Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Chapter Summary
I. THINKING THEORETICALLY
The purpose of this historical overview is to trace important trends over timethe
emergence of the state and the notion of sovereignty, the development of the
international state system, and the changes in the distribution of power among states
Contemporary international relations, in both theory and practice, is rooted in the
European experience, for better or worse.
Many international relations theorists date the contemporary system from 1648, the year
of the Treaty of Westphalia, ending the Thirty Years War. This treaty marks the end of
rule by religious authority in Europe. The Greek city-state system, the Roman Empire,
and the Middle Ages are each key developments leading to the Westphalian order
The Middle Ages: Centralization and Decentralization
o When the Roman empire disintegrated in the fifth century A.D., power and
authority became decentralized in Europe.
o By 1000 A.D. three civilizations had emerged from the rubble of Rome:
1. Arabic civilization: under the religious and political domination of
the Islamic caliphate, advanced mathematical and technical
accomplishments made it a potent force.
2. Byzantine Empire: located near the core of the old Roman Empire
in Constantinople and united by Christianity.
3. The rest of Europe, where languages and cultures proliferated,
and the networks of communication developed by the Romans
were beginning to disintegrate.
Much of Western Europe reverted to feudal principalities, controlled by lords and tied to
fiefdoms that had the authority to raise taxes and exert legal authority. Feudalism was
the response to the prevailing disorder
The preeminent institution in the medieval period was the church; virtually all other
institutions were local in origin and practice.
Carolus Magnus, or Charlemagne, the leader of the Franks (in what is today France),
challenged the churchs monopoly on power in the late eighth century.
Similar trends of centralization and decentralization, political integration and
disintegration, were also occurring in Ghana, Mali, Latin America, and Japan.
The Late Middle Ages: Developing Transnational Networks in Europe and Beyond
o After 1000 A.D. secular trends began to undermine both the decentralization
of feudalism and the universalization of Christianity in Europe. Commercial
activity expanded into larger geographic areas. All forms of communication
improved and new technologies made daily life easier.
o Economic and technological changes led to fundamental changes in social
relations.
1. A transnational business community emerged, whose interests
and livelihoods extended beyond its immediate locale
2. Writers and other individuals rediscovered classical literature and
history, finding intellectual sustenance in Greek and Roman
thought
3. Niccol Machiavelli, in The Prince, elucidated the qualities that a
leader needs to maintain the strength and security of the state.
Realizing that the dream of unity in Christianity was unattainable,
Machiavelli called on leaders to articulate their own political
interests. Leaders must act in the states interest, answerable to
no moral rules.
4. In the 1500s and 1600s, as European explorers and even settlers
moved into the New World, the old Europe remained in flux.
Feudalism was being replaced by an increasingly centralized
monarchy.
5. The masses, angered by taxes imposed by the newly emerging
states, rebelled and rioted.
The formulation of sovereignty was one of the most important intellectual developments
leading to the Westphalian revolution.
Much of the development of sovereignty is found in the writings of French philosopher
Jean Bodin. To Bodin, sovereignty was the absolute and perpetual power vested in a
commonwealth. Absolute sovereignty, according to Bodin, is not without limits. Leaders
are limited by natural law, laws of God, the type of regime, and by covenants and treaties.
The Thirty Years War (1618-48) devastated Europe. But the treaty that ended the conflict,
the Treaty of Westphalia, had a profound impact on the practice of international
relations in three ways:
o It embraced the notion of sovereigntythat the sovereign enjoyed exclusive
rights within a given territory. It also established that states could determine
their own domestic policies in their own geographic space.
o Leaders sought to establish their own permanent national militaries. The
state thus became more powerful since the state had to collect taxes to pay for
these militaries and the leaders assumed absolute control over the troops.
o It established a core group of states that dominated the world until the
beginning of the nineteenth century: Austria, Russia, England, France, and
the United Provinces of the Netherlands and Belgium.
The most important theorist at the time was Scottish economist Adam Smith. In An
Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Smith argued that the
notion of a market should apply to all social orders
o Individuals should be permitted to pursue their own interests and will act
rationally to maximize his or her own interests
o With groups of individuals pursuing self-interests, economic efficiency is
enhanced as well as the wealth of the state and that of the international
system. This theory has had a profound effect on states economic policies.
The American Revolution (1776) and the French Revolution (1789) were the products of
Enlightenment thinking as well as social contract theorists.
The Aftermath of Revolution: Core Principles
o Legitimacy: absolutist rule is subject to limits and imposed by man. In Two
Treatises on Government, John Locke attacked absolute power and the
divine right of kings. Lockes main argument is that political power ultimately
rests with the people rather than with the leader or the monarch.
o Nationalism: the masses identify with their common past, their language,
customs, and practices. Individuals who share such characteristics are
motivated to participate actively in the political process as a group.
