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Approaches To International Relations

Chapter Summary
I. THINKING THEORETICALLY

Historically, international activities were the results of actions taken by central


governments, but this is changing in the world of today. Increasingly, these activities
involve different actors.
International relations is the study of the interactions among the various actors that
participate in international politics, including states, international organizations,
nongovernmental organizations, subnational entities, and individuals.
Political scientists develop theories or frameworks, both to understand the causes of
events that occur in international relations and to answer the foundational questions in
the field.
Realism posits that states exist in an anarchic international system.
o Each state bases its policies on an interpretation of national interest defined
in terms of power.
o The structure of the international system is determined by the distribution of
power.
Liberalism argues that humans form states that generally cooperate and follow
international norms and procedures.
Radical theory is rooted in economics: actions of individuals are determined by their social
class.
Constructivists argue that the key structures are intersubjective and social.

II. DEVELOPING THE ANSWERS

Answers are often found in history.


o History invites students to acquire detailed knowledge of specific events, but
also to use these events to test generalizations.
We can also deduce answers from classical and modern philosophy.
o The philosopher Plato explored ideas about the perfect state.
o Thomas Hobbes imagined a state of nature when men ruled by passions,
living in constant uncertainty.
o Kant envisioned a federation of states as a means to universal peace.
History and philosophy permit us to delve into the foundational questions and to
speculate on normative elements in political life.
Behavioralism proposes that individuals act in patterned ways and seek to empirically test
plausible hypotheses about individual behavior.
o 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

III. IN SUM: MAKING SENSE OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

International relations is a pluralistic discipline, turning to disciplines such as history,


philosophy, behavioral psychology, and so on.

The Historical Context Of Contemporary


International Relations
Chapter Summary
I. INTRODUCTION

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.

II. THE PRE-WESTPHALIAN WORLD

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.

III. THE EMERGENCE OF THE WESTPHALIAN SYSTEM

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.

IV. EUROPE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

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
o 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.
o 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.

V. THE INTERWAR YEARS AND WORLD WAR II

The end of World War I saw critical changes in international relations:


o First, three European empires (Russia, Austro-Hungary, and the Ottoman)
were strained and finally broke up during the war. With those empires went
the conservative social order of Europe; in its place emerged a proliferation of
nationalisms.
o Second, Germany emerged out of World War I an even more dissatisfied
power. The Treaty of Versailles, which formally ended the war, made
Germany pay the cost of the war through reparations. This dissatisfaction
provided the climate for the emergence of Adolf Hitler, who was dedicated to
right the wrongs imposed by the treaty.
o Third, enforcement of the Versailles Treaty was given to the ultimately
unsuccessful League of Nations, the intergovernmental organization
designed to prevent all future wars. The League did not have the political
weight to carry out its task because the United States refused to join.
o Fourth, a vision of the post-World War I order had clearly been expounded,
but it was a vision stillborn from the start. The world economy was in collapse
and German fascism wreaked havoc on the plan for post-war peace.
World War II
o World War II was started by Germany, Italy, and Japan.
o Japan had attacked China in a series of incidents beginning in
1931 eventually leading to war.
o Italy attacked Ethiopia in 1935, using yperite (a form of mustard
gas banned by the Geneva Protocol).
o Nazi Germany was the biggest challenge, as it set to right what
Hitler saw as the wrongs of the Treaty of Versailles.
The power of fascismGerman, Italian, and Japanese versionsled to the
uneasy alliance between the communist Soviet Union and the liberal United
States, Britain, and France. When World War II broke out, this alliance (the
Allies) fought against the Axis powers in unison.
The Allies at the end of the war were successful. Both the German Reich and
imperial Japan lay in ruins at the end of the war.
Two other features of World War II demand attention as well.
o The German invasion of Poland, the Baltic States, and the Soviet
Union was followed by the organized murder of human beings,
including Jews, Gypsies, communists, and Germans who showed
signs of genetic defects.
o While Germany surrendered in May 1945, the war did not end
until the surrender of Japan in August.
o In order to avoid a costly invasion, the United States
dropped atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki.
o The new weapon, combined with the Soviet
declaration of war against Japan led to the surrender
of Japan to the Allies.
The end of World War II resulted in a major redistribution of power and
changed political borders.

VI. THE COLD WAR

Origins of the Cold War


o The most important outcome of World War II was the emergence of
two superpowersthe United States and the Soviet Unionas the primary
actors in the international system and the decline of Europe as the epicenter
of international politics.
o The second outcome of the war was the recognition of fundamental
incompatibilities between these two superpowers in both national interests
and ideology.
1. Russia used its newfound power to solidify its sphere of influence
in the buffer states of Eastern Europe.
2. U.S. interests lay in containing the Soviet Union. The United
States put the notion of containment into action in the Truman
Doctrine of 1947. After the Soviets blocked western
transportation corridors to Berlin, containment became the
fundamental doctrine of U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War.
3. The U.S. economic system was based on capitalism, which
provided opportunities to individuals to pursue what was
economically rational with little or no government interference.
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 high-
level 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.
1. U.S. forces, fighting under the auspices of the United
Nations, counterattacked and nearly defeated North
Korea.
2. As UN troops approached the Chinese border, the
Chinese attacked, driving the UN forces South and
leading to an eventual three-year stalemate ending in
a armistice in 1953.
The 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis was another direct confrontation in yet
another part of the world. The Soviet Unions installation of missiles in Cuba
was viewed by the United States as a direct threat to its territory.
In Vietnam, the Cold War played out in an extended civil war, in which
communist North Vietnam were pitted against South Vietnam.
U.S. policy makers argued that communist influence must be stopped before
it spread like a chain of falling dominoes throughout the rest of Southeast
Asia (hence the term domino theory).
The Cold in Cold War
It was not always the case that when once of the superpowers acted the other
side responded.
When the Soviet Union invaded Hungary in 1956 and
Czechoslovakia in 1968, the United States verbally condemned
such actions but the actions themselves went unchecked.
The Soviets kept quiet when the United States invaded Granada
in 1983 and Panama in 1989.
The Middle East was a region of vital importance to both the United States
and Soviet Union, and thus the region served as a proxy for many of the
events of the Cold War.
Following the establishment of Israel in 1948, the region was the
scene of a superpower confrontation by proxy: between a U.S.-
supported Israel and the Soviet-backed Arab states of Syria, Iraq,
and Egypt. Proxy hot wars, such as the Six-Day War in 1967,
and the Yom Kippur War in 1973 were fought.
Confrontation through proxy also occurred in parts of the world
of less strategic importance, such as the Congo, Angola, and the
Horn of Africa.
The Cold War was also fought and moderated in words,
at summits (meetings between the leaders) and in treaties.
Some of these summits were successful, such as the 1967
Glassboro Summit that began the loosening of tensions known
as dtente.
Treaties placed self-imposed limitations on nuclear arms.
The Cold War as a Long Peace
John Lewis Gaddis has referred to the Cold War as a long peace to
dramatize the absence of war between the great powers. Why?
Nuclear deterrence: Once both the United States and Soviet
Union had acquired nuclear weapons, neither was willing to use
them.
Division of power: the parity of power led to stability in the
international system
The stability imposed by the hegemonic economic power of the
United States: being in a superior economic position for much of
the Cold War, the United States willingly paid the price of
maintaining stability throughout the world.
Economic liberalism: the liberal economic order solidified and
became a dominant factor in international relations. Politics
became transnational under liberalismbased on interests and
coalitions across state boundariesand thus great powers became
obsolete.
The long peace was predetermined: it is just one phase in a long
historical cycle of peace and war.

