3 International Relations: Levels of Analysis

It goes without saying that the international system is a complex arena and that the dynamics of international relations continue to change over time. The twentieth century has left us with a world that has been annotated, mapped, analyzed, metricized, and so forth. For the most part, we are familiar with the major actors and actions, and their positioning with respect to structures and processes. This chapter serves as an introduction to international relations in the most basic terms. Our purpose is to highlight the elements that are directly relevant to our strategy for integrating cyberspace and international relations. In many ways, chapter 3 can be seen as a counterpart to chapter 2.