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Chapter 1
Chapter Summary
I. Thinking Theoretically
The methods of behavioralism are not an end unto themselves, only a means to
improve explanation.
Some international relations scholars are dissatisfied with these approaches.
o Postmodernists seek to deconstruct the basic concepts of the field such as state,
nation, rationality, and so on.
o Constructivists have used discourse analysis to answer the questions that are
posed.
No question can be answered with reliance on only one method
Chapter 2
The purpose of this historical overview is to trace important trends over timethe
emergence of the state and the notion of sovereignty, the development of the international
state system, and the changes in the distribution of power among states
Contemporary international relations, in both theory and practice, is rooted in the
European experience, for better or worse.
Many international relations theorists date the contemporary system from 1648, the year
of the Treaty of Westphalia, ending the Thirty Years War. This treaty marks the end of
rule by religious authority in Europe. The Greek city-state system, the Roman Empire,
and the Middle Ages are each key developments leading to the Westphalian order
The Middle Ages: Centralization and Decentralization
o When the Roman empire disintegrated in the fifth century A.D., power and
authority became decentralized in Europe.
o By 1000 A.D. three civilizations had emerged from the rubble of Rome:
1. Arabic civilization: under the religious and political domination of the
Islamic caliphate, advanced mathematical and technical accomplishments
made it a potent force.
2. Byzantine Empire: located near the core of the old Roman Empire in
Constantinople and united by Christianity.
3. The rest of Europe, where languages and cultures proliferated, and the
networks of communication developed by the Romans were beginning to
disintegrate.
Much of Western Europe reverted to feudal principalities, controlled by lords and tied to
fiefdoms that had the authority to raise taxes and exert legal authority. Feudalism was the
response to the prevailing disorder
The preeminent institution in the medieval period was the church; virtually all other
institutions were local in origin and practice.
Carolus Magnus, or Charlemagne, the leader of the Franks (in what is today France),
challenged the churchs monopoly on power in the late eighth century.
Similar trends of centralization and decentralization, political integration and
disintegration, were also occurring in Ghana, Mali, Latin America, and Japan.
The Late Middle Ages: Developing Transnational Networks in Europe and Beyond
o After 1000 A.D. secular trends began to undermine both the decentralization of
feudalism and the universalization of Christianity in Europe. Commercial activity
expanded into larger geographic areas. All forms of communication improved and
new technologies made daily life easier.
o Economic and technological changes led to fundamental changes in social
relations.
1. A transnational business community emerged, whose interests and
livelihoods extended beyond its immediate locale
2. Writers and other individuals rediscovered classical literature and history,
finding intellectual sustenance in Greek and Roman thought
3. Niccol Machiavelli, in The Prince, elucidated the qualities that a leader
needs to maintain the strength and security of the state. Realizing that the
dream of unity in Christianity was unattainable, Machiavelli called on
leaders to articulate their own political interests. Leaders must act in the
states interest, answerable to no moral rules.
4. In the 1500s and 1600s, as European explorers and even settlers moved
into the New World, the old Europe remained in flux. Feudalism was
being replaced by an increasingly centralized monarchy.
5. The masses, angered by taxes imposed by the newly emerging states,
rebelled and rioted.
The formulation of sovereignty was one of the most important intellectual developments
leading to the Westphalian revolution.
Much of the development of sovereignty is found in the writings of French philosopher
Jean Bodin. To Bodin, sovereignty was the absolute and perpetual power vested in a
commonwealth. Absolute sovereignty, according to Bodin, is not without limits. Leaders
are limited by natural law, laws of God, the type of regime, and by covenants and treaties.
The Thirty Years War (1618-48) devastated Europe. But the treaty that ended the
conflict, the Treaty of Westphalia, had a profound impact on the practice of
international relations in three ways:
o It embraced the notion of sovereigntythat the sovereign enjoyed exclusive
rights within a given territory. It also established that states could determine their
own domestic policies in their own geographic space.
o Leaders sought to establish their own permanent national militaries. The state thus
became more powerful since the state had to collect taxes to pay for these
militaries and the leaders assumed absolute control over the troops.
o It established a core group of states that dominated the world until the beginning
of the nineteenth century: Austria, Russia, England, France, and the United
Provinces of the Netherlands and Belgium.
The most important theorist at the time was Scottish economist Adam Smith. In An
Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Smith argued that the notion
of a market should apply to all social orders
o Individuals should be permitted to pursue their own interests and will act
rationally to maximize his or her own interests
o With groups of individuals pursuing self-interests, economic efficiency is
enhanced as well as the wealth of the state and that of the international system.
This theory has had a profound effect on states economic policies.
The American Revolution (1776) and the French Revolution (1789) were the products of
Enlightenment thinking as well as social contract theorists.
The Aftermath of Revolution: Core Principles
o Legitimacy: absolutist rule is subject to limits and imposed by man. In Two
Treatises on Government, John Locke attacked absolute power and the divine
right of kings. Lockes main argument is that political power ultimately rests with
the people rather than with the leader or the monarch.
o Nationalism: the masses identify with their common past, their language,
customs, and practices. Individuals who share such characteristics are motivated
to participate actively in the political process as a group.
The Napoleonic Wars
o The political impact of these twin principles was far from benign in Europe. The
nineteenth century opened with war in Europe on an unprecedented scale.
1. Technological change allowed larger armies.
French weakness and its status as a revolutionary power made it ripe for intervention and
the stamping out of the idea of popular consent
The same nationalist fervor that brought about the success of Napoleon Bonaparte also
led to his downfall.
1. In Spain and Russia, nationalist guerillas fought against French invaders.
2. Napoleons invasion of Russia ended in disaster, leading to French defeat at
Waterloo three years later.
Peace at the Core of the European System
Following the defeat of Napoleon in 1815 and the establishment of peace by the
Congress of Vienna, the Concert of EuropeAustria, Britain, France, Prussia,
and Russiaushered in a period of relative peace.
o The fact that general peace prevailed during this time is surprising, since major
economic, technological, and political changes were radically altering the
landscape.
o At least three factors explain the peace:
1. European elites were united in their fear of revolution from the masses.
Elites envisioned grand alliances that would bring European leaders
together to fight revolution from below. Leaders ensured that mass
revolutions did not love from state to state.
2. Two of the major issues confronting the core European states were
internal ones: the unifications of Germany and Italy. Although the
unification of both was finally solidified, through small local wars, a
general war was averted since Germany and Italy were preoccupied with
territorial unification.
3. Imperialism and colonialism
Imperialism and Colonialism in the European System before 1870
o The discovery of the New World by Europeans in 1492 led to rapidly
expanding communication between the Americas and Europe.
1. Explorers sought discovery, riches, and personal glory.
2. Clerics sought to convert the savages to Christianity
o European powers sought to annex distant territories. The term imperialism came
to mean the annexation of distant territory, usually by force, and its inhabitants
into an empire.
o Colonialism, which often followed imperialism, refers to the settling for people
from the home country among indigenous peoples whose territories have been
annexed.
o This process also led to the establishment of a European identity.
1. European, Christian, civilized, and white were contrasted with the other
peoples of the world.
o The industrial revolution provided the European states with the military and
economic capacity to engage in territorial expansion.
o During the Congress of Berlin (1885), the major powers divided up Africa.
o Only Japan and Siam were not under European control in Asia.
o The struggle for economic power led to the heedless exploitation of the colonial
areas, particularly Africa and Asia.
o As the nineteenth century drew to a close the control of the colonial system was
being challenged with increasing frequency.
o During this period, much of the competition, rivalry, and tension traditionally
marking relations among Europes states could be acted out far beyond Europe.
o By the end of the nineteenth century, the roll of political rivalry and economic
competition had become destabilizing.
Balance of Power
o The period of peace in Europe was managed and preserved for so long because of
the concept of balance of power.
The balance of power emerged because the independent European states feared
the emergence of any predominant state (hegemon) among them. Thus, they
formed alliances to counteract any potentially more powerful faction
The Breakdown: Solidification of Alliances
o The balance-of-power system weakened during the waning years of the nineteenth
century. Whereas previous alliances had been fluid and flexible, now alliances
had solidified.
o Two camps emerged: the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria, and Italy) in 1882
and the Dual Alliance (France and Russia) in 1893.
o In 1902 Britain broke from the balancer role by joining in a naval alliance with
Japan to prevent a Russo-Japanese rapprochement in China. For the first time, a
European state turned to an Asian one in order to thwart a European ally.
1. Russian defeat in the Russo-Japanese war in 1902 was a sign of the
weakening of the balance-of-power system
o The end of the balance-of-power system came with World War I.
o Germany had not been satisfied with the solutions meted out at the Congress of
Berlin. Being a latecomer to the core of European power, Germany did not
receive the diplomatic recognition and status its leaders desired.
o With the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, Germany encouraged Austria to
crush Serbia. Under the system of alliances, states honored their commitments to
their allies, sinking the whole continent in warfare.
o Between 1914 and 1918, more than 8.5 million and 1.5 million civilians lost their
lives.
o
o
4. The Soviet state embraced Marxist ideology, which holds that under
capitalism one class (the bourgeoisie) controls the ownership of
production. The solution to the problem of class rule is revolution wherein
the exploited proletariat takes control by using the state to seize the means
of production. Thus, capitalism is replaced by socialism.
5. Differences between the two superpowers were exacerbated by mutual
misperceptions. The Marshall Plan and establishment of the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO) were taken as a campaign to deprive the
Soviet Union of its influence in Germany. Likewise, the Berlin Blockade
was interpreted by the West as a hostile offensive action.
o The third outcome of the end of World War II was the beginning of the end of the
colonial system. European colonialists. Beginning with Britains granting of
independence to India in 1947, Indochina and African states became independent
in the 1950s and 1960s
o The fourth outcome was the realization that the differences between the two
superpowers would be played out indirectly, on third-party stages, rather than
through direct confrontation between the two protagonists. The superpowers vied
for influence in these states as a way to project power.