VII. THE POST-COLD WAR ERA

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.

VIII. IN SUM: LEARNING FROM HISTORY

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

Contending Perspectives: How To Think About


International Relations Theoretically
Chapter Summary
I. THINKING THEORETICALLY

A theory is a set of propositions and concepts that seeks to explain phenomena by


specifying the relationships among the concepts; theorys ultimate purpose is to predict
phenomena.
Good theory generates groups of testable hypotheses: specific statements positing a
particular relationship between two or more variables.
As more and more data are collected, one must be tolerant of ambiguity, concerned about
probabilities, and distrustful of absolutes.
International relations theories come in a variety of forms, and this chapter will introduce
three general theories and one newer perspective.

II. THEORY AND THE LEVELS OF ANALYSIS

In a categorization first used by Kenneth Waltz, three different sources of explanations are
offered.
o If the individual level is the focus, then the personality, perceptions, choices,
and activities of individual decision makers and individual participants
provide the explanation.
o If the state-level, or domestic, factors are the focus, then the explanation is
derived from characteristics of the state: the type of government, the type of
economic system, or interest groups.
o If the international system level is the focus, then the explanation rests with
the anarchic characteristics of that system or with international and regional
organizations and their strengths and weaknesses.
The purpose of theory is to guide us toward an understanding of which of these various
explanations are the necessary and sufficient explanations for the invasion.
Good theory should be able to explain phenomena at a particular level of analysis; better
theory should also offer explanations across different levels of analysis.

III. REALISM AND NEOREALISM

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.

Power is primarily thought of in terms of material resources necessary to physically harm


or coerce other states.
States exist in an anarchic international system, characterized by the absence of an
authoritative hierarchy.
States most important concern is to manage their insecurity, and they rely primarily on
balancing the power of other states and deterrence to keep the international system
intact.
Four of the essential assumptions of realism are found in Thucydides History of the
Peloponnesian War.
1. The state is the principal actor in war and politics in general.
2. The state is assumed to be a unitary actor: once a decision is made to go to
war or capitulate, the state speaks and acts with one voice.
3. Decision makers acting in the name of the state are assumed to be rational
actors. Rational decision making leads to the advance of the national
interest.
4. A states need to protect itself from enemies both foreign and domestic. A
state augments its security by building up its economic prowess and forming
alliances with other states.
St. Augustine (354-430) added an assumption, arguing that humanity is flawed, egoistic,
and selfish, although not predetermined to be so. He blames war on this basic
characteristic of humanity.
Niccol Machiavelli (1469-1527) argued that a leader needs to be ever mindful of threats to
his personal security and the security of the state
The central tenet accepted by virtually all realists is that states exist in an anarchic
international system. Thomas Hobbes originally articulated this tenet, and maintained
that each state has the right to preserve themselves.
Hans Morgenthau (1904-80), whose textbook, Politics among Nations, became the realist
bible following World War II, argued that international politics is a struggle for power
that can be explained at three levels of analysis:
1. The flawed individual in the state of nature struggles for self-preservation.
2. The autonomous and unitary state is constantly involved in power struggles,
balancing power with power and preserving the national interest.
3. Because the international system is anarchicthere is no higher power to put
the competition to an endthe struggle is continuous.
Not all realists agree on the correct policy. Defensive realists argue that all states should
pursue policies of restraint. Offensive realists argue that under conditions of
international anarchy, all states should seek opportunities to improve their relative
positions and that states should strive for power.
Neorealism, as delineated by Kenneth Waltzs theory of international politics, gives
precedence to the structure of the international system as an explanatory factor, over
states.
o The most important unit to study is the structure of the international system,
and that structure is determined by the ordering principle (the distribution of
capabilities among states)
o The international structure is a force in itself; it constrains state behavior and
states may not be able to control it. This structure determines outcomes.
o Like classical realism, balance of power is a core principle of neorealism.
However, neorealists believe that the balance of power is largely determined
by the structure of the system.
o In a neorealists balance-of-power world, a states survival depends on having
more power than other states, thus all power are viewed in relative terms.
o Neorealists are also concerned with cheating. The awareness that such
possibilities exist, combined with states rational desire to protect their own
interests, tends to preclude cooperation among states
Robert Gilpin offers another interpretation of realism. Gilpin adds the notion of
dynamism: history as a series of cyclescycles of birth, expansion, and demise of
dominant powers.
0. Whereas classical realism offers no satisfactory rationale for the decline of
powers, Gilpin does, on the basis of the importance of economic power.
1. Hegemons decline because of three processes:
1. The increasingly marginal returns of controlling an empire, a
state-level phenomenon
2. The tendency for economic hegemons to consume over time and
invest less, also a state-level phenomenon
3. The diffusion of technology, a system-level phenomenon through
which new powers challenge the hegemon.
Ann Tickner adds gender to realism. She argues that human nature is not fixed and
inalterable, but multidimensional and contextual.
0. Power cannot be equated exclusively with control and domination, but must
be reoriented toward a more inclusive notion of power, where power is the
ability to act in concert (not just conflict) or to be in a symbiotic relationship
(instead of outright competition).

IV. LIBERALISM AND NEOLIBERAL INSTITUTIONALISM

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.
2. Individual freedom and autonomy can best be realized in a
democratic states unfettered by excessive governmental
restrictions
3. Free markets must be allowed to flourish and governments must
permit the free flow of trade and commerce. This will create
interdependencies between states, thus raising the cost of war.
o Twentieth-century idealism is also termed Wilsonian idealism (its greatest
adherent was Woodrow Wilson, author of the League of Nations).
1. War is preventable; more than half of the League covenants
provisions focused on preventing war.
2. The covenant also included a provision legitimizing the notion
of collective security, wherein aggression by one state would be
countered by collective action, embodied in a league of nations.
3. Liberals also place faith in international law and legal
instruments -mediation, arbitration, and international courts.
o The basis of liberalism remains firmly embedded in the belief of the
rationality of humans and in the unbridled optimism that through learning
and education, humans can develop institutions to bring out their best
characteristics.
o Neoliberal institutionalism asks why states choose to cooperate most of
the time even in the anarchic condition of the international system.
1. One answer is the story of the prisoners dilemma, developed
by Robert Axelrod and Robert Keohane. Two prisoners are
interrogated separately for a crime. Each prisoner is faced with a
onetime choice. Neither prisoner knows how the other will
respond; the cost of not confessing if the other does is high. So
both sides will confess.
1. Similarly, states are not faced with a onetime
situation; confront each other over and over again.
2. The prisoners dilemma provides neoliberal
institutionalists with a rationale for mutual
cooperation in an environment where there is no
international authority mandating such cooperation.
Cooperation emerges because for actors having continuous
interactions with each other, it is in the self-interest of each to
cooperate.
With the end of the Cold War, liberalism has achieved new
credibility.
Shared democratic norms and culture inhibit aggression and
international institutions that bind democracies together act to
constrain behavior.
Large-scale conflict is less frequent than in earlier eras. Thus, as
Francis Fukuyama argues, there is an absence of any viable
theoretical alternatives.

