IB Global Politics Paper 1: how to read the sources and answer every question

Global Politics Paper 1 is a 1 hour 15 minute, source-based paper on the core unit (understanding power and global politics). You get four sources, a mix of text and visuals, and answer four compulsory questions, reported in school course outlines as worth 3, 4, 6 and 12 marks (25 in total). It is the same paper at SL and HL. To score well you need to read each source as a piece of political evidence (who produced it, for whom, and why), match the length of each answer to its marks, and keep about 30 minutes for the final 12-mark question, which carries almost half the marks.

How is the 2026 Global Politics exam structured?

The new course was first examined in May 2026. The biggest change for HL is that the old HL oral presentations are gone, replaced by a written Paper 3. The IA is now called the engagement project.

The durations come from the IB's official May 2026 timetable. The marks and weightings match the course outlines schools publish; your teacher has the official guide, so confirm with them if anything here differs from what you have been told. If you are planning the IA, read our guide to the engagement project.

What does Paper 1 actually test?

Paper 1 checks whether you can use the core's ideas to make sense of political material you have not seen before. The course is built around concepts such as power, sovereignty, legitimacy and interdependence, and the sources are chosen so that these concepts have something to bite on: a speech, a cartoon, a chart, an extract from a report or a news story. The IB says the new course puts more weight on varied and relevant sources, so expect material from different regions and from non-state actors as well as governments.

The mark values rise through the paper (3, 4, 6, 12), and so does the demand. The early questions reward accurate reading of one source; the later ones reward bringing sources together and, at the end, building an argued judgement with your own knowledge. Check the command term in each question on your specimen and past papers, and see our guide to IB command terms for what each one asks of you.

How should you read a source?

Before you answer anything, read each source twice: once for what it says, once for what it is doing.

• Provenance: who produced it, when, where and for which audience? The caption under the source is evidence. A minister speaking at a summit and a newspaper writing for citizens are doing different jobs.
• Purpose: is it trying to justify, persuade, inform, criticise or mobilise? Language such as "some call this…" or "before celebrating…" shows a source arguing against someone.
• Perspective: whose interests and values does it reflect? Which actors are visible, and which are missing?
• Concepts: which concept does the source raise, even if it never names it? A government saying it "cannot patrol" its own waters is a source about the gap between legal sovereignty and the capacity to enforce it.
• Visuals: for a cartoon, name the figures and symbols, then say what the cartoonist claims through them. For a chart, quote the actual numbers and the time period, and notice what the chart leaves out.

Annotate in the margin as you read: one word per idea ("sovereignty vs capacity", "no parliament vote", "audience: citizens"). Those annotations become your answers.

A worked example: two sources, four mark values

The sources below are invented for this guide, but they are written the way Paper 1 sources work. A real paper has four sources; two are enough to show the method.

Source A. Extract from a speech by the prime minister of a small island state at a regional summit, 2025.

"For thirty years our fishing communities have fed this nation. Today foreign industrial fleets take in a week what our boats land in a year, and they do it in waters the law of the sea recognises as ours to manage. We have a coastguard of four vessels to patrol an area larger than many continental countries. That is why we have accepted patrol boats and satellite monitoring from our partners. Some call this dependence. I call it the exercise of our sovereignty with the tools we can obtain. A right you cannot enforce is a right on paper only."

Source B. Extract from an editorial in an independent newspaper in the same country, 2025.

"The government presents the patrol agreement as a gift. Read the annex. The donor's naval vessels gain the right to refuel and resupply at our main harbour for ten years, and the agreement was signed without a vote in parliament. Meanwhile fishing licences are still sold to the same foreign fleets the patrols are meant to deter, because licence fees make up a large share of the national budget. Before celebrating our sovereignty, citizens might ask who decided, and who benefits."

A 3-mark question: pulling points from one source

Illustrative question: identify three reasons given in Source A for accepting the patrol offer.