The Cold War as a Series of Confrontations
o The Cold War itself (1945-89) can be characterized as forty-five years of highlevel tension and competition between the superpowers but with no direct military
conflict.
o More often than not, the allies of each became involved, so the confrontations
comprised two blocs of states: those in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO) in Western Europe and the United States, and the Warsaw Pact in
Eastern Europe.
o One of those high-level, direct confrontations between the superpowers took place
in Germany.
1. Germany had been divided after World War II into zones of occupation. In
the 1949 Berlin blockade, the Soviet Union blocked land access to Berlin,
prompting the United States to airlift supplies for a year.
2. In 1949, the separate states of West and East Germany were declared.
3. East Germany erected the Berlin Wall in 1961 in order to stem the tide of
East Germans trying to leave the troubled state.
The Cold War in Asia and Latin America
o China, Indochina, and especially Korea became symbols of the Cold War in Asia.
1. By 1949 the Kuomintang was defeated in China and its leaders fled to the
island of Formosa (not Taiwan).
2. In French Indochina communist forces fought against the French colonial
forces leading to the eventual French defeat in 1954.
3. In 1950 North Korea attempted to reunify the Korean peninsula under
communist rule, launching at attack against the South.
U.S. forces, fighting under the auspices of the United Nations,
counterattacked and nearly defeated North Korea.
The fall of the Berlin Wall symbolized the end of the Cold War, but actually its end was
gradual. Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev had set in motions two domestic processes
glasnost (political openness) and perestroika (economic restructuring)as early as the
mid-1980s.
Gorbachevs domestic reforms also led to changes in the orientation of Soviet foreign
policy. He suggested that members of the UN Security Council become guarantors of
regional security.
The first post-Cold War test of the new so-called new world order came in response to
Iraqs invasion and annexation of Kuwait in 1990.
A few have labeled the end of the Cold War era the age of globalization. This era appears
to be marked by U.S. primacy in international affairs to a degree not even matched by the
Romans.
However, U.S. primacy is still not able to prevent ethnic conflict, civil wars, and human
rights abuses from occurring.
The 1990s was a decade marked by dual realities (and sometimes converged and
diverged), the first being U.S. primacy and the second being civil and ethnic strife.
o Yugoslavias violent disintegration played itself over the entire decade despite
Western attempts to resolve the conflict peacefully.
o At the same time, the world witnessed ethnic tension and violence as genocide in
Rwanda and Burundi went unchallenged by the international community.
On September 11, 2001, the world witnessed deadly, and economically destructive
terrorist attacks against two important cities in the United States. These attacks set into
motion a U.S.-led global war on terrorism.
o The United States fought a war in Afghanistan to oust the Taliban regime, which
was providing safe haven to Osama bin Ladens Al-Qaeda organization and a
base from which it freely planned and carried out a global terror campaign against
the United States.
o Following the initially successful war in Afghanistan, the United States,
convinced that Iraq maintained weapons of mass destruction and supported
terrorist organizations, attempted to build support in the United Nations for
authorization to remove Saddam Hussein from power. When the United Nations
failed to back the U.S. request, the United State built its own coalition and
overthrew the Iraqi government. The fight continues today.
o Despite its primacy, the United States does not feel it is secure from attack. The
issue of whether U.S. power will be balanced by an emerging power is also far
from resolved.
Whether the world develops into a multipolar, unipolar, or bipolar system depends in
part on by looking to the trends of the past and how they influence contemporary
thinking. Or is the entire concept of polarity an anachronism?
Chapter 3
Realism is based on a view of the individual as primarily selfish and power seeking. Individuals
are organized in states, each of which acts in a unitary way in pursuit of its own national
interest, defined in terms of power.
Liberalism holds that human nature is basically good and that people can improve their
moral and material conditions, making societal progress possible. Bad or evil behavior is
the product of inadequate social institutions and misunderstandings among leaders.
o One origin of liberal theory is found in Enlightenment optimism:
1. French philosopher Montesquieu argued that it is not human nature that is
defective, but problems arise as man enters civil society. War is a product
of society. To overcome defects in society, education is imperative.
2. According to Immanuel Kant, international anarchy can be overcome
through some kind of collective actiona federation of states in which
sovereignties would be left intact.
o Another origin, nineteenth-century liberalism, reformulated the Enlightenment by
adding a preference for democracy over aristocracy and for free trade over
national economic self-sufficiency:
1. This liberalism saw man as capable of satisfying his natural needs and
wants in rational ways.
Radicalism assumes the primacy of economics for explaining virtually all other
phenomena.
o The writings of Karl Marx (1818-83) are fundamental to all radical thought.
According to Marx, private interests control labor and market exchanges. A clash
inevitably arises between the controlling, capitalist bourgeois class and the
controlled proletariat workers.
VI. Constructivism
The major theoretical proposition that all constructivists subscribe to is that neither
individual, state, nor international community interests are predetermined or fixed.
Individuals in collectivities forge, shape, and change culture through ideas and practices.
State and national interests are the result of the social identities of these actors.
Constructivists eschew the concept of material structures. Constructivist theorist
Alexander Wendt argues that political structure explains nothing and tells us little about
state behavior.
Many constructivists emphasize normative structures. What we need to know its identity,
and identities change as a result of cooperative behavior and learning.
Constructivists see power in discursive termsthe power of ideas, culture, and language.
Power exists in every exchange among actors, and the goal of constructivists is to find the
sources of power and how it shapes identity.
Constructivists claim there is no objective reality, if the world is in the eye of the
beholder, then there can be no right or wrong answers, only individual perspectives.
Thus, they see sovereignty not as an absolute, but as a contested concept.
Radical Interpretation
The instability of the oil supply coming from Iraq explains the U.S. invasion. Many
radicals believe the United States wants to control Iraqs oil, pointing to the fact that U.S.
troops protected oil fields all over the country.
World-system and dependency theorists would not be surprised at all that the core states
of the capitalist systemthe United States and its alliesresponded with force with Iraq
threatened their critical interests in oil.
A constructivist view of the war would focus on the social construction of the threat.
1. How the threat of Saddam Hussein was portrayed is a key part of the analysis.
2. The concept of legitimacy was also key. The United States recognized the need
for legitimacy of its actions, though in the long run, the efforts to gain legitimacy
through the United Nations failed.
How each of us sees international relations depends on his or her own theoretical lens.
These perspectives hold different views about the possibility and desirability of change in
the international system.
Chapter 4
All realists characterize the international system as anarchic. No authority exists above
the state, which is sovereign. Each state must therefore look out for its own interests
above all.
Polarity: system polarity refers to the number of blocs of states that exert power in the
international system. There are three types of polarity:
1. Multipolarity: if there are a number of influential actors in the international
system, a balance-of-power or multipolar system is formed.
In a balance-of-power system, the essential norms of the system are clear
to each of the state actors. In classical balance of power, the actors are
exclusively states and there should be at least five of them.
If an actor does not follow these norms, the balance-of-power system may
become unstable. When alliances are formed, they are formed for a
specific purpose, have a short duration, and shift according to advantage
rather than ideology.
2. Bipolarity: in the bipolar system of the Cold War, each of the blocs (the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, and the Warsaw Pact) sought to
negotiate rather than fight, to fight minor wars rather than major ones, and to fight
major wars rather than fail to eliminate the rival bloc.
Alliances tend to be long term, based on relatively permanent, not shifting,
interests.
In a tight bipolar system, international organizations either do not develop
or are ineffective. In a looser system, international organizations may
develop primarily to mediate between the two blocs.
3. Hegemony: one state that commands influence in the international system.
Immediately after the Gulf War in 1991, many states grew concerned that
the international system had become unipolar, with no effective
counterweight to the power of the United States.
System Management and Stability: Realists do not agree among themselves on how
polarity matters.
o Bipolar systems are very difficult to regulate formally, since neither uncommitted
states nor international organizations are able to direct the behavior of either of
the two blocs. Informal regulation may be easier.
o Kenneth Waltz argues that the bipolar system is the most stable structure in the
long run because there is a clear difference in the amount of power held by the
two poles as compared to that held by the rest of the state actors.
o John Mearsheimer suggests that the world will miss the stability and predictability
that the Cold War forged. He argues that more conflict pairs would develop and
hence more possibilities for war.
o Theoretically, in multipolar systems, the regulation of system stability ought to be
easier than in bipolar systems. Under multipolarity, numerous interactions take
place among all the various parties, and thus there is less opportunity to dwell on
a specific relationship or respond to an arms buildup by just one party in the
system.
o Advocates of unipolarity, known as hegemonic stability theorists, claim that
unipolarity leads to the most stable system. Paul Kennedy argues that it was the
hegemony of Britain in the nineteenth century and that of the United States after
World War II that led to the greatest stability. When the hegemon loses power and
declines, then system stability is jeopardized.
o The international system of the twenty-first century is confronted by a unique
problem: the United States dominates both militarily and economically. What are
the implications of such a world? Will it lead to international peace?
Realists and International System Change
o Changes in either the number of major actors or the relative power relationship
among the actors may result in a change in the international system. Wars are
usually responsible for changes in power relationships.
An example of a system change occurred at the end of World War II. The war
brought the demise of Great Britain and France, and signaled an end to
Germanys and Japans imperial aspirations. The United States and Soviet Union
emerged into dominant positions; the multipolar world had been replaced by a
bipolar one.
Robert Gilpin sees another form of change, where states act to preserve their own
interests and thereby change the system. Such changes occur because states
respond at different rates to political, economic, and technological developments.