V. THE RADICAL PERSPECTIVE

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.
o During the evolution of the economic production process from feudalism to
capitalism, new patterns of social relations were developed. Radicals are
concerned with explaining the relationship between the means of production,
social relations, and power.
o Another group of radical beliefs centers on the structure of the global system.
That structure is the by-product ofimperialism, or the expansion of certain
economic forms into other areas of the world.
o John A. Hobson theorized that expansion occurs because of three conditions:
1. Overproduction of goods and services in developed countries
2. Underconsumption by workers and the lower classes in developed
nations because of low wages
3. Oversavings by the upper classes and the bourgeoisie in the
dominant developed countries
1. To solve these problems, developed states have
expanded abroad, and radicals argue that developing
countries are increasingly constrained and dependent
on the actions of the developed world.
2. Theorists emphasize the techniques of domination
and suppression that arises from uneven economic
development is inherent in the capitalist system,
enabling the dominant states to exploit the
underdogs.
3. Contemporary radicals, such as dependency theorists,
attribute primary importance to the role
of multinational corporations (MNCs) and
international banks based in developed countries in
exerting fundamental controls over the developing
countries. Dependency theorists are pessimistic about
the possibility of change.
4. Virtually all radical theorists are uniformly normative
in their orientation. They evaluate the hierarchical
capitalist structure as bad and its methods as
exploitive.
5. Some have discredited radicalism as an international
relations theory because it cannot explain the
cooperation between capitalist and socialist states at
the end of the Cold War, why and how some
developing countries have escaped dependency, and
did not foresee or predict the demise of the Soviet
Union.

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.

VII. THEORY IN ACTION: ANALYZING THE 2003 IRAQ WAR

The Realist Interpretation


1. Realists would focus on state-level and international-level factors. Realists see
the international system as anarchic and few states other than the United States would
be able and willing to rid the world of the Iraq threat.
2. Iraq posed a security threat to the United States and the only way to eliminate this threat
was to oust the Baathist regime from power.
3. Not all realists agree that the policy the United States pursued was the right one: both
John Mearsheimer, an offensive realist, and Stephen Walt, a defensive realist, have
jointly argued that the war was not necessary.
4. George W. Bush and other realist theorists believe that Saddam was not being effectively
deterred. Bush argued that Saddams use of chemical weapons against the Kurds in the
past meant that it was probable he would use them to threaten the United States.
The Liberal Interpretation
Liberals would utilize all three levels of analysis.
1. Individual: Saddam was clearly an abusive leader and committed atrocities
against his own population
2. State: The Iraqi state had an authoritarian nature, and replacement by a
democracy would lessen the coercive threat of the state and enhance stability
in the Middle East
3. International level: Iraq was not confronting to its obligations under various
UN Security Council resolutions; thus, there was an obligation for the
international community to take collective action.
The international community did not respond as some liberals would have predicted
because the UN Security Council did not endorse the action, and there was insufficient
evidence for the presence of weapons of mass destruction.
Radical Interpretation
Radicals would focus mainly on the international system structure
Political colonialism spawned an imperialist system in which the economic needs of the
capitalist states were paramount. In the Middle East, that meant imperialism by the West
to secure oil resources.
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.

VIII. IN SUM: SEEING THE WORLD THROUGH THEORETICAL


LENSES
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.
This site and the materials contained herein

CHAPTER 4

The International System


Chapter Summary
I. THE NOTION OF A SYSTEM

A system is an assemblage of units, objects, or parts united by some form of regular


interaction.
In the 1950s, the behavioral revolution in the social sciences and growing acceptance of
political realism in international relations led scholars to conceptualize international
politics as a system, using the language of systems theory.

II. THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM ACCORDING TO REALISTS

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.
1. 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.
2. 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.
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.
0. Alliances tend to be long term, based on relatively permanent, not
shifting, interests.
1. 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.
Hegemony: one state that commands influence in the international system.
0. 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.
o 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.
o 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.
o 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.
o 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.
o In the view of realists, international systems can change, yet the inherent bias
among realist interpretations is for continuity.

III. THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM ACCORDING TO LIBERALS

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 self-interest 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
developmentsthat 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.

IV. THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM ACCORDING TO RADICALS

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).

V. CONSTRUCTIVISM AND INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM CHANGE

Constructivists argue that the whole concept of an international system is a European idea.
Nothing can be explained by material structures alone
o Martha Finnemore suggests that there have been different international
orders with changing purposes.
Constructivists believe that what does change are social norms.
o Social norms change through both actions of the collective and through
individuals
o Norms may change through coercion, but most likely they will change
through international institutions, law, and social movements

VI. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF THE INTERNATIONAL


SYSTEM AS A LEVEL OF ANALYSIS

Advantages:
1. Allows comparison and contrasts between systems
2. Comprehensiveness: it enables scholars to organize the seemingly disjointed parts into a whole.
3. Systems theory is a holistic approach. Although it cannot provide descriptions of events at the
micro level, it does allow plausible explanations at the more general level. For realists,
generalizations provide fodder for prediction. For liberals and radicals, these generalizations have
normative implications.
Disadvantages
1. The emphasis at the international system level means that the stuff of politics is often neglected,
while the generalizations are broad and obvious.
2. The testing of systems theories is very difficult. Most theorists are constrained by a lack of
historical information and thus the ability to test specific hypotheses over a long time period is
restricted.
3. The problem of boundaries: does the notion of the international system mean the political system?
What factors lie outside the system? What shapes the system?
4. The idea of a single international system is largely a creation of European thought. It may be better
to think of multiple international systems over time
1. Imperial China
2. The umma as a community of Muslims

VII. IN SUM: FROM THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM TO THE STATE

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?
II. CONTENDING CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF THE STATE

The Realist View of the State


o Realists hold a state-centric view: the state is an autonomous actor
constrained only by the structural anarchy of the international system.
o As a sovereign entity, the state has a consistent set of goalsthat is, a
national interestdefined in terms of power. Once the state acts, it does so as
an autonomous, unitary actor.
The Liberal View of the State
o The state enjoys sovereignty but is not an autonomous actor. The state is a
pluralist arena whose function is to maintain the basic rules of the game.
o There is no explicit or consistent national interest; there are many. These
interests often change and compete against each other within a pluralistic
framework.
The Radical View of the State
o The instrumental Marxist view sees the state as the executing agent of the
bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie reacts to direct societal pressures, especially to
pressures from the capitalist class.
o The structural Marxist view sees the state as operating within the structure of
the capitalist system. Within that system, the state is driven to expand,
because of the imperatives of the capitalist system.
o In neither view is there a national interest or real sovereignty, as the state is
continually reacting to external capitalist pressures.
The Constructivist View of the State
o National interests are neither material nor given. They are ideational and
continually changing and evolving, both in response to domestic factors and
in response to international norms and ideas.
o States have multiple identities, including a shared understanding of national
identity, which also changes, altering state preferences and hence state
behavior.
Contrasting the Various Views of the State: The Example of Oil
o A realist interpretation posits a uniform national interest that is articulated
by the state. Oil is vital for national security; thus, the state desires stability in
oils availability and price.
o Liberals believe that multiple national interests influence state actions:
consumer groups, manufacturers, and producers. The state itself has no
consistent viewpoint about the oil; its task is to ensure that the playing field is
level and the rules are the same for all players. There is also no single or
consistent national interest.
o In the radical perspective, oil policy reflects the interests of the owner
capitalist class aligned with the bourgeoisie and reflects the structure of the
international capitalist system. The negotiating process is exploitative for the
advancement of capitalist states.
o Constructivists may try to tease out how the identities of states are
constructed around having a valuable resource.

