IBDP Global Politics SL
IB Diploma Programme Global Politics at Standard Level is a rigorous Group 3 course that equips students with the conceptual tools, theoretical frameworks, and empirical knowledge to understand and critically engage with the most pressing political challenges of the twenty-first century. Organised around four interconnected core units — Power, Sovereignty and International Relations; Human Rights; Development; and Peace and Conflict — the course asks students to move beyond descriptive accounts of world events and develop the analytical capacity to evaluate competing explanations, weigh evidence, and construct well-reasoned arguments about contested political questions.Four key concepts — power, sovereignty, legitimacy, and interdependence — thread through every unit, providing a coherent conceptual architecture that connects seemingly disparate topics. Students learn to apply major theoretical lenses, including realism, liberalism, constructivism, and feminist theory, to real-world cases ranging from UN Security Council reform and the Responsibility to Protect, to the effectiveness of foreign aid, the causes of civil war, and the politics of climate change.Assessment at SL combines a source-based Paper 1 (30%), which develops critical reading and analytical writing skills, with a two-question extended essay Paper 2 (45%), which rewards sustained argumentation and case study integration. The internal assessment — a 2,000-word engagement activity report — is distinctive in the IB curriculum: students participate in a genuine political activity (a campaign, a Model UN, a community advocacy project) and then analyse that experience through the theoretical and conceptual vocabulary of the course, developing both academic and civic competencies.This AccelaStudy domain covers all four core units in full, with structured learning goals spanning knowledge recall through synthesis and evaluation. It includes source analysis practice, essay-writing scaffolding, contrastive concept pairs, and exam-strategy guidance aligned to the IB markscheme. Whether you are preparing for your first Paper 2 or refining your engagement activity report, this domain provides the structured, adaptive support you need to achieve your best possible grade.
210
Minutes
60
Questions
4/7
Passing Score
$173
Exam Cost
Who Should Take This
This course is designed for IB Diploma students taking Global Politics at Standard Level who want structured, adaptive preparation across all four core units. It is equally valuable for students who are new to political theory and those who already follow international affairs closely but need to develop the precise analytical and essay-writing skills the IB examinations demand. Students planning to study political science, international relations, law, development studies, journalism, or public policy at university will find the conceptual frameworks and case study knowledge built here directly applicable to undergraduate study. It is also suitable for students who simply want to engage thoughtfully with the world around them and develop the critical thinking skills to evaluate political claims and evidence with confidence.
What's Covered
1Concepts of power (hard, soft, smart), sovereignty and its challenges, theories of international relations (realism, liberalism, constructivism), state and non-state actors, international institutions and their legitimacy
2Development of the international human rights framework, categories of rights, philosophical foundations, enforcement mechanisms, contemporary human rights challenges including refugees, security vs. liberty, and universality vs. cultural relativism
3Concepts and measurement of development, development theories, structural barriers, aid and trade debates, role of international financial institutions, South-South cooperation, sustainability and climate justice
4Concepts of peace and violence (Galtung), types of conflict, causes of armed conflict, conflict resolution and peacebuilding, transitional justice, UN peacekeeping, nuclear weapons and deterrence
52,000-word written report on a locally or globally focused political engagement activity; three sections: description, analysis using course concepts, and reflection on learning; teacher-marked, externally moderated
What's Included in AccelaStudy® AI
Adaptive Knowledge Graph
Practice Questions
Lesson Modules
Console Simulator Labs
Exam Tips & Strategy
13 Activity Formats
Course Outline
1Unit 1: Power, Sovereignty and International Relations 3 topics
Key Concepts: Power and Sovereignty
- Define power in global politics, distinguishing between hard power, soft power, and smart power, and identify how each form manifests in the behaviour of state and non-state actors on the international stage.
- Define sovereignty and describe its classical Westphalian foundations, outlining how the principle of non-interference in domestic affairs has shaped the modern international state system since 1648.
- Explain how globalisation, humanitarian intervention, and the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine challenge traditional notions of state sovereignty, using contemporary case studies such as Libya 2011 or Syria.
- Evaluate the extent to which state sovereignty remains the organising principle of international relations in an era of supranational institutions, transnational threats, and non-state actor influence.
Theories of International Relations
- Describe the core assumptions of realism, liberalism, and constructivism as theoretical frameworks for understanding state behaviour, power distribution, and international order.