Exogenous changes may also lead to a shift in the system. Advances in
technology not only have expanded the boundaries of accessible geographic
space, but also brought about changes in the boundaries of the international
system. With these changes came an explosion of new actors.
Nuclear warfare has had more of an impact of on the international system more
than any other technological change. Although these weapons have not been used
since 1945, the weapons remain much feared, and efforts by nonnuclear states to
develop such weapons, or threat to do so, has met sharp resistance. The nuclear
states do not want a change in the status quo and do not want them in the hands of
rogue states.
In the view of realists, international systems can change, yet the inherent bias
among realist interpretations is for continuity.
The international system is not central to the view of liberals. Thus, there are three
different conceptions of the international system:
o Not as a structure but as a process, in which multiple interactions occur among
different parties and where various actors learn from the interaction.
1. Actors include, not only states, but also international governmental
organizations, nongovernmental organizations, multinational corporations,
and substate actors.
2. Each actor has interactions with all of the other ones. Thus, a great many
national interests define the system, including economic and social issues
and not just security.
3. Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye describe the international system as
interdependent. There are multiple channels connecting states, and
multiple issues and agendas arise in the interdependent system.
o An English tradition of international society: in an international society, the
various actors communicate and consent to common rules and institutions and
recognize common interests.
1. Actors share a common identity, a sense of we-ness; without such an
identity, a society cannot exist.
2. This conception has normative implications: the international system is an
arena and process for positive interactions
o An anarchic one in which each individual state acts in its self-interest: This is also
called neoliberal institutionalism, a view that comes closer to realist thinking.
1. But, unlike many realists, they see the product of the interaction among
actors as a potentially positive one, where institutions created out of selfinterest serve to moderate state behavior.
Liberals and International System Change
o Changes come from several sources:
1. Changes occur as the result of exogenous technological developments
that is, progress occurring independently. Examples are communication
and transportation systems.
2. Change may occur because of changes in the relative importance of
different issues areas. In the last decades of the twentieth century,
economic issues replaced national security issues. Globalizing issues such
as human rights may assume primacy in the twenty-first century.
3. Change may occur as new actors, including multinational corporations
and nongovernmental organizations, augment or replace state actors.
Radicals seek to describe and explain the structure of the system in terms of
stratification: the uneven division of resources among different groups of states. The
system is stratified according to which states have vital resources.
From the stratification of power and resources comes the division between the haves,
characterized by the North, and have-nots, positioned in the South. Economic disparities
are built into the structure and all actions are constrained by this structure.
The Implications for Stratification
o When the dominant powers are challenged by those states just beneath them in
terms of access to resources, the system may become highly unstable. The rising
powers seek first-tier status and are willing to fight wars to get it. Top powers
may begin a war to quell the threat.
o For Marxists, crippling stratification in the system is caused by capitalists.
Capitalism dominates international institutions whose rules are structured by
capitalist states to facilitate capitalist processes, and MNCs whose headquarters
are in capitalist states but whose loci of activity are in dependent states.
o Radicals believe that the greatest amount of resentment will be felt in systems
where stratification is most extreme. The call for the New International Economic
Order (NIEO) in the 1970s was voiced by radicals and liberal reformers in most
developing countries. They sought changes such as debt forgiveness, how
commodities were priced, and controls on multinational corporations (MNCs).
o
o
Social norms change through both actions of the collective and through
individuals
Norms may change through coercion, but most likely they will change through
international institutions, law, and social movements
Of all theoretical approaches, realists and radicals pay the most attention to the
international system of analysis. For realists, the defining characteristic is polarity; for
radicals, it is stratification. Constructivists emphasize how changes in norms and ideas
shape the system, seeing little differentiation between the international and domestic
system and eschewing the importance attached to international system structure.
Constraints are viewed by realists as positive, by radicals as negative, and by liberals as
neutral (as an arena and process for interaction).
Chapter 5
The State
Chapter Summary
I. The State and the Nation
For an entity to be considered a state, four fundamental conditions must be met (although
these legal criteria are not absolute):
o A state must have a territorial base.
o A stable population must reside within its borders,.
o There should be a government to which this population owes allegiance.
o A state has to be recognized diplomatically by other states.
A nation is a group of people who share a set of characteristics. At the core of the
concept of a nation is the notion that people having commonalities owe their allegiance to
the nation and to its legal representative, the state.
o The recognition of commonalities among people spread with new technologies
and education. With improved methods of transportation and invention of the
printing press, people could travel, witnessing firsthand similarities and
differences among peoples.
Some nations, liked Denmark and Italy, formed their own states.
This coincidence between state and nation, the nation-state, is the foundation for
national self-determination, the idea that peoples sharing nationhood have a right to
determine how and under what conditions they should live.
Other nations are spread among several states; in these cases, the state and the nation do
not coincide.
o It may be a state with several nations, like South Africa and India.
o In the case of the United States and Canada, the state and nation do not coincide,
yet a common identity and nationality is forged over time, even in the absence of
religious, ethnic, or cultural similarity.
o In the United States, national values reflecting commonly held ideas are expressed
in public rituals.
Not all ethnonationalists aspire to the same goals.
o Some want recognition of unique status
o Some seek solutions in federal arrangements
o A few prefer irredentism: joining with fellow ethnonationalists in other states to
create a new state
Disputes over state territories and the desires of nations to form their own states have
been major sources of instability and even conflict.
o Of these territorial conflicts, none has been more intractable as the conflict
between the Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs, who each claim the same
territory.
o Five interstate wars have been fought and two uprisings by the Palestinian people
within the territory occupied by Israel have occurred since the formation of the
state of Israel in 1948.
o Should Israel and Palestinian territories be divided into two separate, independent
states?
States are critical actors because they have power, which is the ability not only to
influence others but to control outcomes so as to produce results that would not have
occurred naturally.
Constructivists argue that power includes not only the tangible and intangible
sources but also the power of ideas and language. It is through the power of ideas
and norms that state identities and nationalism are forged and changed.
Negative sanctions may be more the norm: threatening to act or actually taking
actions that punish the target state for moves made in the direction not desired.
o A states ability to use these instruments of economic statecraft depends on its
power potential.
o While radicals deny it, liberals argue that developing states do have some
leverage in economic statecraft if they control a key resource of which there is
limited production.
o In general, economic sanctions have not been very successful. They appear to
work in the short term, but in the long term, it is difficult to maintain international
cohesion because states imposing the sanctions find it more advantageous to bust
the sanctions to gain economically.
o Since the mid-1990s, states have imposed so-called smart sanctions, including
freezing assets of governments and/or individuals and imposing commodities
sanctions. The international community has tried to affect specific individuals and
avoid the high humanitarian costs of general sanctions.
The Use of Force
o Force may be used either to get a target state to do something or to undo
something it has donecalled compellenceor to keep an adversary from doing
somethingcalled deterrence.
o Compellence was used in the prelude to the 1991 Gulf War as the international
community tried to get Saddam Hussein to change his actions. During each step
of the compellent strategy of escalation, one message was communicated to Iraq:
withdraw from Kuwait or more coercive actions will follow.
o Compellence was also used when the Western alliance sought to get Serbia to
stop abusing the human rights of Kosovar Albanians, and before the 2003 Iraq
war.
o With deterrence, states commit themselves to punishing a target state if the target
state takes an undesired action. Threats of actual war are used to dissuade a state
from pursuing certain courses of action.
o Deterrence has taken on a special meaning since the advent of nuclear weapons in
1945. States that recognize the destructive capability of nuclear weapons and
know that others have a second-strike capabilitythe ability to retaliate even
after an attack has been launched by an opponentwill refrain from taking
aggressive action, using its first-strike capability. Deterrence is then successful.
o For either compellence or deterrence to be effective, states must clearly and
openly communicate their objectives and capabilities, be willing to make good on
the threats, and have the credibility to follow through with their commitments.
o Compellence and deterrence can fail. Even if states go to war, they have choices.
They choose the type of weaponry, the kind of targets, the geographic locus, and
to respond in kind, to escalate, or de-escalate.
Democracy and Foreign Policy
o Is the foreign policy behavior of democratic states any different from the behavior
of nondemocratic or authoritarian states?
o In Perpetual Peace (1795), Immanuel Kant argued that the spread of democracy
would change international politics by eliminating war. The public would be very
cautious in supporting war since they are apt to suffer the most devastating
effects.
Other explanations have been added to the democratic peace hypothesis.
Perhaps some are more satisfied with the status quo or more likely to be allies of
each other since they share similar values.
Despite a plethora of studies by political scientists, the evidence is not that clearcut and explanations are partial. Even within a single research program, there may
be serious differences in conclusions based on the assumptions made and methods
used.
Yet the basic finding is that democracies do not engage in militarized disputes
against each other. Democracies are not more pacific than nondemocracies;
democracies just do not fight each other.
their favor or constraining decisions. The movement to ban land mines in the
1990s is an example of a pluralist foreign policy decision.
Globalization
o Externally, the state is buffeted by globalization, growing integration of the
world in terms of politics, economics, communications, and culture. It is a process
that undermines traditional state sovereignty.
o Politically, the state is confronted by globalizing issuesenvironmental
degradation and diseasewhich governments cannot manage alone and that
which requires cooperative action.
o Economically, states and financial markets are tied inextricably together. The
internationalization of production and consumption make it ever more difficult for
states to regulate their own economic policies.
o Culturally, new and intrusive technologiese-mail, fax machines, worldwide TV
networksincreasingly undermine the states control over information and hence
its control over its citizenry.
Transnational Crime
o Transnational crime has led to the accelerating movement of illegal drugs,
counterfeit goods, smuggled weapons, laundered money, and trafficking in poor
and exploited people.
o It has created new businesses while distorting national and regional economies.
States and government are incapable of responding because of rigid bureaucracies
and corrupt officials undermine the states efforts.
