The world is becoming an ever-smaller place through globalization, finance and economics, technology, media, and the many global issues that transcend borders. In this text, authors Mark Boyer, Natalie Hudson, and Michael Butler have developed an approach to the subject that incorporates historical context where necessary in the discussion of global issues, while also integrating the mainstream theoretical approaches within every chapter to provide students with a rich and meaningful way to understand and critically analyze what is happening in the world today. This approach helps students to go beyond the abstract and challenging presentation of concepts, theories, actors, and events that exists in most undergraduate-level global politics texts, to using the findings from this field in applied and practical ways.