Three separate points, each in a short sentence, each clearly from the source: foreign fleets catch very large volumes in the state's waters; the coastguard (four vessels) is too small for the area; rights over the waters mean little if they cannot be enforced. No introduction, no own knowledge, no evaluation. About 5–6 minutes.

A 4-mark question: explaining with the source

Illustrative question: explain, with reference to Source B, why the agreement could be seen as lacking legitimacy.

The second answer makes two developed points, uses short quotations, and names the kind of legitimacy at stake. Two well-explained points usually beat four thin ones on a 4-mark question.

A 6-mark question: comparing two sources

Illustrative question: compare and contrast how Sources A and B present the relationship between the patrol agreement and the state's sovereignty.

Work point by point, not source by source. Aim for at least one clear similarity and two clear differences, each anchored in both sources:

• Similarity: both accept that the state cannot control its waters on its own; A says so directly (four vessels), B implies it (dependence on licence fees from foreign fleets).
• Difference in framing: A presents the agreement as exercising sovereignty by adding enforcement capacity; B presents it as eroding sovereignty, since a foreign navy gains long-term harbour access.
• Difference in audience and purpose: A addresses regional leaders and justifies a decision already taken; B addresses citizens and calls for scrutiny ("who decided, and who benefits").

Writing "Source A is in favour and Source B is against" and stopping there is the most common way to lose most of these marks.

The 12-mark question: an argued judgement

Illustrative question: using the sources and your own knowledge, evaluate the claim that small states can only protect their sovereignty by depending on more powerful states.

This is where half the paper's marks sit, so plan for three or four minutes before you write. A plan that works:

1. Opening judgement (2–3 sentences). Take a position and define the key term. For example: dependence often supplies the capacity sovereignty needs, but it is not the only route, and it carries costs that can undercut the sovereignty it protects.
2. Support for the claim. Source A's capacity argument; a realist reading in which small states bandwagon with or balance through larger powers; own knowledge, such as the Solomon Islands' 2022 security agreement with China, which drew sharp concern from Australia and the United States.
3. Against the claim. International law and pooled action as alternatives: under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, coastal states have sovereign rights over the resources of their exclusive economic zones, and Pacific states coordinate fisheries monitoring and access rules through regional bodies. Limits too: the 2016 arbitration ruling in the Philippines' favour over the South China Sea shows law can be won but not easily enforced.
4. The cost of dependence. Source B: ten-year harbour access and a decision taken without parliament suggest dependence can trade one loss of control for another.
5. Conclusion. Answer the claim directly, with the conditions under which it holds ("only" is too strong; dependence is most likely where capacity is lowest and legal routes cannot be enforced).

If the question asks you to use the sources, an answer that ignores one of them, or only paraphrases them, has not done what was asked, however strong its own knowledge.

How much should you write for each mark value?

How should you split the 75 minutes?

25 marks in 75 minutes is three minutes per mark, but reading time comes out of the same clock. A plan that adds up:

The usual failure is spending 15 minutes polishing the 3-mark answer and writing the 12-mark answer in a rush. If you are behind, cut from the short questions, not the long one. Our guide to time management in IB exams has drills for building this pacing before the real paper.

How do you use concepts without sounding vague?

Concepts earn marks when they are used precisely and applied to the source in front of you.

• Power is the ability to shape outcomes or other actors' choices. Say which kind: material (a navy, a budget), agenda-setting, or persuasive.
• Sovereignty is supreme authority over a territory and independence from outside control. Distinguish the legal claim from the practical capacity to enforce it.
• Legitimacy is the acceptance of authority as rightful. Say by whom, and on what basis: legal process, consent, or results.
• Interdependence is mutual dependence, where each actor's outcomes are affected by the other's choices. One-way reliance is dependence, not interdependence.

For the slips that cost marks across all three papers, from vague case studies to one-sided answers, read the most common Global Politics mistakes.