Theory of annexation in international relations

This study aims to determine the relevance of the theoretical analysis of the phenomenon of country annexation in the context of international relations, from 1816 to 2022 using examples of countries that acquired weaker states through various means within the framework of political, social, and economic destabilization. Needless to say, the purpose is to conduct a profound analysis of the concept of annexation and its concepts and the role of this concept and its components in the discipline of International Relations. The annexation process itself consists of components that directly precede annexation, namely conquest, secession, and occupation, and these components will be examined in a logical sequence as the elements preceding annexation itself. The assessment was made through examples of countries during the aforementioned period, considering the perception of the concept of annexation in the discipline of International Relations. The systematic literature review and empirical research method are employed to achieve this goal. Qualitative and quantitative analysis methods are also used to understand the structure and concept of annexation. This research is important for a thorough understanding of how annexation has evolved with the aforementioned components from 1816 to 2022. As a result, it is crucial to form an understanding of the components of annexation and the concept of annexation as a whole, against the backdrop of the world structure, which historically transitioned from multipolar to bipolar and eventually to a unipolar structure closer to the end of the 20 th and the beginning of the 21 st century. In other words, the main result is presenting all the components as a unified whole, rather than considering each component separate and independent, as mistakenly believed in this discipline during the mentioned historical period. Keywords: Annexation, International Relations, Qualitative Analysis, Quantitative Analysis.