ABSTRACT
The chapter begins by pointing out that the field of IR is increasingly concerned with issues of regionalism and the role of regional organisations such as the European Union (EU), the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and other international groups
become a significant actor in international relations, as a phenomenon of global politics, as well as in IR theory itself. Following a brief introduction which locates the European Union in the context of the discipline of International Relations, several key strands of IR theory are surveyed. Naturally, this is a selective overview in a single chapter. It is important, however, to explain some basic concepts of IR theory which recur in the rest of the book.