Transnational Movements
o Transnational movements, particularly religious and ideological movements, are
now political forces that have challenged the state.
o In Christendom, these movements reject secularism and attempt to turn political,
social, and individual loyalties away from the state and toward religious ideas.
o Believers in Islamic fundamentalism are united by wanting to change states and
societies by basing them on the ideas contained in the texts of Islam. They see a
long-standing discrepancy between the political and economic aspirations of
states and the actual conditions of corrupt rule and economic inequality.
o Not all transnational movements pose a threat to the state; many develop around
progressive goals such as the environment, human rights, and development.
Ethnonational Movements
o Ethnonational movements identify more with a particular culture than with a
state. Having experienced discrimination or persecution, many of these groups are
now taking collective action in support of national self-determination.
o Kashmir is one of the more complex ethnonational movement; Kashmiris are
overwhelmingly Muslim but have been ruled by Hindus. It is also tied to the
larger conflict between India and Pakistan.
o Some ethnonational challenges lead to civil conflict and war, as the Kashmir case
illustrates.
Chapter 6
The Individual
Chapter Summary
I. Foreign-Policy Elites: Individuals Who Matter
Liberals are adamant that leaders do make a difference. Whenever there is a leadership
change in a major power, speculation always arises about possible changes in the
countrys foreign policy.
o Ample empirical proof has been offered that individual leadership matters. From
Nicolae Ceauescu to Mikhail Gorbachev, leadership made a difference in starting
and sustaining foreign policy reforms in their respective countries.
Constructivists attribute policy shifts in the Soviet Union only to Gorbachev, but also to
the networks of reformists and international affairs specialists who promoted new ideas.
For realists, individuals are of little importance. States are not differentiated by their
government type or personalities of leaders, but by the relative power they hold in the
international system.
The Impact of Elites: External Conditions
o When political institutions are unstable, young, in crisis, or collapsed, leaders are
able to provide powerful influences.
o When they have few institutional constraints. In dictatorial regimes, top leaders
are free from constraints such as societal inputs and political opposition and thus
can change policy unfettered.
o The specifics of a situation. Decision makers personal characteristics have more
influence on outcomes when the issue is peripheral rather than central, when the
issue is not routine, or when the situation is ambiguous and information us
unclear.
The Impact of Elites: The Personality Factor
o Political psychologist Margaret Hermann has found a number of personality
characteristics that affect foreign-policy behaviors.
1. Leaders with high levels of nationalism, a strong need for power, and a
high level of distrust of others, tend to develop an independent orientation
to foreign affairs.
2. Leaders with low levels of nationalism, a high need for evaluation, and
low levels of distrust of others, tended toward a participatory orientation in
foreign affairs.
Less bound by the rules of the game or the rules of the game or by institutional norms,
private individuals engage in activities in which official representatives are either unable
or unwilling to participate.
o The donations by Bill and Melinda Gates to global vaccination and AIDS
programs are an example.
Private individuals increasingly play a role in track-two diplomacy. Track-two
diplomacy utilizes individuals outside governments to carry out the task of conflict
resolution.
o Jimmy Carter, acting through the Carter Center, has negotiated several disputes,
such as Eritreas independence from Ethiopia and reconciliation between Israel
and the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
o Track-two diplomatic efforts are not always well received. Jimmy Carters
eleventh-hour dash to meet North Koreas Kim Il Sing in 1994 to discuss the
latters nuclear buildup was met by questions such as: Was the U.S. government
being preempted? For whom did Carter speak?
o Private individuals have played linkage roles between different countries. Armand
Hammer, a U.S. corporate executive, was a successful go-between for the Soviet
Union and the United States.
o Individuals may be propelled into the international arena by virtue of their
actions: Jane Fonda illegally visited North Vietnam during the 1960s, Olympic
athletes who defect from their countries, Kenyas Wangari Maathai, who
promoted that countrys Green Belt Movement, and countless Nobel Prizewinners who have significantly influenced international relations.
o Alternative critical and postmodern approaches are attempting to draw
mainstream theorists attention to these other stories. Feminist writers have sought
to bring attention to the role of private individuals and especially women.
A. Q. Khan and Aung San Suu Kyi
o A. Q. Khan confessed to selling nuclear technology and components to Libya,
Iran, and North Korea; this made the world a less secure place
o Aung San Suu Kyi became the face of the opposition movement in Myanmar
(Burma). Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, she is an international symbol
of her movement.
Mass publics have the same psychological tendencies as elite individuals and small
groups. They think in terms of perceptions and images, they see mirror images, and they
use similar information-processing strategies.
The influence that mass publics do have on foreign policy can be explained in three
ways:
1. Elites and masses act the same because they share common psychological and
biological characteristics.
2. The masses have opinions and attitudes about foreign policy and international
relations that are different from those of the elites.
3. The masses, uncontrolled by institutions, may occasionally act in ways that have a
profound impact on international relations, regardless of anything that the elites
do.
Elites and Masses: Common Traits
o Some scholars argue that there are psychological and biological traits common to
every man, woman, and child and that societies reflect those characteristics.
Individuals and masses are said to have an innate drive to gain, protect, and
defend territorythe territorial imperative.
o Both also share the frustration-aggression syndrome: when societies become
frustrated, just as with individuals, they become aggressive.
1. The problem with the territorial imperative and the frustration-aggression
notion is that even if all individuals and societies share these innate
predispositions, not all leaders and all peoples act on these predispositions.
Another possibility is that elites and masses share common traits differentiated by gender.
o Male elites and masses possess characteristics common to each other, while
female elites and masses share different traits from the males.
o The research is sketchy, however, because it does not answer the question of
whether these differences are rooted in biology or learned from culture.
The Impact of Public Opinion on Elites
o Publics do have general foreign-policy orientations and specific attitudes that can
be revealed by public-opinion polls.
o More often than not, however, publics do not express one dominant mood; top
leaders are usually confronted with an array of public attitudes.
o Occasionally, the masses may vote directly on an issue with foreign policy
significance. For example, some European states used popular referendums to
ratify the 1992 Maastricht Treaty.
o Evidence from the U.S. suggests that elites do care about the preferences of the
public, although they do not always directly incorporate those attitudes into policy
decisions. Presidents care about their popularity, but mass attitudes may not
always be directly translated into policy.
Mass Actions by a Leaderless Public
o At times, the masses, essentially leaderless, take collective actions that have
significant effects on the course of world politics. Individuals act to improve their
own political and economic welfare:
1. It was the individual acts of thousands fleeing East Germany that led to
the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, and it was the exodus of East
Germans through Austria led to the tearing down of the wall in 1989.
2. During the peoples putsch (Bulldozer Revolution) of October 2000,
people from all walks of Serbian life crippled the economic system,
blocked transportation routes, drove tractors into the city, attacked
Parliament, and crippled Milosevic radio and TV stations.
3. Georgias Rose Revolution in 2003 and Ukraines Orange Revolution in
2004 were inspired by the Serbian uprising against Milosevic.
Chapter 7
Intergovernmental
Organizations,
Organizations, and International Law
Nongovernmental
Chapter Summary
I. Intergovernmental Organizations
IGOs often spearhead the creation and maintenance of international rules and
principles. They establish expectations about their behavior of other states. These
are known as international regimes.
o Charters if IGOs incorporate the norms, rules, and decisionmaking processes of
regimes. IGOs help to reduce the incentive to cheat and enhance the value of a
good reputation.
1. For states, IGOs enlarge the possibilities for foreign policy making and
add to the constraints under which states operate and especially implement
foreign policy. States join IGOs to use them as instruments of foreign
policy.
2. IGOs also constrain states. They set agendas and force governments to
make decisions; encourage states to develop processes to facilitate IGO
participation, and create norms of behavior with which states must align
their policies if they wish to benefit from their membership.
3. IGOs affect individuals by providing opportunities for leadership. As
individuals work with or in IGOs, they, like states, may become socialized
to cooperate internationally.
The United Nations
o The UN was founded on three fundamental principles:
1. The UN is based on the notion of the sovereign equality of member states.
Each state is legally equivalent of every other state.
2. Only international problems are within the jurisdiction of the UN. Such
problems include human rights, global telecommunications, and
environmental regulation.
3. The UN is designed primarily to maintain international peace and security.
States should refrain from the threat or use of force and settle disputes
through peaceful means.
o Security has broadened from the classical protection of national territory to
human securityproviding humanitarian relief for refugees or the starving.
o Structure
1. Security Council: responsible for ensuring peace and security and
deciding enforcement measures. Decisions must be unanimous and each of
the five permanent members has a veto.
2. General Assembly: with 192 member states, permits debate on any topic
under its purview. Since the end of the Cold War, the GAs work has been
marginalized, and power has shifted back to the Security Council, much to
the dismay of the Group of 77, a coalition of developing states, regional
groups, and the Group of 20.
3. Secretariat: gathers information, coordinates and conducts activities. The
secretary-general is the chief spokesperson and administrative officer.
4. Economic and Social Counsel (ECOSOC): coordinates economic and
social welfare programs and coordinates action of specialized agencies.
5. Trusteeship Council: supervision has ended; proposals have been floated
to change its function to a forum for NGOs.
6. International Court of Justice: noncompulsory jurisdiction on cases
brought by states and international organizations.
2. The European Coal and Steel Community represented the first step toward
realizing the idea. This became so successful that states agreed to expand
cooperation.
3. Under the European Economic Community, six states agreed to create a
common marketremoving restrictions on internal trade, reducing
barriers to movement of people, services, and capital, and establishing a
common agricultural policy.
4. New areas were gradually brought under the umbrella of the community,
including health, safety, and consumer standards.
5. In 1986, the most important step was taken in deepening the integration
processthe signing of the Single European Act (SEA), which established
the goal of completing a single market by 1992.