III. THE NATURE OF STATE POWER

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.
Power itself is multi-dimensional; there are different kinds of power.
Natural Sources of Power
o Whether power is effective at influencing outcomes depends on the power
potential of each party. A states power potential depends on its natural
sources of power. The three most important natural sources of power are:
1. Geographic size and position: a large geographic expanse gives a
state automatic power, although long borders must be defended
and may be a weakness.
1. Alfred Mahan (1840-1914) argued that the state that
controls the ocean routes controls the world.
2. Sir Halford Mackinder (1861-1947) argued that the
state that had the most power was the one that
controlled the heartland.
Natural resources: Petroleum-exporting states like Kuwait and
Qatar, which are geographically small but have greater power
than their sizes would suggest.
0. Having a sought-after resource may prove a liability
making states targets for aggressive actions.
1. The absence of natural resources does not mean that a
state has no power potential; Japan is not rich in
resources but is still an economic powerhouse.
Population: sizable populations give power potential and great
power status to a state. However, states with small, highly
educated, skilled populations such as Switzerland can fill large
political and economic niches.
Tangible Sources of Power
Industrial development: with advanced industrial capacity (such as air
travel), the advantages and disadvantages of geography diminish.
With industrialization, the importance of population is modified: large but
poorly equipped armies are no match for small armies with advanced
equipment.
Radicals believe that differences in who has access to the source of tangible
power lead to the creation of different classes, some more powerful than
others.
Intangible Sources of Power
National image: people within states have images of their states power
potentialimages that translate into an intangible power ingredient.
Public support: a states power is magnified when there appears to be
unprecedented public support. For example, Chinas power was magnified
under Mao Zedong because there was unprecedented public support for the
communist leadership.
Leadership: visionaries and charismatic leaders such as Mohandas Gandhi
and Franklin Roosevelt were able to augment the power potential of their
states by taking bold initiatives. Likewise, poor leaders diminish the states
power capacity.
Joseph S. Nye has labeled intangible power soft power: the ability to attract
others because of the legitimacy of the states values or policies.
Liberals would more than likely place greater importance on these intangible
ingredients, since several are characteristics of domestic processes.
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.

IV. THE EXERCISE OF STATE POWER

The Art of Diplomacy


o Traditional diplomacy entails states trying to influence the behavior of
other actors by negotiating.
o Diplomacy usually begins with bargaining through direct and indirect
communication in an attempt to reach agreement on an issue.
o For bargaining to be successful, each party needs to be credible. Well-
intentioned parties have a higher probability of successful negotiations.
Although states seldom enter diplomatic bargaining as equals, each has
information and goals of its own. The outcome is almost always mutually
beneficial, but the outcome may not please each of the parties equally.
o Bargaining and negotiations are complicated by at least two factors:
1. Most states carry out two levels of bargaining simultaneously:
bargaining between and among states and the bargaining that
must occur between the states negotiators and its various
domestic constituencies, both to negotiate and to ratify the
agreement. Robert Putnam refers to this as a two-level game.
Trade negotiations with the World Trade Organization are
often conducted as two-level games.
2. Bargaining and negotiating are a culture-bound activity.
Approaches to bargaining vary across cultures. Two styles of
negotiations have been identified:
1. Deductive style: from general principles to particular
applications. The South argued in this style during the
New International Economic Order (NIEO)
negotiations,
2. Pragmatic style: addressing concrete problems and
resolving specific issues before broader principles.
The North argued in this style during NIEO
negotiations, leading to a stalemate between North
and South.
The use of public diplomacy is an increasingly popular technique. It
involves targeting both foreign publics and elites, attempting to create an
overall image that enhances a countrys ability to achieve its objectives. It was
used before and during the 2003 Iraq war.
Diplomacy may need to include more than negotiations, making other forms
of diplomacy necessary.
Some states may choose niche diplomacy, concentrating their efforts on in
a few areas.
Economic Statecraft
States may use both positive and negative economic sanctions to try to
influence other states.
Positive sanctions involve offering a carrot, enticing the target state to act in
the desired way by rewarding moves made in the desired direction.
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.
A states ability to use these instruments of economic statecraft depends on
its power potential.
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.
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.
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
Force may be used either to get a target state to do something or to undo
something it has donecalledcompellenceor to keep an adversary from
doing somethingcalled deterrence.
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.
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.
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.
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 opponent
will refrain from taking aggressive action, using itsfirst-strike capability.
Deterrence is then successful.
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.
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
Is the foreign policy behavior of democratic states any different from the
behavior of nondemocratic or authoritarian states?
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
clear-cut 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.

V. MODELS OF FOREIGN POLICY DECISION MAKING

The Rational Model


o Foreign policy is conceived of as actions chosen by the national government
that maximize its strategic goals and objectives.
o In times of crisis, when decision makers are confronted by a threatening
event and have only a short time to make a decision about how to respond,
then using the rational model as a way to assess the other sides behavior is
an appropriate choice.
o Most U.S. assessments of decisions taken by the Soviet Union during the Cold
War were based on a rational model.
The Bureaucratic/Organizational Model
o Organizational politics emphasizes the standard operating procedures
and processes of an organization. Decisions depend heavily on precedents;
major changes in policy are unlikely.
o Bureaucratic politics occurs among members of the bureaucracy
representing different interests. Decisions flow from the tug-of-war among
these departments and individuals.
o Noncrisis situations, such as trade policy, provide a ripe area to see this
model of decision making at work. When time is no real constraint, informal
groups and departments have time to mobilize.
o The decisions arrived at are not always the most rational ones; rather they are
the decisions that satisficesatisfy the most different constituents without
ostracizing any.
o Liberals especially turn to this model of decision-making behavior in their
analyses. The model is relevant in large, democratic countries, where
responsibility it divided among a number of different units.
The Pluralist Model
o The pluralist model attributes decisions to bargaining conducted among
domestic sourcesthe public, interest groups, and multinational
corporations (MNCs).
o In noncrisis situations, especially economic ones, societal groups may play
very important roles. Societal groups have a variety of ways of forcing
decisions in their favor or constraining decisions. The movement to ban land
mines in the 1990s is an example of a pluralist foreign policy decision.