- Apply realist and liberal theoretical lenses to a specific international conflict or cooperation case, explaining which framework better accounts for the observed state behaviour and outcomes.
- Compare and contrast realist and constructivist explanations for the formation of international norms, alliances, and institutions, evaluating the strengths and limitations of each perspective.
Actors and Structures in International Relations
- Identify and describe the roles of key actors in global politics — states, intergovernmental organisations (IGOs), non-governmental organisations (NGOs), multinational corporations (MNCs), and individuals — and their relative power.
- Explain how the United Nations system — including the Security Council, General Assembly, and specialised agencies — exercises legitimacy and authority in managing international peace and security.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of multilateral institutions such as the UN, WTO, and IMF in addressing global challenges, considering structural constraints including the veto power and issues of representation and legitimacy.
- Analyse how non-state actors — including terrorist organisations, transnational advocacy networks, and social movements — challenge or reinforce state power and international norms in contemporary global politics.
2Unit 2: Human Rights 3 topics
Foundations and Framework of Human Rights
- Describe the historical development of the international human rights framework, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the two International Covenants (1966), and subsequent treaty bodies.
- Identify and distinguish between civil and political rights, economic, social and cultural rights, and collective/third-generation rights, providing examples of each category from international instruments.
- Explain the philosophical foundations of human rights — including natural law, social contract theory, and cultural relativism — and how these competing perspectives shape debates about universality versus cultural specificity.
Human Rights Violations and Enforcement
- Describe the roles of the UN Human Rights Council, the International Criminal Court, and regional human rights courts in monitoring, investigating, and adjudicating human rights violations.
- Explain how state sovereignty, political will, and geopolitical interests create barriers to effective international human rights enforcement, using specific case studies such as Myanmar, Sudan, or North Korea.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of international mechanisms — including sanctions, ICC prosecutions, and UN peacekeeping — in protecting human rights, weighing their achievements against structural and political limitations.
Contemporary Human Rights Issues
- Analyse the tension between state security imperatives and individual civil liberties in the context of counter-terrorism legislation, mass surveillance, and emergency powers, using contemporary examples.
- Examine the human rights dimensions of refugee and migration crises, explaining the obligations of states under the 1951 Refugee Convention and the political challenges of burden-sharing in the international system.
- Discuss the universality versus cultural relativism debate in human rights, evaluating arguments for and against the imposition of Western liberal norms on non-Western societies and the implications for global governance.
3Unit 3: Development 4 topics
Concepts and Measurement of Development
- Define development in its multidimensional sense, distinguishing between economic growth, human development, and sustainable development, and outline the evolution of development thinking from modernisation theory to the capabilities approach.
- Identify and describe key development indicators — GDP per capita, HDI, Gini coefficient, MPI, and gender inequality indices — explaining what each measures and its limitations as a proxy for human wellbeing.
- Explain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework, describing how the 17 goals represent a global consensus on development priorities and how they differ from the preceding Millennium Development Goals.
Theories and Barriers to Development
- Describe modernisation theory, dependency theory, and the Washington Consensus as competing explanations for global development disparities, identifying the key assumptions and policy prescriptions of each.
- Explain how structural barriers — including colonial legacies, debt, unfair trade rules, brain drain, and geographic disadvantage — perpetuate underdevelopment in the Global South.
- Analyse the role of gender inequality as both a cause and consequence of underdevelopment, applying feminist development theory to explain why women's empowerment is central to achieving sustainable development outcomes.
Aid, Trade, and Development Actors
- Identify and describe different types of development aid — bilateral, multilateral, humanitarian, and tied aid — and outline the roles of the World Bank, IMF, and UNDP in financing and directing development.
- Explain the debate over the effectiveness of foreign aid, contrasting arguments from scholars such as Sachs (aid as catalyst) and Moyo (aid as dependency trap), with reference to empirical evidence from recipient countries.
- Evaluate the impact of trade liberalisation and globalisation on development outcomes in the Global South, discussing both the opportunities created by export-led growth and the risks of unequal terms of trade.
- Analyse the growing role of China and other emerging powers as development partners in Africa and Asia, evaluating whether South-South cooperation represents an alternative development model or replicates dependency relationships.
Sustainability and Development
- Explain the concept of sustainable development as defined by the Brundtland Commission, describing the tension between economic growth imperatives and environmental limits in developing and developed countries.