The Napoleonic Wars
o The political impact of these twin principles was far from benign in Europe.
The nineteenth century opened with war in Europe on an unprecedented
scale.
1. Technological change allowed larger armies.
French weakness and its status as a revolutionary power made it ripe for intervention and
the stamping out of the idea of popular consent
The same nationalist fervor that brought about the success of Napoleon Bonaparte also led
to his downfall.
1. In Spain and Russia, nationalist guerillas fought against French invaders.
2. Napoleons invasion of Russia ended in disaster, leading to French defeat at
Waterloo three years later.
Peace at the Core of the European System
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.
The fall of the Berlin Wall symbolized the end of the Cold War, but actually its end was
gradual. Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev had set in motions two domestic processes
glasnost (political openness) and perestroika (economic restructuring)as early as the
mid-1980s.
Gorbachevs domestic reforms also led to changes in the orientation of Soviet foreign
policy. He suggested that members of the UN Security Council become guarantors of
regional security.
The first post-Cold War test of the new so-called new world order came in response to
Iraqs invasion and annexation of Kuwait in 1990.
A few have labeled the end of the Cold War era the age of globalization. This era appears to
be marked by U.S. primacy in international affairs to a degree not even matched by the
Romans.
However, U.S. primacy is still not able to prevent ethnic conflict, civil wars, and human
rights abuses from occurring.
The 1990s was a decade marked by dual realities (and sometimes converged and
diverged), the first being U.S. primacy and the second being civil and ethnic strife.
o Yugoslavias violent disintegration played itself over the entire decade despite
Western attempts to resolve the conflict peacefully.
o At the same time, the world witnessed ethnic tension and violence as
genocide in Rwanda and Burundi went unchallenged by the international
community.
On September 11, 2001, the world witnessed deadly, and economically destructive terrorist
attacks against two important cities in the United States. These attacks set into motion a
U.S.-led global war on terrorism.
o The United States fought a war in Afghanistan to oust the Taliban regime,
which was providing safe haven to Osama bin Ladens Al-Qaeda organization
and a base from which it freely planned and carried out a global terror
campaign against the United States.
o Following the initially successful war in Afghanistan, the United States,
convinced that Iraq maintained weapons of mass destruction and supported
terrorist organizations, attempted to build support in the United Nations for
authorization to remove Saddam Hussein from power. When the United
Nations failed to back the U.S. request, the United State built its own
coalition and overthrew the Iraqi government. The fight continues today.
o Despite its primacy, the United States does not feel it is secure from attack.
The issue of whether U.S. power will be balanced by an emerging power is
also far from resolved.
Whether the world develops into a multipolar, unipolar, or bipolar system depends in
part on by looking to the trends of the past and how they influence contemporary
thinking. Or is the entire concept of polarity an anachronism?
CHAPTER 3
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.
Realism is based on a view of the individual as primarily selfish and power seeking. Individuals are
organized in states, each of which acts in a unitary way in pursuit of its own national interest,
defined in terms of power.
Liberalism holds that human nature is basically good and that people can improve their
moral and material conditions, making societal progress possible. Bad or evil behavior is
the product of inadequate social institutions and misunderstandings among leaders.
o One origin of liberal theory is found in Enlightenment optimism:
1. French philosopher Montesquieu argued that it is not human
nature that is defective, but problems arise as man enters civil
society. War is a product of society. To overcome defects in
society, education is imperative.
2. According to Immanuel Kant, international anarchy can be
overcome through some kind of collective actiona federation of
states in which sovereignties would be left intact.
o Another origin, nineteenth-century liberalism, reformulated the
Enlightenment by adding a preference for democracy over aristocracy and for
free trade over national economic self-sufficiency:
1. This liberalism saw man as capable of satisfying his natural needs
and wants in rational ways.
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.
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.
CHAPTER 4
All realists characterize the international system as anarchic. No authority exists above the
state, which is sovereign. Each state must therefore look out for its own interests above
all.
Polarity: system polarity refers to the number of blocs of states that exert power in the
international system. There are three types of polarity:
1. Multipolarity: if there are a number of influential actors in the
international system, a balance-of-power or multipolar system is formed.
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.
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.
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).
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
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
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
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.
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).
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
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.