VI. CHALLENGES TO THE STATE

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.
o Ethnonationalist movements can pose a challenge even to the strongest of
states. For example, China has been confronted by Uighur uprisings.
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.
o Personality characteristics affect the leadership of dictators more than that of
democratic leaders because leaders because of the absence of effective
institutional checks.
o Betty Glad analyzed the personalities of tyrants like Hitler, Stalin, and
Saddam Hussein and labeled them as having malignant narcissism
syndrome-those who rule without attention to law, capitalize on self-
presentations, and utilize cruel tactics.
Individual Decision Making
o Individuals are not perfectly rational decision makers. The individual selects,
organizes, and evaluates incoming information about the surrounding world.
o In perceiving and interpreting new and oftentimes contradictory information,
individuals rely on existing perceptions. If those perceptions form a relatively
integrated set of images, then they are called a belief system.
o Political scientists have conducted a number of empirical elite mindset
studies of those individuals who left behind extensive written records. Since
few leaders leave such as record, our ability to reconstruct elite images and
perceptions is limited, as is our ability to state their influence on a specific
decision.
Information-Processing Mechanisms
o Individual elites utilize, usually unconsciously, a number of psychological
mechanisms to process the information that forms their general perceptions
of the world:
1. Individuals strive to be cognitively consistent, ensuring that
images hang together consistently within their belief systems.
2. Elites in power look for those details of a present episode that
look like a past one, perhaps ignoring the important differences.
This is referred to as the evoked set.
3. Perceptions are often shaped in terms of mirror images: while
considering ones own action good, moral, and just, the enemy is
automatically found to be evil, immoral, and unjust.
o Small groups also have psychologically based dynamics that undermine the
rational model. The psychologist Irving Janis called this
dynamic groupthink. The dynamics of the group include:
1. The illusion of invulnerability and unanimity
2. Excessive optimism
3. Belief in their own morality and the enemys evil
4. Pressure placed on dissenters to change their views
o Small groups have additional distorting tendencies than individuals, such as
the pressure for group conformity and searching for a good-enough solution
rather than an optimal one.
o Top leaders do influence foreign policy, which is made, not just by tyrants,
but also by visionaries (like Julius Nyerere and Nelson Mandela) and by
political pragmatists (like Vladimir Putin and Margaret Thatcher).

II. PRIVATE INDIVIDUALS


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
Prize-winners 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.

III. MASS PUBLICS

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,
Nongovernmental Organizations, And
International Law
Chapter Summary
I. INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS

The Creation of International Organizations (IOs)


o Why have states chosen to organize themselves collectively? The response is
found in liberalism
1. Within the framework of institutions, cooperation is possible
Functionalism
o Simple problems, often with technical (not political) solutions are common
starting points for IOs
o David Mitrany argues that states bind together those interests which are
common, where they are common, and to the extent to which they are
common.
o They promote building on and expanding the habits of cooperation nurtured
by groups of technical experts. Eventually, those habits will spill over into
cooperation in political and military affairs.
Collective Goods
o Collective goods are available to all members of the group regardless of
individual contributions.
o The use of collective goods involves activities and choices that are
interdependent. Decisions by one states have effects for other states; that is,
states can suffer unanticipated negative consequences as a result of actions by
others.
o Garrett Hardin, in The Tragedy of the Commons, proposed several possible
pollutions to the tragedy of the commons:
1. Use coercion: force nations and peoples to control the collective
goods.
2. Restructure the preferences of states through rewards and
punishments.
3. Alter the size of the group.
The Roles of Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs)
o IGOs contribute to habits of cooperation; through IGOs, states become
socialized to regular interactions. Such regular interactions occur between
states in the United Nations.
o Roles:
1. Some establish regularized processes of information gathering,
analysis, and surveillance.
2. Some IGOs, such as the World Trade Organization, develop
procedures to make rules, settle disputes, and punish those who
fail to follow the rules.
3. Other IGOs conduct operational activities that help to resolve
major substantive problems
4. IGOs also play key roles in bargaining, serving as arenas for
negotiating and developing coalitions.
o 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.
Key Political Issues
o The United Nations played a key role in the decolonization of Africa and Asia.
The UN Charter endorsed the principle of self-determination for colonial
peoples.
o The emergence of new states transformed the United Nations because of the
formation of the Group of 77, pitting the North against the South. This
conflict continues to be a central feature of the United Nations.
Peacekeeping
o In traditional peacekeeping, multilateral institutions such as the United
Nations seek to contain conflicts between two states through third-party
military forces. These military units are drawn from small, neutral member
states, invited by the disputants, and primarily address interstate conflict.
o Complex peacekeeping activities respond also to civil war and
ethnonationalist conflicts in states that have not requested UN assistance.
o UN peacekeepers have tried to maintain law and order in failing societies by
aiding in civil administration, policing, and rehabilitating infrastructure. This
is referred to as peacebuilding.
o Complex peacekeeping has had successes and failures. Namibias transition
from war to cease-fire and then to independence is seen as a success;
Rwandas genocide and need for humanitarian protection is seen as a failure.
Reform: Success and failures
o Management: the size of the Secretariat has been reduced by 4,000. In the
wake of the Oil for Food scandal, new financial accountability mechanisms
have been put in place and internal oversight has been established.
o Reorganization: The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Counter-
Terrorism Committee, and Department of Peacekeeping Operations have
been restructured for greater efficiency. In 2006 a Peacebuilding Commission
was formed to address post-conflict recovery.
o Security Council: Most states agree that the council membership should be
increased, but many disagree over how it should be done, Europe is
overrepresented, and Germany and Japan contribute the most financially.
China is the only developing country. Contending proposals have been
discussed but no agreement reached.
A Complex Network of Intergovernmental Organizations
o There are nineteen specialized agencies formally affiliated with the United
Nations. These organizations have separate charters, budgets, memberships,
and secretariats. They also focus on different issues. Examples include the
World Bank and Food and Agriculture Organization.
o There are IGOs not affiliated with the United Nations, including the World
Trade Organization and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries,
as well as regional organizations like the African Union.
The European UnionOrganizing Regionally
o Historical Evolution
1. After World War II, an economically strong Europe (made
possible by a reduction of trade barriers and help from the United
States) knew it would be better equipped to counter the threat of
the Soviet Union if it integrated.
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.
o 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.

II. NONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS

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).
1. For the first time, they made statements from the
floor during official meetings, drafted information
materials, and scrutinized UN documents.
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.
NGOs seldom work alone. The communications revolution has
served to link NGOs with each other, formally and informally.
NGOs may also be formed for malevolent purposes, the Mafia,
international drug cartels, and even Al Qaeda.
The Power of NGOs
NGOs rely on soft power, meaning credible information,
expertise, and moral authority that attracts the attention and
admiration of governments and the public.
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.
NGOs can increase their power through networking with other
NGOs.
0. The International Campaign to Ban Landmines
demonstrates the power of the network.
The Limits of NGOs
Most NGOs have very limited economic resources since they do
not collect taxes. The competition for funding is fierce.
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.
Success is hard to measure; there is no single agenda, and NGOs
are often working at cross-purposes.
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.

III. INTERNATIONAL LAW

International Law and Functions


o International law consists of a body of both rules and norms regulating
interactions among states, between states and IGOs, and among IGOs, states,
and individuals.
o 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 infringes on U.S. sovereignty and may
implicate U.S. military or political officials.
o Why do states obey international law most of the time?
1. The liberal response is that they obey because it is right to do so.
Individual states benefit from living in an ordered world where
there are general expectations about other states behavior.
2. Should states choose not to obey, other members of the
international system do have recourse: they can issue diplomatic
protests, initiate reprisals, threaten to enforce economic boycotts,
or use military force.
3. Self-help mechanisms of enforcement from one state alone are
apt to be ineffective. To be most effective, states must use
collective action against the violator.