- Evaluate the extent to which climate change disproportionately affects developing countries, examining the equity dimensions of climate finance, loss and damage, and the responsibilities of historically high-emitting states.
4Unit 4: Peace and Conflict 4 topics
Concepts of Peace and Violence
- Define and distinguish between negative peace (absence of direct violence) and positive peace (absence of structural and cultural violence) as articulated by Johan Galtung, providing examples of each in contemporary contexts.
- Identify and describe different types of conflict — interstate war, intrastate/civil war, proxy war, terrorism, and hybrid warfare — explaining how the nature of armed conflict has changed since the end of the Cold War.
- Explain the concept of structural violence — including poverty, discrimination, and unequal access to resources — and how it contributes to the conditions that generate direct political violence and armed conflict.
Causes and Dynamics of Conflict
- Explain the main causes of armed conflict — including resource competition, ethnic and religious identity, political exclusion, state failure, and external intervention — using specific case studies to illustrate each causal pathway.
- Analyse how the security dilemma and arms races contribute to escalation dynamics between states, applying realist theory to explain why rational actors may end up in mutually destructive conflicts.
- Examine the role of resource scarcity — including competition over water, oil, and minerals — as a driver of contemporary armed conflict, evaluating the 'resource curse' thesis with reference to specific country cases.
Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding
- Describe the spectrum of conflict resolution approaches — negotiation, mediation, arbitration, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding — and outline the roles of the UN, regional organisations, and NGOs in each.
- Explain the concept of transitional justice — including truth commissions, war crimes tribunals, reparations, and amnesty — and how post-conflict societies attempt to balance accountability with reconciliation.
- Evaluate the successes and failures of UN peacekeeping operations, examining cases such as Rwanda, Bosnia, and South Sudan to assess the conditions under which international intervention prevents or fails to prevent atrocities.
- Discuss the challenges of post-conflict state-building, evaluating the tensions between externally imposed liberal democratic models and locally owned political processes in countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, or Kosovo.
Nuclear Weapons and Global Security
- Describe the nuclear non-proliferation regime — including the NPT, CTBT, and IAEA safeguards — and identify the key tensions between nuclear-weapon states and non-nuclear states over disarmament obligations.
- Evaluate the deterrence theory of nuclear weapons, examining whether the logic of mutually assured destruction (MAD) provides stability or increases the risk of catastrophic miscalculation in contemporary geopolitical contexts.
5Key Concepts: Legitimacy and Interdependence 2 topics
Legitimacy in Global Politics
- Define legitimacy in the context of global politics, distinguishing between input legitimacy (democratic mandate), output legitimacy (effective governance), and procedural legitimacy (rule-based processes) in international institutions.
- Analyse how the legitimacy of international institutions such as the UN Security Council, WTO, and IMF is contested by developing states and civil society actors, and what reforms have been proposed to enhance democratic accountability.
Interdependence and Globalisation
- Describe the concept of complex interdependence as developed by Keohane and Nye, explaining how economic, environmental, and social linkages between states constrain unilateral action and create incentives for cooperation.
- Explain how economic globalisation — including global supply chains, financial integration, and digital connectivity — creates both opportunities for development and vulnerabilities to systemic shocks such as financial crises and pandemics.
- Evaluate the backlash against globalisation — including the rise of economic nationalism, populism, and protectionism — assessing whether these trends represent a fundamental challenge to the liberal international order.
6Source Analysis and Paper 1 Skills 2 topics
Evaluating Political Sources
- Identify the origin, purpose, and content of political sources — including speeches, treaties, statistical data, political cartoons, and photographs — and describe how each source type conveys meaning in global politics.
- Explain the value and limitations of political sources by analysing their perspective, bias, reliability, and utility for understanding a specific global political issue, applying OPVL methodology systematically.
- Evaluate how two or more sources with contrasting perspectives can be used together to construct a more complete understanding of a contested global political event or policy, identifying points of convergence and divergence.
Data Interpretation in Global Politics
- Describe how to read and interpret quantitative data sources used in global politics — including HDI tables, conflict casualty statistics, trade flow charts, and public opinion polls — identifying trends and anomalies.
- Explain the methodological limitations of quantitative indicators used in global politics — including measurement bias, data gaps, and the political construction of statistics — and how these limitations affect policy conclusions.