6. The Maastricht Treaty was signed in 1992, and the European Community
became the European Union (EU). Members committed themselves to a
political union, including the establishment of common foreign policies, a
single currency, and regional central bank.
7. The 1997 Amsterdam Treaty put more emphasis on the rights of
individuals, citizenship, and justice.
8. The increased power of the EU has not been without its opponents. The
United Kingdom opted out of the monetary union, and some Europeans
fear a diminution of national sovereignty and are reluctant to surrender
their democratic rights to nonelected bureaucrats.
9. In 2004, the proposed European Constitution was signed by members of
the heads of state, but both the French and Dutch electorate rejected the
document.
o Structure
1. Power initially resided in the Commission, which is designed to represent
the interests of the community as a whole. Increasingly, the Council of
Ministers, with a weighted voting system, has assumed more power.
2. The increasing power of the European Parliament is one area of change.
Since the 1980s it has gained a greater legislative role.
3. The growing power of the European Court of Justice is another change.
The court has the responsibility for interpreting and enforcing EU law.
o Policies and Problems
1. Among the many controversial issues has been the failed effort to develop
a common European foreign and security policy. The split between who
supported the 2003 Iraq war and those who opposed it is suggestive.
2. Issues surrounding widening are equally as problematic. Should the EU
continue to expand its membership by reaching out to Eastern European
states and the former Soviet Union? Can Turkey eventually meet the
criteria for membership?
Other regions have sought to follow the EU model, while still others have sought a
different role for integration
The Organization of American States (OAS) has followed a different path from that of
the EU.
In 1948 the OAS adopted wide ranging goals: political, economic, social, and
military.
o The OAS not has rules for the protection of democratic government in the form of
rules prohibiting members from supporting coups in member states.
The African Union (AU) replaced the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 2002.
o The OAU had been a weak organization as its members were newly independent
states and thus deeply concerned about questions of sovereignty
o The AU is an attempt to give African states an increased ability to respond to the
issues of economic globalization and democratization affecting the continent.
NGOs are generally private, voluntary organizations whose members are individuals or
associations that come together to achieve a common purpose.
They are diverse entities, ranging from grassroots organizations to those recognized
transnationally. Some are funded solely through private sources, while others rely on
partial government funds. Some are open to mass memberships and some are closed
member groups.
The Growth of NGO Power and Influence
o The anti-slavery campaign was one of the earliest NGO-initiated efforts to
organize transnationally to ban a morally unacceptable practice.
o NGOs organizing on behalf of peace and noncoercive methods of dispute
settlement also appeared during the 1800s, as did the Red Cross, which advocated
for the treatment for wounded soldiers.
o During the 1970s, networks and coalitions were formed among various groups,
and by the 1990s these NGOs were able to effectively mobilize the mass pubic
and influence international relations.
o A number of factors explain the resurgence of NGO activity:
1. The issues seized on have been viewed as interdependent, or globalizing,
issuesissues states cannot solve alone and whose solutions require
transnational cooperation.
2. Global conferences became a key venue for international activity
beginning in the 1970s, each designed to address the environment,
population, women, and food. NGOs organized separate but parallel
conferences on the same issues.
3. The end of the Cold War and the expansion of democracy have provided
political opening for NGOs into parts of the world before untouched by
NGO activity.
4. The communications revolutionfirst fax, then the Web and e-mailhas
enabled NGOs to communicate more efficiently.
o Functions and Roles of NGOs:
1. NGOs act as advocates for specific policies and offer alternative channels
of political participation, as Amnesty International has done.
2. They mobilize mass publics, as Greenpeace did in saving the whales.
3. They distribute critical assistance in disaster relief and to refugees, as
Oxfam has done.
4. They are the principal monitors of human rights norms and environmental
regulations and provide warnings of violations, as Human Rights Watch
has done.
5. NGOs are the primary actors at the grassroots level in mobilizing
individuals to act. Their impact was felt strongly at the 1992 UN
Conference on the Environment and Development (UNCTAD).
For the first time, they made statements from the floor during
official meetings, drafted information materials, and scrutinized
UN documents.
6. At the national level, NGOs have occasionally taken the place of states,
either performing services that are inept or corrupt government is not
stepping in for a failed state.
7. NGOs seldom work alone. The communications revolution has served to
link NGOs with each other, formally and informally.
8. NGOs may also be formed for malevolent purposes, the Mafia,
international drug cartels, and even Al Qaeda.
The Power of NGOs
1. NGOs rely on soft power, meaning credible information, expertise, and
moral authority that attracts the attention and admiration of governments
and the public.
2. NGOs have distinct advantages over individuals, states, and
intergovernmental organizations. They are usually politically independent,
participate at all levels, and can make policy with less risk to national
sensitivities.
3. NGOs can increase their power through networking with other NGOs.
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines demonstrates the
power of the network.
The Limits of NGOs
1. Most NGOs have very limited economic resources since they do not
collect taxes. The competition for funding is fierce.
2. There is a continuous need to raise money, and some NGOs increasingly
rely on governments. If NGOs choose to accept state assistance, then their
neutrality and legitimacy is potentially compromised.
3. Success is hard to measure; there is no single agenda, and NGOs are often
working at cross-purposes.
4. Some people question whether certain activities undertaken by NGOs,
which have traditionally been viewed as supportive of the common good,
may result in prolonging conflicts.
At the state level, law is hierarchical. Established structures exist for both making
law and enforcing law, and law binds individuals and groups within the state.
There is widespread compliance with the law because it is in the interest of
everyone that order be maintained.
o In the international system, authoritative structures are absent. Nonetheless,
liberals acknowledge that international law exists and has an effect in daily life,
such as airspace, trade, and shipping regulations.
The Sources of International Law
o Custom. But customary law is limited because it develops slowly. Not all states
participate in customary law, and its uncodified nature leads to ambiguity in
interpretation.
o Treaties. Treaties are the dominant source of law today, and are legally binding:
only major changes in circumstances give states the right not to follow treaties
they have ratified.
o Authoritative bodies, such as the UN International Law Commission.
o Courts. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has been responsible for some
significant decisions, but it is a weak institution for several reasons:
1. The court actually hears very few cases. Since 1946, only 112 cases have
been brought before it.
2. When cases are heard, they rarely deal with the major controversies of the
day because such controversies are outside of the courts reach.
3. Only states may initiate proceedings; individuals and nongovernmental
actors like multinational corporations cannot.
o National and even local courts. They may hear cases occurring on their territory in
which international law is invoked or cases involving their own citizens.
1. Under universal jurisdiction, states may claim jurisdiction if the conduct
of a defendant is sufficiently heinous to violate the laws of all states.
States claimed jurisdiction as a result of genocide in World War II, and for
war crimes in Bosnia, Rwanda, and Kosovo.
Enforcement of International Law
o A key trend in the new millennium has been the expansion of the international
judiciary, motivated by the idea of individual responsibility for war crimes and
crimes against humanity.
1. Following the atrocities of Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and East Timor, the UN
established two ad hoc criminal tribunals. Because of the need to establish
procedures and the difficulty of finding those accused, the trials have been
subject to criticism
o In light of the difficulties with the ad hoc tribunals, in 1998, states concluded the
statute for the International Criminal Court (ICC), an innovative court having both
compulsory jurisdiction and jurisdiction over individuals.
1. ICC work began in 2003, and pending cases all concern crimes committed
in African countries.
2. The ICC is controversial. Supporters see the court as essential for
establishing international law and enforcing individual accountability.
Others, including the U.S., objects to it on the grounds that the ICC
Radicals see contemporary international law as the product of a specific time and
historical process, emerging out of eighteenth-century economic liberalism and
nineteenth-century political liberalism.
o Law primarily comes out of Western capitalist states and is designed to serve the
interests of that constituency, and is biased against socialist states, the weak, and
the unrepresented.
o IGOs, especially the UN and UN agencies, were designed to support the interests
of the powerful. Those institutions have succeeded in sustaining the powerful elite
against the powerless mass of weaker states.
o The lack of representativeness and the lack of accountability of NGOs are key
issues. Most radicals see the world of NGOs based in the North as dominated by
members of the same elite. NGOs are captive to the dominant interests of that
system.
o Contemporary law and international organizations are not the agents of the
political and economic changes that radicals desire,
They place critical importance on institutions and norms. Both IGOs and NGOs can be
norm entrepreneurs that socialize and teach states new norms. These new norms may
influence state behavior.
Law plays a key role in constructivist thinking because it reflects changing norms. Norms
are internalized by states themselves, they change state preferences, and shape behavior.
Realists remain skeptical; all are reflections of state power and have no independent
identity or role.
Radicals view them skeptically as well. They see them as mere reflections of political and
economic hegemony.
Liberals believe that international law and organizations do not replace states as the
primary actors, but they do provide alternative venues for states themselves to engage in
collective action and for individuals to join with other like-minded individuals in pursuit
of their goals.
Chapter 8
War is the oldest, most prevalent, and most salient issue in international relations.
Attention to war and security is warranted: security comes first in international relations; all
other competing values such as human rights, the environment, and economic development
presuppose security.
Although 3.5 billion have died in the 14,500 armed struggles throughout history, the number
and intensity of war has dropped by one-half since 1991.
International relations theorists disagree over the inevitability of war.
Classical realists and neorealists argue that war is inevitable. They view states as victims of the
prisoners dilemma during times of conflict: each state is compelled to harm the other so as to
avoid the worst possible outcome.
The inevitability of war also creates a security dilemma: states seeking to increase their defense
capabilities end up threatening other states in the system, thereby increasing tensions and the
chance of war.
