International Relations discipline examines states as main actors within the international system, international organizations and non-governmental actors within the scope of all of their qualifications, their historical backgrounds and mutual interactions. With increasing globalization being experienced all around the world, to have an awareness and understanding of current international affairs has become more and more important.

Besides the relations among the states, the relationships between states and other international actors such as nongovernmental organizations or transnational bodies and the relations among these non-state organizations form the focus of the discipline. In this program the main conceptions of international relations; power, security, foreign affairs and claims of authority and liberty; are critically analyzed by students enabling them to make new explanations and comparisons. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the field, the scope is not limited to these issues and knowledge on history, economics, political science, law, philosophy, sociology, psychology and statistics is also aimed to be generated at the end of an undergraduate degree in the department. Besides the abilities of explaining, comparing and analyzing, the students are trained to attain the ability of questioning; that is asking about ‘how’s and ‘why’s when they confront a certain situation. 

The primary aim of İKU International Relations Department is to equip its students with the fundamental knowledge and scientific perspective of the field of international relations and to train them as experts who can understand international developments analytically and interpret them. Equipped with this abundance of knowledge and such enriching qualities, the graduates of the program will be able to easily obtain job opportunities in different areas such as diplomacy, media, academia or private and government sector.