ABSTRACT
This chapter makes the case that the growing set of global problems should remain the focus of the field. Recently, to stem a loss of majors, the political science department at Stanford radically changed its undergraduate program to focus on such global and national problems rather than on abstract subfields or research methodology. If, as Lindqvist argued, industrial workers can uncover new truths about global capitalism simply by learning how to study the documents and creating the oral histories of their own workplaces, perhaps even academic workers can do the same. International relations (IR)'s roots include practical studies of the four great evils of late nineteenth century imperialism: militarism, the political sabotage of the industrial working class, the immiseration of the colonized, and the associated racism that harmed citizens of color in the industrialized centers of empire. Unfortunately, IR has always been caught up in contemporary politics.