Liberals argue that war can be eliminated with sufficient effort and effective institutions that
can reduce the chances of conflict. Liberals also argue that the way in which a state is governed
domestically can change its attitude toward war. The democratic peace concept demonstrates
this by arguing that democracies virtually never fight one another.
Radicals argue that war can be eliminated, but only through a revolutionary change in the
character of the system.
Constructivists argue that war is the result of a process of socialization in which conflict is
assumed to exist. If this construction is changed, then war can potentially be eliminated.
Historically, states have sought security by balancing realist and liberal policies. When states
face more serious threats, they tend to look toward realism.
Both the characteristics of individual leaders and the general attributes of people have been
blamed for war.
Realist interpretation: Characteristics of the masses lead to the outbreak of war. Aggressive
behavior is adopted by virtually all species to ensure survival. War is the product of biologically
innate human characteristics or flawed human nature.
Liberal interpretation: Misperceptions by leaders, such as seeing aggressiveness where it may
not be intended, or attributing the actions of one person to an entire group, can lead to the
outbreak of war.
Liberal explanations: Some types of economic systems are more war-prone than others, such as
aristocratic states. Democratic regimes are least likely to wage war because democratic norms
and culture inhibit the leadership from taking actions leading to war.
Radical explanations: Conflict and war are attributed to the internal dynamics of capitalist
economic systems: the competition between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat over economic
dominance and political leadership. This struggle leads to war. One manifestation of this is
diversionary war: war designed to hold off a domestic political crisis by temporarily unifying the
populace.
o Conflict over what institutions should govern a state can also lead to civil wars as groups
attempt to impose their preferred system.
Realist interpretation: The international system is equivalent to a state of war; it is anarchic and
governed only by a weak and overarching rule of law. War breaks out because there is nothing
to stop it. States themselves are the final authorities and the ultimate arbiters of disputes;
herein resides sovereignty.
o A states security is ensured only by its accumulating military and economic power.
o Groups seeking self-determination cannot appeal to higher authority.
Realist variant: Power transition theory: Represented by the work of Organski, this theory
argues that changes in state capabilities lead to war. War occurs when a dissatisfied challenger
state begins to attain the same capabilities as the hegemon. Modelski and Thompson find that
there are regular cycles of power as old powers decline and new powers rise.
Radical interpretation: Dominant capitalist states within the international system need to
expand economically, leading to wars with developing regions over control of natural resources
and labor markets.
At the individual level: Perhaps Saddam Husseins individual characteristics, including his basic
insecurity and ruthless techniques, help to explain Iraqs actions. Hussein may have calculated
that his actions would not elicit a military response from the international community.
At the state level: Iraq was just acting in its own national interest. Iraq felt that the land (oil
fields) annexed had been illegally seized during the British occupation around the time of World
War I. The 198088 war with Iran had also reduced Iraqs oil revenues.
At the international system level: Several factors indicated that Iraqs actions would not be
resisted: the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Arab Leagues reluctance to criticize its members,
and the historical failure of the UN Security Council to act decisively.
At the individual level: Saakashvilis efforts to restore Georgian pride and resist the Russian
bully raised tensions. The pressures of ethnic identity both raised tensions and provided a
reason for Russian interest in South Ossetia. Saakashvili and Medvedev both wanted to look
active and strong.
At the state level: Georgia was acting to promote its sovereignty over a breakaway region.
Russia was acting to increase its influence in part of the former Soviet territory.
At the international system level: There was no impartial arbiter to deal with any of the
questions at issue in the conflict. In a state of anarchy, both sides had to rely on their own
strengths during the conflict.
Interstate wars: wars between two or more states. In the past these were the focus of most
research. They are the easiest to study and have caused the most damage.
Intrastate wars: wars between groups within a state, with or without international
participation. While the number of ongoing intrastate wars has declined, the decline has been
less precipitous than the decline in interstate wars.
Total war: Wars involving multiple great powers. Total wars include significant destruction and
loss of life. Since the end of World War II, total wars have become less frequent; the number of
countries participating in total wars has fallen, and they tend to last for shorter lengths of time
This has led some to argue that this type of war is obsolete.
Limited war: the objective is not surrender and occupation of enemy territory, but rather to
attain limited goals. The Korean War, the Gulf War, and conflicts in Sudan and Sierra Leone are
examples of limited war.
While interstate wars which can be called total wars have declined significantly, limited wars
and particularly civil wars that are limited in nature have increased precipitously. Two-thirds of
all conflicts since World War II have been civil wars.
Characteristics of limited wars:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
They last a long time, with periods of fighting punctuated by periods of relative calm.
Human costs are high: both combatants and civilians are killed and maimed.
Food supplies are interrupted.
Diseases spread as health systems suffer.
Money is diverted from constructive economic development to purchasing armaments.
Entire generations may grow up knowing only a state of war.
Limited war has become the most common option for states contemplating violence against other
states.
premeditation
motivation or cause, whether religious, economic, or political
noncombatant targets
secretiveness, where perpetrators belong to clandestine groups or are secretly sponsored by
states
Terrorism has a long history, occurring during Greek and Roman times, the Middle Ages, and
the French Revolution; in Nazi Germany; by Basque separatists (ETA); and most recently by Al
Qaeda around the world. Since the 1990s, terrorist acts have become more lethal. The
infrastructure to support terrorism has become more sophisticated, and groups practicing
terrorism are more wide-ranging. Responding to terrorism has become increasingly difficult;
perpetrators have networks of supporters in the resident populations. The international
community has taken action against terrorism by creating a framework of rules and blocking the
flow of financial resources to global networks.
Piracy: reflects the dual nature of participants motives: economic gain from violent action.
Piracy has surged in recent years, most notably as a result of state failure in Somalia.
Just war theory asserts that there are several criteria that can make the decision to go to war a just
one:
1. The cause must be just (self defense or massive violation of human rights), with a declaration of
intent.
2. Leader needs to have the correct intentions.
3. Leader should desire to end abuses and establish a just peace.
4. Nation should have exhausted all other possibilities for ending the abuse.
5. Forces must be removed rapidly after the abuses have ended.
Just war is an evolving practice, changing as broader ideas about war change.
Just war tradition directly contradicts the hallmark of the Westphalian system, the respect for
state sovereignty. Since the end of World War II, the notion has emerged that all human beings
are in need of protection and that states have an obligation to intervene when human rights are
violated. This belief is known as the responsibility to protect.
Responsibility to protect: if a state does not provide protection to its own people, then it is the
obligation of others to intervene in order to protect human rights.
The collective-security ideal: although wars can occur, they should be prevented. Wars will not
occur if all parties exercise restraint.
Collective security does not always work, because the aggressor cannot always be easily
identified, and a state may be unwilling to take action against an ally or foe.
Arms control and disarmament: fewer weapons means greater security. By regulating arms
proliferation and reducing the amount and type of weaponry employed, the costs of the security
dilemma are reduced.
Complete disarmament schemes are unlikely because cheaters would be rewarded, but
incremental disarmament remains a possibility.
Balance of power: an equilibrium between any two sides in a potential conflict. States must
evaluate the costs and benefits of particular policies that determine their roles in a balance of
power. States seek to ensure that no side can be certain of a victory if there is a war (example:
NATO and the Warsaw Pact).
A major limitation of the balance-of-power approach is its inability to manage security during
periods of fundamental change (because it supports the status quo).
Balance of power is also very difficult to manage in times of power transition.
Deterrence: war can be prevented by the threat of force. States must build up their arsenals in
order to present a credible threat.
Key assumptions:
1. Decision-makers are rational.
2. Nuclear weapons pose an unacceptable threat and decision-makers will not resort to armed
aggression against a nuclear state.
3. Alternatives to war are available irrespective of the situation.
These assumptions are troublesome because not all decision- makers are rational.
It is unclear how non-state actors can be deterred using traditional methods.
The United States is also approaching nuclear primacy, and thus deterrence may not serve to
restrain U.S. actions.
Collective security: aggressive or illegal use of force by one state shall be met with united action
by all (or at least most) states in the system. Aggressors cannot take on the world and will be
deterred from using force.
Key assumptions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Collective security is problematic: these assumptions do not always hold. Collective security
also requires that the community act decisively in all cases of aggression, even when individual
states have no clear interest in acting.
Arms control and disarmament: fewer weapons = more security.
1. The Cold War saw many agreements to limit the weapons on both sides.
2. The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty limits the acquisition of nuclear weapons
technology.
There are many examples of agreements to limit arms, but enforcement can sometimes be
problematic.
Complete disarmament is unlikely given the risks involved to the disarming states.
A shift from a focus on territorial integrity and threats from states toward a wider concern about
threats from non-state actors
A shift toward the privatization of force through private military contractors such as Xe
(formerly Blackwater), etc.
The extent to which the international community has an obligation to consider the protection of
individual humanitarian conditions in decisions about conflict
o When can sovereignty be violated to protect individuals? And what do we protect
individuals from?
Chapter 9
New technologies and economic ties also lead to the decreasing territorialization of daily
life.
II. The Evolution of the International Economy: Clashing Ideas and Practices
The era from the late Middle Ages to the end of the eighteenth century saw a number of
key changes in technology, ideas, and practices.
o European explorers opened up new frontiers in the Americas, Asia, and Africa.
o The exchange of good and people tied the colonies and the home states together.
Adam Smith wrote of the idea that human are rational and self-interested.
o To Smith, markets develop through individual, rational action.
o Markets need to be free from government action to function properly.
Mercantilism (statism) was the common practice of many governments at the time.
o Mercantilisms goal is to build economic wealth to build the power of the state.
o Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1617-83) argued that states should accumulate gold and
silver as well as build a strong central government.
o Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) made similar arguments in the United States.
From the start of the nineteenth century to World War I colonialism expanded greatly.
During the same period the states of Europe industrialized.
o Industrialization was spurred by technological change
o Economic links in global trade were followed by political and cultural domination
by the industrial states.