IV. REALIST VIEWS OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND


LAW

They are skeptical about international law


o International law creates some order, and states comply because it is in the
states self-interest to comply. It is in the self-interest of states to have their
airspace and territory respected, and to enjoy secure procedures for
international trade.
They are also skeptical about international organizations, both IGOs and NGOs.
o Realists do not put much faith in the United Nations and point to failures of
the Security Council to collectively punish aggressors.
o Most NGOs exist at the beck and call of states; it is states that grant them
legal authority, and it is states that can take away that authority.

V. THE RADICAL VIEW OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND


LAW

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,

VI. THE CONSTRUCTIVIST VIEW OF INTERNATIONAL


ORGANIZATION

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.

VII. IN SUM: DO IGOS, NGOS, AND INTERNATIONAL LAW MAKE A


DIFFERENCE?

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 And Strife


Chapter Summary
I. INTRODUCTION

This chapter introduces prominent approaches to mitigating the effects of the security dilemma as
well as how insecurity can be managed short of war.

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.
Thedemocratic 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.

II. CAUSES OF WAR

The Individual
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.

State and Society


War occurs because of the internal structures of states.

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.
The International 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.

The Case of Iraqs Invasion of Kuwait


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.

The Case of South Ossetia


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.
III. CATEGORIZING WARS

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. They last a long time, with periods of fighting punctuated by periods of relative calm.
2. Human costs are high: both combatants and civilians are killed and maimed.
3. Food supplies are interrupted.
4. Diseases spread as health systems suffer.
5. Money is diverted from constructive economic development to purchasing armaments.
6. 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.

IV. HOW WARS ARE FOUGHT

Conventional war: war between designated soldiers representing specific sides of a conflict.
Conventional war is conducted primarily with conventional weapons.

Conventional weapons: weapons technologies whose destructive effects can be limited in space and
time to those who are legitimate targets of war.

Weapons of mass destruction (WMD): chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons whose
destructive effects cannot be limited in space or time to legitimate targets of war.
Debate over nuclear proliferation: some scholars argue that slow proliferation by states with nuclear
capabilities will deter potential enemies from nuclear action, whereas others argue that proliferation
is more apt to breed proliferation and/or initiate accidental war.

Unconventional warfare: warfare in which one or more sides refuse to follow the accepted
conventions of war. This can be expressed either in the conduct of the war itself or in the refusal to
accept traditional outcomes of battle.

Asymmetric conflict: warfare conducted between parties of unequal strength. The weaker party
seeks to neutralize its opponents strengths by exploiting that opponents weaknesses.

Guerilla warfare: the weaker party may often use a civilian population to provide supplies like
food and shelter and to gather intelligence. Fighters rely on hit-and-run tactics until the enemy is
worn down. Examples include the Algerians against the French in the 1950s, and the Taliban against
coalition forces in Afghanistan.

Terrorism: a particular form of asymmetric conflict in which one side attempts to instill fear in the
other in order to force concessions.

This involves four major elements:

1. premeditation
2. motivation or cause, whether religious, economic, or political
3. noncombatant targets
4. 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.

V. THE JUST WAR TRADITION


Jus ad bellum: the justice of entering into a war.

Jus in bello: the justice of how a war is fought.

Just war tradition


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 tradition also addresses conduct in war:

1. Combatants and noncombatants must be differentiated.


2. The violence used needs to be proportionate to the ends to be achieved.
Just war is an evolving practice, changing as broader ideas about war change.

The Debate over Humanitarian Intervention


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.

VI. APPROACHES TO MANAGING INSECURITY

Liberal Approaches: Collective Security and Arms Control/Disarmament


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.

Realist Approaches: Balance of Power and Deterrence


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. Wars are prevented by restraint on military action.
2. Aggressors must be stopped.
3. The aggressor is easy to identify.
4. The aggressor is always wrong.
5. Aggressors know the community will act against them.
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.

VII. A CHANGING VIEW OF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY

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

International Political Economy


Chapter Summary
I. INTRODUCTION

Economic globalization describes the international political economy of 2010.


o Goods and services are produced and traded globally.
o A global virtual world ties us together through new technology.
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
o 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.

III. THE BASIS OF THE CONTEMPORARY INTERNATIONAL


ECONOMY

Key Concepts in the Liberal Economy


o Liberal economics is based on the recognition that states differ in their
resource endowments. Worldwide wealth is maximized if states engage in
international trade.
o David Ricardo (1772-1823) developed a theory that states should engage in
international trade according to theircomparative advantage. That is,
states should produce and export those products which they can produce
most efficiently (specialize), relative to other states. Thus, gains from trade
are maximized for all because each state minimizes its opportunity cost.
o National currencies should be bought and sold in a free market system. In
such a system of floating exchange rates, the market determines the value of
one currency as compared with other currencies. Floating exchange rates will
lead to market equilibrium.
Roles of Multinational Corporations (MNCs)
o MNCs play a key role as engines of economic growth.
1. They act as the vanguard of the liberal economic order.
2. They have taken the integration of national economies beyond
trade and money to include the internationalization of production
o Liberals see MNCs as positive
1. Economic improvement is driven through efficiency and MNCs
promote efficiency.
o MNCs perform many activities.
1. Direct importing and exporting
2. Making significant investments in a foreign country
3. Buying and selling licenses in foreign markets
4. Engaging in contract manufacturing
5. Opening manufacturing facilities in foreign countries
o MNCs choose to operate in international markets for various reasons, all of
which are based in economics, but which are affected by the political relations
of the host state.
1. Reduce transport costs by moving production closer to customers
2. Tax and license advantages from local governments
3. Find cheaper labor markets
4. Obtain the services of foreign technical personnel
o Some liberals go further in discussing the benefits of MNCs
1. The international liberal economy may promote peace.
o Liberal economics suggests a basic set of policies, all based on the minimal
involvement of governments
1. Open markets
2. Free trade
3. Free flow of goods and services
Roles of the International Economic Institutions
o Economic liberalism has been supported by the establishment and expansion
of the Bretton Woods institutions, the World Bank, the International
Monetary Fund (IMF), and to a lesser extend the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade (GATT)now the World Trade Organization (WTO).
o The World BankStimulating Economies
1. The World Bank was designed initially to facilitate
reconstruction in the post-World War II Europe.
2. In the 1950s the bank shifted its emphasis from reconstruction to
development. It generates capital funds from member-states
contributions and from borrowing in financial markets.
3. A high proportion of the World Bank funding has been used for
infrastructure development
o The International Monetary FundStabilizing Economies
1. The task of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was to
stabilize exchange rates.
2. Originally the fund established a system of fixed exchange rates
3. In 1972 this system collapsed when the United States announced
that it would no longer guarantee the system.
4. In 1976 the fund formalized the system of floating exchange rates
currently in use.
o GATT and the WTOManaging Trade
1. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT) enshrined important liberal principles:
1. Support of trade liberalization
2. Nondiscrimination in trade
3. Exclusive use of tariffs for protecting home markets
4. Preferential access in developed markets to products
from the South
5. Support concept of nation al treatment of foreign
enterprises.
The GATT established a continual process of multilateral
negotiations among those countries sharing major interests in the
issue at hand; the agreements reached were then expanded to all
GATT participants.
Most of the work was carried out over the course of eight
negotiating roundseach round progressively cutting tariffs and
addressing new problems, such as intellectual property rights.