Radicals see contemporary international law as the product of a specific time and
historical process, emerging out of eighteenth-century economic liberalism and
nineteenth-century political liberalism.
o Law primarily comes out of Western capitalist states and is designed to serve
the interests of that constituency, and is biased against socialist states, the
weak, and the unrepresented.
o IGOs, especially the UN and UN agencies, were designed to support the
interests of the powerful. Those institutions have succeeded in sustaining the
powerful elite against the powerless mass of weaker states.
o The lack of representativeness and the lack of accountability of NGOs are key
issues. Most radicals see the world of NGOs based in the North as dominated
by members of the same elite. NGOs are captive to the dominant interests of
that system.
o Contemporary law and international organizations are not the agents of the
political and economic changes that radicals desire,
They place critical importance on institutions and norms. Both IGOs and NGOs can be
norm entrepreneurs that socialize and teach states new norms. These new norms may
influence state behavior.
Law plays a key role in constructivist thinking because it reflects changing norms. Norms
are internalized by states themselves, they change state preferences, and shape behavior.
Realists remain skeptical; all are reflections of state power and have no independent
identity or role.
Radicals view them skeptically as well. They see them as mere reflections of political and
economic hegemony.
Liberals believe that international law and organizations do not replace states as the
primary actors, but they do provide alternative venues for states themselves to engage in
collective action and for individuals to join with other like-minded individuals in pursuit
of their goals.
CHAPTER 8
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.
The Individual
Both the characteristics of individual leaders and the general attributes of people have been blamed
for war.
Liberal explanations: Some types of economic systems are more war-prone than others,
such as aristocratic states. Democratic regimes are least likely to wage war because
democratic norms and culture inhibit the leadership from taking actions leading to war.
Radical explanations: Conflict and war are attributed to the internal dynamics of capitalist
economic systems: the competition between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat over
economic dominance and political leadership. This struggle leads to war. One
manifestation of this is diversionary war: war designed to hold off a domestic political
crisis by temporarily unifying the populace.
o Conflict over what institutions should govern a state can also lead to civil
wars as groups attempt to impose their preferred system.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Economic globalization resulting from the triumph of economic liberalism has been
confronted with several challenges.
o Individuals who feel that economic decisions were beyond their control have
resulted in antiglobalization movements at WTO, World Bank, and IMF
meetings around the world, as well as the guerilla movements in Mexico
opposed to NAFTA.
o The Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s highlighted the problem of too
much capital flowing out of the region. Many countries were unable to adjust
to this rapid withdrawal, and thus exchange rates plummeted, individuals
lost their jobs as companies went bankrupt, and stock markets fell.
o Antiglobalizers have also been stimulated by other repercussions resulting
from the openness of economic markets. Two trends have become vexing:
1. The movement of labor: The EU adopted the goal, but it has not
occurred. This has resulted in a flood of illegal aliens seeking
better paying jobs in EU countries. This has led to a new market
in illicit labor, trafficking in people, including women and
children.
2. The rise of illicit markets: this can include the illegal movement
of arms, money, drugs, human organs, endangered species, and
protected intellectual property.
The Global Economic Crisis
o International crises have been a recurrent feature of the global economic
system.
1. Liberal theory argues that the economy will regain its equilibrium
and that booms and busts will not bring down the global system.
2. What began as a crisis in the United States rapidly became a
global economic crisis.
o Initial responses to the crisis were mostly unilateral.
o International institutions provided loans and credit to developed states.
o The crisis has led to calls for reform of the system, including reform of the
intergovernmental regulatory arrangements.
o The G20 has emerged as a major player in the crisis, but the G20 may prove
too large for macroeconomic coordination.
o The crisis has also weakened the power of MNCs in the international system.
o What remains to be seen is how the crisis will affect economic globalization.
CHAPTER 10
Transnational Issues
Chapter Summary
I. INTRODUCTION
The standardized shipping container is an example of how simple changes can have
complex consequences
In the twenty-first century, more different kinds of actors than ever participate in
international politics
The growing importance of non-state actors signifies a significant power shift.
These new actors address a great variety of issues. Two of the core issues, security and
international political economy, have evolved in new ways:
o State security is increasingly conceptualized as human security.
o Economic decisions made by multinational corporations (MNCs) affect
national balances of payments and ability of workers to make a living wage.
o Global communications and the technology revolution undermines the
primacy of territorial states.
Public health and disease are old issues that have never respected national boundaries.
Eradication of diseases has always been a global challenge.
The international community was caught unawares by the new realities spawned by
globalization. Ebola, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Avian bird flu, and
HIV/AIDS outbreaks have been acerbated by increased global mobility.
HIV/AIDS as a Transnational Issue
o AIDS has rapidly become a major health and humanitarian problem with
over 3.1 million deaths annually and between 33 and 46 million people living
with the disease:
1. AIDS is an economic issue, disproportionately affecting those in
their primary productive years, between 15 and 45.