Britain acted as a hegemon to promote a more peaceful world order.
o The Pax Britanica is an example of hegemonic stability theory.
o A large, dominant state provides collective goods to the global system.
Radicalism emerged in this period as a response to the excesses of the time.
o Based in the teaching of Marx and others, radicalism attacked the inequalities of
the time.
o Radicals argued that society was conflictual.
1. Conflict was focused on competition between groups.
2. Owners of wealth versus workers
o Radicals argued that the state would support the owners of wealth.
o The holders of capital must expand their markets and the capitalist system until it
embraces the entire world.
1. This pressure for expansion creates tensions and creates the seeds of the
destruction of the system as a whole.
After the end of World War II, we enter the most recent phase of internationalization
o The 1930s saw the spread of harmful beggar thy neighbor policies that shut off
international trade
o At the end of World War II, the goal was to create a new system that could
prevent the disaster of the 1930s.
o The post-World War II system sought to promote the following:
1. Open trade
2. Free flow of capital
3. Stable exchange rates
These three goals are the foundation of globalization in the post-World War II
period
How can we study these developments?
o Rational choice offers one way
1. Individuals are rational actors with known and fixed preferences.
2. In the rational choice approach the study of international political
economy is the study of how states make strategic choices.
o Social constructivists argue against rational choice.
1. Preferences cannot be assumed.
2. Preferences change with time.
International Finance
o Capital movements played a key role in the earlier phases of the development of
the international political economy and they continue to do so today
o Capital moves in two ways:
1. Foreign direct investment (FDI) includes the building of factories and
other facilities
2. Portfolio investment (PI) includes investments in the stocks and bonds of
a country
3. MNCs play a major role in the movement of capital, both in the form of
FDI and in the form of PI
There are currently more than 60,000 MNCs employing 90 million
people in the global economy
Of the largest 100 MNCs, 90 are based in the United States,
Europe, Japan, and a handful of developing states
o Critics from all perspectives realize that some states have more difficulty
attracting private investment than others.
1. Africa receives only 8 percent of private capital
2. The World Bank has expanded its mission to include development lending
to these countries.
3. Two separate institutions within the World Bank were created to deal with
these issues.
The International Finance Corporation (1956) provides loans for
the development of private enterprises in developing countries
The International Development Association (1960) provides
capital to the poorest countries, usually in the form of interest free
loans
The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (1988) provides
insurance against losses from events like expropriation, civil war,
or conflict
4. Even with the expansion of World Bank programs, these efforts continue
to decline as a proportion of total capital flows
o Financial flows accelerated in the 1980s due to a range of mechanisms
1. Exchange rates were no longer fixed, so traders in currency exchange
markets and in MNCs could capitalize on buying and selling currencies
2. The market developed new financial instruments, such as derivatives
which could be packaged and sold around the world
3. New economic actors, sovereign wealth funds, formed in capital-surplus
countries
4. Economic liberalization has led to the emergence of offshore financial
centers with low taxation and little or no regulation
o The Asian financial crisis of the 1990s illustrates the possible outcomes of the
globalization of finance.
1. Beginning in Thailand in 1997, in a relatively short period of time, 2
percent of GDP fled that country.
2. Within weeks the crisis spread to Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and
beyond, eventually reaching Russia and Brazil.
3. The IMF responded to the political and social upheaval with large,
controversial bailout packages to three of the affected countries (Thailand,
Indonesia, and South Korea) that included sets of lengthy conditions that
each country was supposed to follow.
4. Governments had to agree to carry out significant structural reforms that
would transform their economies from semi-mercantilist to more open
ones.
Lifting restrictions on the movement of capital
Cutting the government budget, particularly in social programs
5. Critics of the IMF response focus on the moral hazard problem: states
were rescued from the consequences of their reckless behavior, providing
little incentive for them to change that behavior
International Trade
o The goal of economic liberal thinking was to create a free trade system.
o For various reasons, leaders may want to protect their home markets.
o The goal of the post-World War II GATT was to promote international trade by
lowering trade barriers.
o The GATT accomplished this in a series of negotiating rounds dealing with issues
such as tariff cuts and favorable treatment for developing countries.
o The final GATT round, the Uruguay Round, covered new items such as services,
intellectual property, and agriculture.
o In 1995, GATT became a formal institution, renaming itself the World Trade
Organization (WTO).
o Two important procedures were initiated in WTO:
1. The Trade Policy Review Mechanism (TPRM), which conducts periodic
surveillance of trade practices of member states
2. The Dispute Settlement Body, designed as an authoritative panel to hear
and settle trade disputes. The WTO can impose sanctions against violators
and is more powerful than other economic dispute resolution
arrangements.
o Getting global participation in the WTO has proved a painstaking task.
1. Chinas accession to the WTO in 2001 required that it make commitments
to move toward a market economy.
2. Vietnam, which acceded in 2007, has made similar commitments
o Trade liberalization, the major goal of the WTO, remains controversial. The Doha
Round, launched in 2001, was announced as a development round to help
developing countries correct the inequities of the previous trade agreements. The
North and the South remain deadlocked over the issue of agricultural export
subsidies.
o Domestic groups and NGOs in many countries feel that the WTO is usurping the
decisions and degrading the welfare of individuals and is undermining labor and
environmental standards.
International Development
o The Doha Round has bought out some of the differences between the developed
North and the developing South.
1. The North is relatively wealthy.
o
o
o
2. Parts of the South lie mired in poverty, struggling to meet basic needs.
Proponents of economic liberalism point to the progress made in closing the
development gap.
Detractors of economic liberalism point to a different set of indicators, arguing
that the gap between rich and poor is actually increasing.
In liberal economic theory, trade liberalization is based on comparative advantage
and is a key engine of economic growth.
1. It is unclear whether aggregate growth leads to the economic improvement
of the lives of individuals.
The World Bank has changed its orientation over time without undermining its
commitment to liberal economics. In the 1990s, sustainable development, an
approach to economic development that incorporates concern for renewable
resources and the environment, became part of the banks repertoire.
The banks support of private-sector participation has become known as the
Washington Consensus, a version of liberal economic ideology. Its adherents
hold that only with liberalization of trade and privatization will development
occur.
While the IMF was not originally charged with development, it realized that many
countries seemingly temporary balance of payments problems were actually longterm structural problems.
1. During the 1980s the IMF began to provide longer-term loans if states
adopted structural adjustment programs consistent with the
Washington Consensus.
2. In the 1990s it became apparent that some countries could not get out from
under the weight of debt even with structural adjustment programs.
3. The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative began an effort to
eliminate or reduce the debt of the poorest states.
By 2008 fourteen states had all of their debts canceled
Until the 1990s the Soviet Union and its allies were not members of the Bretton
Woods organizations. The demise of the Soviet Union gave the IMF an active role
in helping former Soviet and Soviet satellite countries make the transition to
capitalist economies
As the IMF has implemented these programs the line between the IMF and the
World Bank has become blurred. A broad consensus has come to exist regarding
the viability of the market-oriented policies and political pluralism as the
foundation for economic development.
1. This has included a greater emphasis on human developmenteducation
and health
NGOs play a critical role in this new approach, organized at the grassroots level
to carry out locally based projects.
1. A particular effort has been the work of the Grameen Bank. It now has
more than two thousand branches.
Yet the important question is, with economic globalization, are benefits being
distributed fairly?
1. The UN has undertaken the task of setting the goals of sustainable
development and monitoring progress, setting forth eight Millennium
The triumph of economic liberalism is not without its critics, both tradition critics of the
theory of liberalism and the critics of particular policies.
Old-style mercantilists argue that economic policy should be subservient to the state and
its interests.
o This mercantilist explanation dominated explanations of the economic success of
Japan in the 1960s and 1970s.
Radical theorists argue development has not occurred.
o Dependency theorists argue that MNCs are to blame through the exploitation of
the poor.
o Radicals see the interdependencies MNCs create as instruments of dependency
and exploitation.
Radicals argue that international regulation was necessary to limit the power of MNCs.
The New International Economic Order (NIEO) and the Group of 77 represent examples
of these ideas, attempts to make the international economy more favorable to least
developed countries (LDCs).
Reformers outside and within international financial institutions question both
governance and specific policies of the IMF and World Bank.
o The voting rules of these organizations favor the donor states.
o The development dollars distributed by the bank bring economic returns only to
the North.
The WTO has also become a lightning rod for domestic groups from many countries.
They feel that the WTO is usurping local decisions and degrading the welfare of
individuals.
o
o
Since the 1990s, more regional economic arrangements have been negotiated and those
already operational been strengthened.
European Economic Integration
o Integration was predicated on the notion that the larger market with the free
movement of goods and services would permit economies of scale, opportunities
for investment, and growth.
o The overall results have been positive, with the growth of all types of economic
transactions across state borders. There is broad consensus that European
integration has resulted in greater trade creation and positive welfare.
o During the discussions for the single market, the outlines of a monetary union
were negotiated. States that have agreed to the single currency, the euro, no longer
can use exchange rates and interest rates as economic policy.
o The European Union (EU) recognized that agriculture was different. The EU
adopted the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), where the EU purchases surplus
crops and pays guaranteed prices to farmers.
o Aside from the CAP, most economists agree that the openness of the European
markers has not only benefited Europeans but has become compatible with the
goals of the multilateral global system.
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
o The free trade agreement negotiated by the United States, Canada, and Mexico
differs substantially from the EU:
1. It comprises one dominant economy and two dependent ones.
2. The driving force in NAFTA is not political elites but MNCs that seek
larger market shares.
3. The social, political, and security dimensions in the EU are absent from
NAFTA. Cooperation in trade is not intended to lead to free movement of
labor.