7Extended Essay and Paper 2 Writing Skills 1 topic
Constructing Arguments in Global Politics
- Identify the key command terms used in IB Global Politics Paper 2 — including discuss, evaluate, examine, to what extent, and justify — and describe the specific analytical demands each term places on the response.
- Explain how to structure a well-organised extended response in Global Politics, integrating conceptual analysis, theoretical frameworks, and specific case study evidence to support a clear and sustained argument.
- Evaluate a sample Global Politics essay response against the IB markscheme criteria — including knowledge and understanding, conceptual understanding, critical thinking, and use of examples — identifying strengths and areas for improvement.
8Internal Assessment: Engagement Activity 2 topics
Planning and Conducting the Engagement
- Describe the requirements of the IB Global Politics engagement activity, including the distinction between locally and globally focused engagements, the 10-hour participation requirement, and the 2,000-word written report format.
- Explain how to connect a chosen engagement activity to the four core units and key concepts of the Global Politics course, demonstrating how personal political participation illuminates broader theoretical and empirical questions.
Writing the Engagement Report
- Explain how to write the three sections of the engagement activity report — description of the engagement, analysis using global politics concepts and theories, and reflection on learning — meeting the IB assessment criteria for each section.
- Evaluate a sample engagement activity report against the IB assessment criteria — including description, analysis, and reflection — identifying how to maximise marks through precise conceptual application and genuine critical self-reflection.
9Contemporary Global Issues and Cross-Cutting Themes 3 topics
Climate Change and Global Governance
- Describe the architecture of the international climate regime — including the UNFCCC, Kyoto Protocol, and Paris Agreement — and outline the key mechanisms of nationally determined contributions, carbon markets, and climate finance.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of the Paris Agreement in addressing climate change, examining the gap between stated commitments and actual emissions trajectories, and the role of major emitters such as the US, China, and the EU.
Technology, Cyber Security, and Global Politics
- Explain how digital technology and social media have transformed political communication, protest mobilisation, and information warfare, using examples such as the Arab Spring, election interference, and state-sponsored disinformation campaigns.
- Analyse the emerging domain of cyber conflict — including state-sponsored hacking, critical infrastructure attacks, and cyber espionage — evaluating how it challenges traditional concepts of sovereignty, deterrence, and the laws of armed conflict.
Identity, Nationalism, and Global Politics
- Explain how national identity, ethnicity, religion, and ideology function as sources of political mobilisation and conflict in contemporary global politics, using examples from ethno-nationalist movements and religious extremism.
- Evaluate the relationship between nationalism and globalisation, examining whether the resurgence of populist nationalism in Europe, the Americas, and Asia represents a fundamental challenge to cosmopolitan and liberal internationalist values.
Scope
Included Topics
- Four core units: Power, sovereignty and international relations; Human rights; Development; Peace and conflict — each examined through the four key concepts (power, sovereignty, legitimacy, interdependence)
- Engagement activity: a locally or globally focused political activity (10 hours) producing a 2,000-word written report submitted as internal assessment
- Higher-level extension (HL only) is excluded from this SL specification; SL covers all four core units without the HL extension
- Two external assessment components: Paper 1 (source-based, unseen stimulus, 30%) and Paper 2 (extended essay, two questions from different units, 45%)
- Internal assessment: engagement activity report (25%), 2,000 words, teacher-marked and externally moderated
- Four assessment objectives (AO1 knowledge/understanding, AO2 application/analysis, AO3 synthesis/evaluation, AO4 engagement/reflection) and the IB command terms taxonomy under each
- Key concepts — power, sovereignty, legitimacy, interdependence — integrated across all four units
- Contemporary global political events, case studies, and examples used to illustrate theoretical frameworks
- Political theories and ideologies relevant to global politics: liberalism, realism, constructivism, feminism, Marxism as analytical lenses
- Quantitative and qualitative data literacy in the context of political analysis (HDI, Freedom House indices, UN data, etc.)
Not Covered
- HL extension topics: global political challenges and the HL essay
- Detailed study of any single country's domestic political system beyond its relevance to global politics concepts
- Advanced statistical or econometric methods beyond basic data interpretation
- Legal studies or constitutional law beyond their relevance to sovereignty and human rights frameworks
- Detailed diplomatic history prior to 1945 except where directly illustrative of core concepts
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