of it exist?

Research will mostly use secondary sources: articles, books, reliable websites, images and video. The guide expects a balance of views, so record who produced each source.

Worked example: a case file on the Cape Town drought

The 2016–2018 drought in Cape Town, South Africa, is one of the guide’s own suggested examples. Here is how a case file starts to take shape.

Step 1 – What happened. After several dry years, reservoir levels fell so low that the city warned of a “Day Zero” when household taps would be turned off. From February 2018 residents were asked to use no more than 50 litres of water per person per day. Demand fell, rain returned, and the taps were never shut off.

Step 2 – Actors and stakeholders. City, provincial and national government, farmers, businesses, wealthier households, and residents of informal settlements who already relied on shared standpipes.

Step 3 – Topic areas. Environment (drought, climate variability), security (water security), equality and poverty (wealthier households could pay for boreholes, tanks or bottled water; poorer households could not).

Step 4 – Concepts. Legitimacy: government performance during a crisis affects public trust. Power: which level of government controls bulk water supply and who is blamed. Interdependence: city, farms and national water systems depend on one another.

Step 5 – Responses and evaluation. Restrictions, tariffs and public messaging cut demand in the short term. The open question: did the burden fall fairly?

Step 6 – Second case. Pair it with a case from another area, such as the 2014–2015 Ebola outbreak in Liberia (another guide example), so you can compare how states handle crises.

The six guiding lines of inquiry

The guide expects every HL inquiry to consider six lines of inquiry. In short:

1. Links between the challenge and the core topics.
2. Links between the challenge and the thematic studies.
3. How far the challenges are interconnected, and how that affects study and response.
4. How the challenges are perceived and addressed in different contexts.
5. Which frameworks, systems, organisations and mechanisms exist to address them.
6. How looking at cases from different topic areas changes how a challenge is seen or addressed.

Paper 3 question 3 is based on these, so prepare evidence for each one from each case.

Paper 3 exactly as the guide describes it

Feature	Detail
Who sits it	HL only
Duration	1 hour 30 minutes
Maximum mark	28
Weighting	30% of the HL grade
Stimulus	May include text, data, diagrams and infographics
Evidence	Mostly from the case studies you researched

The other HL components: Paper 1 (20%), Paper 2 (30%), engagement project (20%).

The stimulus is not a Paper 1 source. In a source-based paper you identify, analyse or explain what a source says. In Paper 3 the stimulus mainly focuses you on a topic or item, or opens a discussion. The marks come from what you bring from your own cases.

Question	AO	Marks	What the guide says it requires	How it is marked
1	AO2	3	Understanding and analysis of the stimulus plus knowledge of global political challenges	Analytical markscheme
2a	AO2	4	Knowledge, understanding and analysis of an identified political issue	Markscheme plus markbands (1–2, 3–4)
2b	AO3	6	A recommendation of a course of action or solution to that issue	Markscheme plus markbands (1–2, 3–4, 5–6)
3	AO3	15	Synthesis and evaluation of your researched cases and global political challenges	Markscheme plus markbands (five bands up to 13–15)

What moves you up the bands:

• 2a: a descriptive answer stays in 1–2. The top band needs clear analysis of the issue and accurate knowledge of its context.
• 2b: a vague recommendation scores 1–2. One that addresses the issue but ignores difficulties sits at 3–4. The top band needs a well-supported recommendation that considers challenges, implications or unintended consequences.
• 3: the top band needs a balanced, well-organised argument, claims that are justified and evaluated, well-developed examples, and diverse perspectives explored and evaluated.

Command terms. Questions 1 and 2a are AO2, so expect analyse, distinguish, explain or suggest. Questions 2b and 3 are AO3, so expect terms such as recommend, evaluate, discuss, examine or to what extent. The glossary defines recommend as giving an advisable course of action with supporting evidence or reasons for a given situation.

Timing

With 90 minutes for 28 marks you have about 3.2 minutes per mark. A sensible split is 10 minutes for question 1, 13 for 2a, 19 for 2b and 48 for question 3. Question 3 carries 15 of the 28 marks, which is about 16% of your whole HL grade.

Worked example: reading a stimulus

Stimulus – original text written for Marlbridge.

Port Salem, a fictional coastal city, recorded 6 days above 40 °C in 2005, 11 in 2015 and 19 in 2025. Most outdoor construction workers there are migrants on temporary permits. A workers’ group says employers ignore heat-safety rules because permits can be cancelled.

Question 1 approach (3 marks). Name the challenge the stimulus shows and link it to more than one topic area. Days above 40 °C rose by 13 between 2005 and 2025, more than tripling (environment). The workers most exposed hold temporary permits, which limits their power to complain (borders, equality). Heat illness is a health issue. Three linked, analytical points fit 3 marks.

Question 2a approach (4 marks). Name the political issue from your own researched case in the first sentence, for example who is responsible for protecting workers whose legal status depends on employers. Then analyse causes, actors and the power imbalance, using accurate detail from your case.

Question 2b approach (6 marks). Use this frame: action – actor – evidence – challenge – mitigation. For example, a legally binding heat-stoppage rule enforced by labour inspectors, supported by evidence from your case, with the risk that employers shift work to unregulated sites, and a way to reduce that risk.

Question 3 approach (15 marks). State a clear claim, compare at least two cases from different topic areas, weigh counter-arguments and reach a justified judgement.

Common errors

• Summarising the stimulus like a Paper 1 source instead of bringing in your own cases.
• Researching only one case, or two cases from the same topic area.
• Naming a case (“Ebola in Liberia”) without the dates, actors and outcomes that make it evidence.
• Writing a 2b recommendation with no named actor, no supporting evidence, and no challenge or unintended consequence.
• Answering question 3 with side-by-side narratives and no judgement.
• Leaving too little time for question 3, worth over half the paper.

Where next

• Condensed recall: revision notes for this unit
• Exam-style questions with model answers: Paper 3 practice set
• Exam planning: exam preparation and assessment revision notes
• Thematic studies: rights and justice and peace and conflict

Official syllabus

This page is based on the International Baccalaureate Organization, Diploma Programme Global politics guide, first assessment 2026 (published February 2024): the HL extension on global political challenges, the HL assessment outline, the Paper 3 external assessment details and markbands, and the glossary of command terms.