4. NAFTA supports the phased elimination over ten years of tariff and
nontariff barriers. NAFTA protects the property rights of those companies
making investments in the three countries.
o The economic controversies generated by NAFTA continue to be profound:
1. U.S. labor unions claim that hundreds of thousands of workers have lost
their jobs to Mexico.
2. Environmental groups in the United States fear free trade with Mexico
comes at the expense of the environment, as U.S. firms relocate to Mexico
to skirt domestic environmental regulations.
Agricultural markets are better integrated, tariffs on manufactured goods have
been almost entirely eliminated, and trade between the three countries has
increased substantially.
Economic globalization resulting from the triumph of economic liberalism has been
confronted with several challenges.
o Individuals who feel that economic decisions were beyond their control have
resulted in antiglobalization movements at WTO, World Bank, and IMF meetings
around the world, as well as the guerilla movements in Mexico opposed to
NAFTA.
o The Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s highlighted the problem of too much
capital flowing out of the region. Many countries were unable to adjust to this
rapid withdrawal, and thus exchange rates plummeted, individuals lost their jobs
as companies went bankrupt, and stock markets fell.
o Antiglobalizers have also been stimulated by other repercussions resulting from
the openness of economic markets. Two trends have become vexing:
1. The movement of labor: The EU adopted the goal, but it has not occurred.
This has resulted in a flood of illegal aliens seeking better paying jobs in
EU countries. This has led to a new market in illicit labor, trafficking in
people, including women and children.
2. The rise of illicit markets: this can include the illegal movement of arms,
money, drugs, human organs, endangered species, and protected
intellectual property.
The Global Economic Crisis
o International crises have been a recurrent feature of the global economic system.
1. Liberal theory argues that the economy will regain its equilibrium and that
booms and busts will not bring down the global system.
2. What began as a crisis in the United States rapidly became a global
economic crisis.
o Initial responses to the crisis were mostly unilateral.
o International institutions provided loans and credit to developed states.
o The crisis has led to calls for reform of the system, including reform of the
intergovernmental regulatory arrangements.
o The G20 has emerged as a major player in the crisis, but the G20 may prove too
large for macroeconomic coordination.
o The crisis has also weakened the power of MNCs in the international system.
o What remains to be seen is how the crisis will affect economic globalization.
Chapter 10
Transnational Issues
Chapter Summary
I. Introduction
The standardized shipping container is an example of how simple changes can have
complex consequences
In the twenty-first century, more different kinds of actors than ever participate in
international politics
The growing importance of non-state actors signifies a significant power shift.
These new actors address a great variety of issues. Two of the core issues, security and
international political economy, have evolved in new ways:
o State security is increasingly conceptualized as human security.
o Economic decisions made by multinational corporations (MNCs) affect national
balances of payments and ability of workers to make a living wage.
o Global communications and the technology revolution undermines the primacy of
territorial states.
Public health and disease are old issues that have never respected national boundaries.
Eradication of diseases has always been a global challenge.
The international community was caught unawares by the new realities spawned by
globalization. Ebola, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Avian bird flu, and
HIV/AIDS outbreaks have been acerbated by increased global mobility.
HIV/AIDS as a Transnational Issue
o AIDS has rapidly become a major health and humanitarian problem with over 3.1
million deaths annually and between 33 and 46 million people living with the
disease:
1. AIDS is an economic issue, disproportionately affecting those in their
primary productive years, between 15 and 45.
2. AIDS is a social issue, as families are torn apart and children are
orphaned. These children are often forced to turn to prostitution or join the
military in order to survive.
3. AIDS is a human rights and ethical issue as well as a security issue. In
2000 the UN Security Council identified AIDS as a threat to global
security, the first time that health has been so recognized.
o Many different actors have responded to the AIDS problem, but individual states
are key:
1. Uganda, Botswana, and Brazil took initiatives very early on, and each has
seen rates of infection decline.
2. South Africa, China, and India have been slow to acknowledging the
problem.
o IGOs took the leadership role at the early stages:
1. The World Health Organization (WHO) took steps to help states create
national AIDS programs beginning in 1986.
2. In 1996, the Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) was created,
which coordinates cooperative projects among numerous UN agencies.
3. The United Nations initiated the practice of convening global AIDS
conferences every two years to raise awareness and mobilize responses.
Many NGOs have been actively involved. Some work at the grassroots level while others
train health-care workers in AIDS care.
With the development of antiretrovirals to extend the life of people living with AIDS, the
multinational pharmaceutical companies have become a major actor, albeit a
controversial one:
o Indian drug companies began manufacturing generics reducing the cost of
treatment, which a controversial practice.
o Brazil took its case to UN human rights bodies, arguing that patients have a
human right to treatment.
Transnational communities of experts, or epistemic communities, are composed of
experts from IGOs, NGOs, and states and substate agencies.
Beyond AIDS
o Health issues also involve regulations to insure quality and control unhealthy
behaviors.
o Health is also recognized as a development issue.
A Theoretical Tale
o Health is an example of a quintessential functionalist issue, as health was one of
the first areas of international cooperation.
Where liberals, realists, and radicals may disagree is on the correct approach to
addressing health issues.
1. Liberals are more apt to focus on international responsibility for dealing with
health issues.
2. Realists are more apt to stress individual state responsibility and to acknowledge
the importance of health when state security is threatened.
3. Radicals see health as an issue that illustrates the economic differential between
the wealthy developed world and the poor developing world.
Conceptual Perspectives
o The notion of collective goods: Collective goods help conceptualize how to
achieve shared benefits that depend on overcoming conflicting interests.
o Sustainability: Employing the criterion of sustainability forces individuals to
think about policies to promote change that neither damage the environment nor
use up finite resources so that future generations will benefit.
o Over time, principles and norms have evolved in customary international law:
1. No-significant harm principle: states cannot initiate policies that cause
significant environmental damages to another state.
2. Good-neighbor principle: cooperation between states.
Pollution
o In the 1950s and 1960s, several events dramatically publicized the deteriorating
condition of the commons. The natural world was being degrade by human
activity associated with agricultural and industrial practices.
o Economic development both in agriculture and industry has negative
externalitiescostly unintended consequencesfor everyone, as well as positive
effects:
1. Environmental damage
2. Ozone depletion
3. Climate change
The Kyoto Protocol of 1997 provided for stabilizing the concentration of greenhouse
gases and delineated goals for reducing emissions by 2010. Developed countries are to
reduce their overall emissions, and provide flexibility mechanisms designed to make
reaching the emission targets more cost-efficient.
o Trading of international emission shares is permitted.
o Credits can be earned from carbon sinks. States can offset their emissions by
gaining credits for planting forests.
o Joint implementation permits countries to participate in projects for emission
reductions and allows each to receive part of the credit.
In the United States, the George W. Bush administration refused to agree to any binding
commitment on emissions, objecting on several grounds:
o The economic costs of moving away from a fossil-fuel based economy are too
high and an unacceptable number of jobs would be lost.
o The administration believes that markets will bring about the necessary changes,
and opposes international regulations imposed by an unrepresentative and
unaccountable body.
o Both European states and Japan have signed the protocol and are making efforts
to reduce emissions.
In 2009 President Barak Obama attended a follow-up conference in Copenhagen,
Denmark. The Copenhagen Accord provided little in the way of specific commitments.
Environmental NGOs in Action
o NGOs perform a number of key functions in environmental affairs:
1. They serve as generalized critics, often using media to publicize their
dissatisfaction and to get environmental issues on the agenda.
2. NGOs may function through IGOs, working to change the organization
itself.
3. NGOs can aid in monitoring and enforcing environmental regulations,
either by pointing out problems or by actually carrying out on-site
inspections.
4. NGOs may function as part of transnational communities of experts,
serving with counterparts in IGOs and state agencies to try to change
practices and procedures of an issue.
V. Transnational Crime
Narcotrafficking has survived as demand for drugs has been relatively stable over
time while transport costs have fallen.
Transnational issues have shifted from tertiary and moral issues to primary and vital
issues since the end of World War II.
Transnational issues have effects on four major areas of international relations theory and
practice.
o The interconnectedness of the plethora of subissues within health, environmental,
and human rights issues affect international bargaining.
o These globalizing themselves may be the source of conflict. Issues of resource
depletion and degradation, usually attenuated by population increase and pressure
on resources, are apt to result in conflicts when some groups try to capture use of
the scarce resource.
o The norm of noninterference in the domestic affairs of other states was embedded
in the UN Charter. Yet the rise of nonstate actors and the forces of globalization
undermine Westphalian notions of state sovereignty.
o Transnationsl issues pose critical problems for international relations scholars and
for the theoretical frameworks introduced in the text.
1. For realists, the very core propositions are made problematic by
globalizing issues. Realists have adopted a more nuanced argumentthey
contend that state primacy is not in jeopardy.
2. For liberals, the globalizing issues can be more easily integrated into their
theoretical picture.
3. Radicals have never been comfortable with the primacy of the state and
the international system that the dominant coalition of states created
4. Constructivists have alerted others to the nuances of the changing
discourse embedded in discussion of health, the environment, and human
rights.
The processes of interaction among the various actors in international politics are now
more frequent and intense, ranging from conventional ad hoc cooperation and formal
organization collaboration to NGO and network collaboration.
o These changes have led some to think of there being pieces of global
governance. Global governance implies that through various structures and
processes, actors can coordinate interests and needs although there is no unifying
political authority.
o Skeptics of global governance do not believe that anything approaching it is
possible or desirable.
A citizenry able to articulate these arguments is a citizenry better able to explain the whys
and hows of events that affect our lives. A citizen who can understand these events is
better able to make informed policy choices.
In the globalizing era of the twenty-first century, as economic, political, social, and
environmental forces both above and within the state assume greater saliency, the role of
individuals becomes all the more demanding.