2. AIDS is a social issue, as families are torn apart and children are
orphaned. These children are often forced to turn to prostitution
or join the military in order to survive.
3. AIDS is a human rights and ethical issue as well as a security
issue. In 2000 the UN Security Council identified AIDS as a
threat to global security, the first time that health has been so
recognized.
o Many different actors have responded to the AIDS problem, but individual
states are key:
1. Uganda, Botswana, and Brazil took initiatives very early on, and
each has seen rates of infection decline.
2. South Africa, China, and India have been slow to acknowledging
the problem.
o IGOs took the leadership role at the early stages:
1. The World Health Organization (WHO) took steps to help states
create national AIDS programs beginning in 1986.
2. In 1996, the Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) was
created, which coordinates cooperative projects among numerous
UN agencies.
3. The United Nations initiated the practice of convening global
AIDS conferences every two years to raise awareness and
mobilize responses.
Many NGOs have been actively involved. Some work at the grassroots level while others
train health-care workers in AIDS care.
With the development of antiretrovirals to extend the life of people living with AIDS, the
multinational pharmaceutical companies have become a major actor, albeit a
controversial one:
o Indian drug companies began manufacturing generics reducing the cost of
treatment, which a controversial practice.
o Brazil took its case to UN human rights bodies, arguing that patients have a
human right to treatment.
Transnational communities of experts, or epistemic communities, are composed of
experts from IGOs, NGOs, and states and substate agencies.
Beyond AIDS
o Health issues also involve regulations to insure quality and control unhealthy
behaviors.
o Health is also recognized as a development issue.
A Theoretical Tale
o Health is an example of a quintessential functionalist issue, as health was one
of the first areas of international cooperation.
Where liberals, realists, and radicals may disagree is on the correct approach to addressing
health issues.
1. Liberals are more apt to focus on international responsibility for dealing with
health issues.
2. Realists are more apt to stress individual state responsibility and to
acknowledge the importance of health when state security is threatened.
3. Radicals see health as an issue that illustrates the economic differential
between the wealthy developed world and the poor developing world.
Conceptual Perspectives
o The notion of collective goods: Collective goods help conceptualize how to
achieve shared benefits that depend on overcoming conflicting interests.
o Sustainability: Employing the criterion of sustainability forces individuals
to think about policies to promote change that neither damage the
environment nor use up finite resources so that future generations will
benefit.
o Over time, principles and norms have evolved in customary international
law:
1. No-significant harm principle: states cannot initiate policies that
cause significant environmental damages to another state.
2. Good-neighbor principle: cooperation between states.
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.
V. TRANSNATIONAL CRIME
Transnational issues have shifted from tertiary and moral issues to primary and vital
issues since the end of World War II.
Transnational issues have effects on four major areas of international relations theory and
practice.
o The interconnectedness of the plethora of subissues within health,
environmental, and human rights issues affect international bargaining.
o These globalizing themselves may be the source of conflict. Issues of resource
depletion and degradation, usually attenuated by population increase and
pressure on resources, are apt to result in conflicts when some groups try to
capture use of the scarce resource.
o The norm of noninterference in the domestic affairs of other states was
embedded in the UN Charter. Yet the rise of nonstate actors and the forces of
globalization undermine Westphalian notions of state sovereignty.
o Transnationsl issues pose critical problems for international relations
scholars and for the theoretical frameworks introduced in the text.
1. For realists, the very core propositions are made problematic by
globalizing issues. Realists have adopted a more nuanced
argumentthey contend that state primacy is not in jeopardy.
2. For liberals, the globalizing issues can be more easily integrated
into their theoretical picture.
3. Radicals have never been comfortable with the primacy of the
state and the international system that the dominant coalition of
states created
4. Constructivists have alerted others to the nuances of the changing
discourse embedded in discussion of health, the environment,
and human rights.
The processes of interaction among the various actors in international politics are now
more frequent and intense, ranging from conventional ad hoc cooperation and formal
organization collaboration to NGO and network collaboration.
o These changes have led some to think of there being pieces of global
governance. Global governance implies that through various structures and
processes, actors can coordinate interests and needs although there is no
unifying political authority.
o Skeptics of global governance do not believe that anything approaching it is
possible or desirable.
A citizenry able to articulate these arguments is a citizenry better able to explain the whys
and hows of events that affect our lives. A citizen who can understand these events is
better able to make informed policy choices.
In the globalizing era of the twenty-first century, as economic, political, social, and
environmental forces both above and within the state assume greater saliency, the role of
individuals becomes all the more demanding.