IV. HOW THE GLOBALIZED ECONOMY WORKS TODAY

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
1. There are currently more than 60,000 MNCs
employing 90 million people in the global economy
2. Of the largest 100 MNCs, 90 are based in the United
States, Europe, Japan, and a handful of developing
states
Critics from all perspectives realize that some states have more difficulty
attracting private investment than others.
Africa receives only 8 percent of private capital
The World Bank has expanded its mission to include
development lending to these countries.
Two separate institutions within the World Bank were created to
deal with these issues.
0. The International Finance Corporation (1956)
provides loans for the development of private
enterprises in developing countries
1. The International Development Association (1960)
provides capital to the poorest countries, usually in
the form of interest free loans
2. The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (1988)
provides insurance against losses from events like
expropriation, civil war, or conflict
Even with the expansion of World Bank programs, these efforts
continue to decline as a proportion of total capital flows
Financial flows accelerated in the 1980s due to a range of mechanisms
Exchange rates were no longer fixed, so traders in currency
exchange markets and in MNCs could capitalize on buying and
selling currencies
The market developed new financial instruments, such
as derivatives which could be packaged and sold around the
world
New economic actors, sovereign wealth funds, formed in
capital-surplus countries
Economic liberalization has led to the emergence of offshore
financial centers with low taxation and little or no regulation
The Asian financial crisis of the 1990s illustrates the possible outcomes of the
globalization of finance.
Beginning in Thailand in 1997, in a relatively short period of time,
2 percent of GDP fled that country.
Within weeks the crisis spread to Indonesia, Malaysia, the
Philippines, and beyond, eventually reaching Russia and Brazil.
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.
Governments had to agree to carry out significant structural
reforms that would transform their economies from semi-
mercantilist to more open ones.
0. Lifting restrictions on the movement of capital
1. Cutting the government budget, particularly in social
programs
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
The goal of economic liberal thinking was to create a free trade system.
For various reasons, leaders may want to protect their home markets.
The goal of the post-World War II GATT was to promote international trade
by lowering trade barriers.
The GATT accomplished this in a series of negotiating rounds dealing with
issues such as tariff cuts and favorable treatment for developing countries.
The final GATT round, the Uruguay Round, covered new items such as
services, intellectual property, and agriculture.
In 1995, GATT became a formal institution, renaming itself the World
Trade Organization (WTO).
Two important procedures were initiated in WTO:
The Trade Policy Review Mechanism (TPRM), which conducts
periodic surveillance of trade practices of member states
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.
Getting global participation in the WTO has proved a painstaking task.
Chinas accession to the WTO in 2001 required that it make
commitments to move toward a market economy.
Vietnam, which acceded in 2007, has made similar commitments
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.
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
The Doha Round has bought out some of the differences between the
developed North and the developing South.
The North is relatively wealthy.
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.
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 long-term structural problems.
During the 1980s the IMF began to provide longer-term loans if
states adopted structural adjustment programs consistent
with the Washington Consensus.
In the 1990s it became apparent that some countries could not get
out from under the weight of debt even with structural
adjustment programs.
The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative began an
effort to eliminate or reduce the debt of the poorest states.
0. 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.
This has included a greater emphasis on human development
education and health
NGOs play a critical role in this new approach, organized at the grassroots
level to carry out locally based projects.
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?
The UN has undertaken the task of setting the goals of sustainable
development and monitoring progress, setting forth eight
Millennium Development Goals designed to reduce poverty and
promote sustainable human development.

V. CRITICS OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC LIBERALISM

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.

VI. THE KEY ROLE OF PETROLEUM MARKETS

No international issue or single commodity is more connected to economic globalization


than petroleum.
o The fundamental interdependency between consumers and producers has
changed over time.
o Demand for oil is growing fastest in emerging markets.
o In 1960 the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was
born.
1. Oil exporting countries won significant concessions from the oil
MNCs.
o OPECs twelve members produce 40 percent of the worlds oil.
o In 1974 the Arab members of OPEC began an embargo of states that
supported Israel, leading to a significant increase in the oil price
o Inspired by OPECs success other developing states formed cartels in primary
products, although these largely failed.
o A second shock came with the Iranian Revolution in 1979.
o The most recent shocks have come from demand for oil in the developing
world.
These changes in the international petroleum market have had political implications.
o Oil-dependent states vying for contracts have changed or modified political
allegiances.
o Oil producing states have enjoyed a massive increase in oil revenue.
1. Some states can use oil as a strategic weapon
2. Even international institutions have found it harder to exercise
their influence in getting the oil-producing states to comply with
international agreements.
3. As oil has become more valuable, it has become a target for
groups trying to disrupt established governments.
o With globalization an integrated market has emerged, linking key producer
and consumer states not only with MNCs, but also with international
investors and financial markets

VII. ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION AND REGIONALISM

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.
o Agricultural markets are better integrated, tariffs on manufactured goods
have been almost entirely eliminated, and trade between the three countries
has increased substantially.

VIII. EMERGING CHALLENGES TO ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION

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.

II. HEALTH AND COMMUNICABLE DISEASEPROTECTING LIFE


IN THE COMMONS

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.

III. THE ENVIRONMENTPROTECTING THE GLOBAL COMMONS

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.
3. Soft law principles: expressed in conferences, declarations,
declarations, or resolutions. They are nonbinding but informally
describe acceptable norms of behavior. These include:
1. Polluter-pays principle
2. Precautionary principle
3. Preventive-action principle
Population Issues
In 1798, Thomas Malthus posited that population increases will outstrip food
production. This is referred to as theMalthusian dilemma.
An independent report, The Limits to Growth, issued by the Club of Rome in
1972, concluded that the Earth would reach natural limits to growth within a
relatively short period of time.
Malthus did not predict the demographic transitionthat population
growth rates would not proceed unchecked.
Population growth rates have increased dramatically, though not unchecked.
Three key observations make these populations growth rates disturbing:
The population increase is not uniformly distributed. The
developing world has much higher population growth rates than
the developed world.
Both rapid rates of overall population growth and high levels of
economic development mean increased demands for natural
resources. For certain countries like China and India with large
populations already, the problem is severe.
High population growth rates lead to numerous ethical dilemmas
for policy makers: how can population growth rates be curbed
without infringing on individual rights to procreate?
Population becomes a collective good problem: what is economically rational
for a family is not environmentally sustainable.
What actions can be taken with respect to population to alleviate or mitigate
the dilemmas just discussed?
Prohibiting procreation is politically untenable and pragmatically
difficult.
Relying on group pressure to forces changes in behavior will not
work in the populous states.
Some individuals desire smaller families but family planning
methods may be unavailable to them.
What is clear about the problem is that it is an international one, affecting states, IGOs,
and NGOs.
Natural Resource Issues
The belief in the infinite supply of natural resources was a logical one
throughout much of human history. Trading for natural resources became a
necessary activity as it was recognized that those resources never uniformly
distributed.
Freshwater is a key natural resource for all forms of life. Agriculture accounts
for two-thirds of the use of water; industry, about one-quarter; and human
consumption, about one tenth.
It is estimated that by 2025, two-thirds of the worlds people will
live in countries facing moderate or severe water shortage.
International controversies regarding water have occurred in the
United States with irrigation of the Colorado River, Israels
control of scarce water on the West Bank, and Chinas
rechanneling of the Yangtze River to northern cities.
Pollution
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.
Economic development both in agriculture and industry has
negative externalitiescostly unintended consequencesfor everyone, as
well as positive effects:
Environmental damage
Ozone depletion
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.
Trading of international emission shares is permitted.
Credits can be earned from carbon sinks. States can offset their emissions
by gaining credits for planting forests.
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:
The economic costs of moving away from a fossil-fuel based economy are too
high and an unacceptable number of jobs would be lost.
The administration believes that markets will bring about the necessary
changes, and opposes international regulations imposed by an
unrepresentative and unaccountable body.
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
NGOs perform a number of key functions in environmental affairs:
They serve as generalized critics, often using media to publicize
their dissatisfaction and to get environmental issues on the
agenda.
NGOs may function through IGOs, working to change the
organization itself.
NGOs can aid in monitoring and enforcing environmental
regulations, either by pointing out problems or by actually
carrying out on-site inspections.
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.
NGOs can attempt to influence state environmental policy
directly, providing information about policy options and lobbying
directly through a states legislature or bureaucracy.
A Theoretical Tale
What has made many environmental issues so politically controversial at the
international level is that states have tended to divide along the developed-
developingNorth-Southeconomic axis.
The challenge in addressing globalizing issues is to negotiate a middle ground
that reflects the fact that both sides are correct.
Realists, liberals, and radicals do not have the same degree of concern for
environmental issues.
Realists emphasis has been on state security
Radicals are apt to see the costs borne disproportionately by those
in the South and by the poorer groups in the developed North.
Liberals see the environmental issue as appropriate to the
international agenda.
Constructivists are interested in how political and scientific elites
define the problem and how that definition changes over time and
new ideas become rooted in their belief sets.

