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International relations attempts to explain the interactions of states in the global interstate system, and it also attempts to explain the interactions of others whose behavior originates within one country and is targeted toward members of other countries. Alternatively, explanations may be found in the relationships between and among the participants, in the intergovernmental arrangements among states, in the activities of multinational corporations or in the distribution of power and control in the world as a single system. International relations is the study of relationships between countries, including the roles of states, intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and multinational corporations (MNCs). It is both an academic and public policy field, and can be either positive or normative as it both seeks to analyse as well as formulate the foreign policy of particular states. It is often considered a branch of political science, but an important sector of academia prefer to treat it as an interdisciplinary field of study. Aspects of international relations have been studied for thousands of years, since the time of Thucydides, but IR became a separate and definable discipline in the early 20th century.