The Contemporary Global System

• This module uses the 4A's method: Activity, Analysis, Abstraction, and Application.
• Answers should be put in one Word file, and named as: Surname, First name initial, and Chapter number (e.g., Fabillar, F. – Chapter 1).
• Use Arial, font size 12, spacing 1.0, margins 1", orientation Portrait, and size Long.

Learning Objectives

• Identify the attributes of the contemporary global system.
• Differentiate the concepts of state and nation.
• Distinguish the competing conceptions of internationalism.

Attributes of Today’s Global System

• There are countries/states that are independent and govern themselves.
• Countries interact with each other through diplomacy.
• International organizations, like the UN, facilitate these interactions.
• International organizations such as the UN and its agencies like WHO and ILO, take on lives of their own beyond facilitating meetings between states.

Defining Nation-State

• A nation-state is composed of two non-interchangeable terms.
• Not all states are nations, and not all nations are states.
• A state refers to a country and its government.
• A state exercises authority over a specific population, governs a specific territory, has a structure of government, and has sovereignty over its territory.
• Sovereignty refers to internal and external authority.
• Internally, the state has authority and no groups or individuals can ignore the state.
• Externally, state policies are independent of the interventions of other states.
• A nation is an "imagined community" that is limited and rights/responsibilities are for citizens of that nation.
• Nations limit themselves to people with a particular culture, language, and territory.
• Nations strive to become states where a national ideal assumes an organizational form and authority is recognized/accepted by the people.
• Communities which are not states often seek autonomy within their "mother states".
• There are single nations with multiple states, such as Korea which is divided into North and South Korea.
• There are also states with multiple nations like Scotland which belongs to the United Kingdom.
• Nation and state are closely related because nationalism facilitates state formation.

The Interstate System

• The origins of the present-day concept of sovereignty can be traced back to the Treaty of Westphalia (1648).
• The Treaty of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years' War between major powers in Europe.
• The Treaty design included recognizing that treaty signers exercise control over domestic affairs and swear not to meddle.
• The Westphalian system provided stability until Napoleon Bonaparte challenged it.
• Bonaparte aimed to spread the principles of the French Revolution (liberty, equality, fraternity).
• During the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815), the French implemented the Napoleonic Code, which forbade birth privileges, encouraged freedom of religion, and promoted meritocracy.
• Anglo and Prussian armies defeated Napoleon in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.
• Royal powers created the Concert of Europe to restore the Westphalian system and maintain monarchical, hereditary/religious privileges.
• The Metternich system (Concert of Europe) sought to restore state sovereignty and lasted from 1815 to 1914.

Internationalism

• The Westphalian and Concert systems divided the world into separate, sovereign entities.
• Internationalism, the desire for cooperation/unity among states and people, comes in different forms.

Liberal Internationalism

• Immanuel Kant argued that a form of world government is necessary to avoid chaos.
• Jeremy Bentham advocated for international law to govern interstate relations.
• Giuseppe Mazzini, an Italian patriot, reconciled nationalism with liberal internationalism.
• Mazzini proposed a custom of free nations to cooperate and create an international system, in which free, independent states would be the basis of an equally free, cooperative international system.
• Woodrow Wilson forwarded self-determination and advocated for the League of Nations.
• The League of Nations aimed for conciliation and arbitration to prevent war but the US Senate did not allow the US to join the League
• The League was unable to prevent World War II.
• The Axis Powers and their ultra-nationalism eclipsed internationalism during WWII
• The League gave birth to task-specific international organizations like the WHO and ILO.
• The League's principles would re-assert themselves in the creation of the United Nations in 1946.

Socialist Internationalism

• Karl Marx differed because he dit not believe in nationalism.
• Marx focused on economic equality and divided the world into classes.
• The capitalist class refers to owners of factories, companies, and other means of production.
• The proletariat class refers to those who work for the capitalists.
• Friedrich Engels believed that the proletariat has no nation and that the workers of the world should unite.
• Marx died in 1883, but The Socialist International (SI) was founded in 1889, and it initiated Labor Day and International Women's Day.
• The SI collapsed during World War I.
• Czar Nicholas II was overthrown during the Russian Revolution of 1917.
• Vladimir Lenin and the Bolshevik Party created the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).
• The Bolsheviks led revolutions across the world, using terror if necessary.
• Lenin established the Communist International (Comintern) in 1919 to direct Communist parties.
• Joseph Stalin dissolved the Comintern in 1943 to appease his allies.
• Stalin later re-established it as the Communist Information Bureau (Cominform).
• Communist internationalism practically disappeared, with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
• Liberal internationalism became ascendant, with the rise of the United Nations.