IV. HUMAN RIGHTSPROTECTING HUMAN DIGNITY

Conceptualizing Human Rights and the Development of a Regime


o Three different kinds of rights have been articulated:
1. First-generation human rights: Rights possessed by an
individual that the state cannot usurp. Political and civil rights
dominate first generation rights: the right to free speech, free
press, and freedom of religion. These rights are within the liberal
tradition and by realists.
2. Second-generation human rights: developed under the
principles of Marx. This view emphasizes minimum material
rights that the state must provide to individuals, such as
education, health care, housing, and social security. These are
referred to as positive rights.
3. Third-generation human rights: specify rights for groups,
such as ethnic or indigenous minorities within a polity or
designated special groups such as women or children. Some have
even added individual human rights.
o The UN General Assembly approved the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights in 1948
o These wide ranging human rights standard have led many scholars to
conclude that there is an international regime of human rights-agreed upon
rules, norms, and procedures that emerge from high levels of cooperation.
o Two main questions emerge from the debate over human rights have proven
to have enduring resonance:
1. Can human rights principles survive threats to national security?
2. Is there a set of rights that should be universal rights?
o Pundits from different regions of the world have argued for cultural
relativism, that is, rights are culturally determined.
The Human Rights Regime in Action
o States traditionally have argued that human rights is primarily the sovereign
prerogative of the state.
o A contending position emerged during the twentieth century: how a
government treats its own citizens can affect the larger global community.
o What can the international community actually do? The UNs activities and
the activities of other IGOs have been confined to several areas:
1. The United Nations has been involved in the setting of the
international human rights standards articulated in the many
treaties.
2. The United Nations and the European Commission on Human
Rights have worked to monitor state behavior, establishing
procedures for complaints, compiling reports from observers, and
monitoring civil rights.
3. The United Nations has taken measures to promote human rights
by assuring fair elections and providing a focal point for human
rights activity.
4. States and the international community are the primary enforcers
of international human rights.
5. UN enforcement is also an option.
o The international communitys approaches to human rights enforcement are
fraught with difficulties.
1. A states signature on a treaty is no guarantee of its willingness or
ability to follow the treatys provisions.
2. Monitoring state compliance through self-reporting systems
presumes a willingness to comply and to be transparent.
3. Taking direct action by imposing economic embargoes may not
achieve the announced objective, and may actually be harmful to
those very individuals whom the embargoes are trying to help.
While the enforcement of human rights standards by the international community is
clearly the exception rather than the norm, important precedents were established in the
late twentieth century.
o Some kind of international action is acceptable, though such actions are not
always taken. But the international community may be closer now to saying it
has a responsibility.
o Most policy makers and theorists would agree that genocide should elicit a
concerted international response.
o In the aftermath of the Holocaust, the Convention against Genocide was
negotiated. It elucidated clear principles that systematic killing of a group
based on race, gender, or ethnicity is prohibited under international law and
norms.
o However, since then, using the word genocide implies an obligation to act. If
states do not want to act, they can deny that genocide is occurring, as the
United States did in Rwanda in 1994.
Advocates of each of the three theoretical perspectives might argue different responses on
the part of states.
o Realists would generally focus on a states national interest in the situation. If
genocide committed in one state jeopardizes another states national
interests, then it should act.
o Liberals emphasis on individual welfare and on the malleability of the state
makes such intrusions into the actions of other states less offensive to them.
o Radicals have few qualms about states taking actions. For them, the real
culprit is the nemesis of an unfair economic system and so the target in their
view is much more diffuse.
Other Human Rights Actors
o NGOs have been vocal and sometimes very effective in the area of human
rights. Of the 250 organizations, there is a core group that has been the most
vocal. It includes Amnesty International, the International Committee of the
Red Cross, and Human Rights Watch.
o The work of NGOs has become more effective with the use of the Internet and
the World Wide Web. Individuals and groups are able to voice their
grievances swiftly and to a worldwide audience, and can disseminate
information quickly.
Womens Rights as Human Rights: The Globalization of Womens Rights
o Evolving Political and Economic Rights
1. Women first took up the call for political participation within
national jurisdiction, demanding their political and civil rights in
the form of womens suffrage.
2. Conventions on the Political Rights of Women in 1952
3. The 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)
4. Women in Development (WID) Movement
o From Political and Economic Rights to Human Rights
1. By the 1990s, the discussion of womens rights was clearly viewed
as human rights. This shift was solidified at the 1993 Vienna
Conference on human rights.
2. Included in the Vienna Conference was not only human rights
protection in the public sphere but protection against human
rights abuses in the in the private sphere, notably gender-based
violence against women.
3. Three examples illustrate the widespread and controversial
problem of violence against women:
1. The usurpation of womens rights in Taliban-run
Afghanistan.
2. Rape, including rape by soldiers in war.
3. Trafficking in women and children.
Different feminist groups have placed different priorities on the various types
of human rights protection. Liberal feminists have found solace in granting
political and civil human rights while social feminists point to the economic
forces.

V. TRANSNATIONAL CRIME

Trafficking in women and children is illegal under international law.


Criminal networks engage in sex trafficking, which has become more serious and
widespread since the collapse of the USSR.
Narcotraffickingthe transportation of large quantities of narcoticshas always been a
problem, but has become a focus since the end of the Cold War
o Narcotrafficking has survived as demand for drugs has been relatively stable over time while transport costs have
fallen.

VI. THE IMPACT OF TRANSNATIONAL ISSUES

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.

VI. WILL TRANSNATIONAL ISSUES LEAD TO GLOBAL


GOVERNANCE?

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.

VII. IN SUM: CHANGING YOU

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.

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