2.1 Features of the internation system (1).pptx

Foreign Policy of Emerging Powers: POL 336 2: Features of the International Political System Dr. Ornanong Husna B. What is a system? • a set of things working together as parts of a mechanism or an interconnecting network; a complex whole. • "the state railway system" • a set of principles or pr...

Foreign Policy of Emerging Powers: POL 336 2: Features of the International Political System Dr. Ornanong Husna B. What is a system? • a set of things working together as parts of a mechanism or an interconnecting network; a complex whole. • "the state railway system" • a set of principles or procedures according to which something is done; an organized scheme or method. • "the public school system“ Oxford Dictionary The structure of international system Features of the internation al system Global systems after WWII • Bipolar system • Unipolar system • Multi-polar system End of the Cold war in 1990s • The collapse of the USSS . What happened post USSR? The West had won, hasn’t it? The US was the sole superpower The post-Cold War Order Unipolarity • the unrivalled extent and many dimensions of US power • The Western-dominated institutions and multilateral organizations originally created in the wake of the Second World War-UN, GATT (WTO from 1995), the World Bank and the IMF • The dense network of alliances and close bilateral relationships across the Atlantic and Pacific The American Hegemony • Hegemony - the holding by one state of a preponderance of power in the international system so that it can single-handedly dominate the rules and arrangements by which international political and economic relations are conducted • Hegemonic stability theory: The existence of the hegemon explains the stability of the system. The expectation of the twenty-first century The liberal Greater West had triumphed and would be bound to increase its global reach-partly through: Soft power + hard power = smart power Joseph Nye • Its intensification of economic and social globalization • The power and attractiveness of Western ideas of democracy, human rights, and liberal capitalism, and • Deliberate US policies and the effective deployment of American power. • Since the end of the cold war, the US has been a revisionist power: Expectatio n of the 21th century • The opening of markets • The embedding of particular sets of what is saw as liberal values in the international institutions • Pressing for new norms on intervention / Attempt to recast norms on regime change and on the use of force – R2P • FP - Kant’s perpetual peace Post-911 911 (2001) The ambivalent role of the American hegemony War on terror • American and NATO war in Afghanistan • American invasion of Iraq • The financial crisis in 2008 • The Arab Spring • Intervention in Libya • Intervention in Syria The decline of the American power Pundits and policymakers have described the emerging world in a variety of ways: • “multipolar” The current international system • “polycentric” • “non-polar” • “neo-polar” • “post-American” • “G-zero” • “no one’s world” Which is the best description? • CONTEXT: “A world increasingly defined by disorder and a United States unable to shape the world in its image, things fall apart; the center cannot hold. The rules, policies, and institutions that have guided the world since World War II have largely run their course. “ A World In Disarray : American Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Old Order – Richard Haass* (2017) • Respect for sovereignty alone cannot uphold order in an age defined by global challenges from terrorism and the spread of nuclear weapons to climate change and cyberspace. • Meanwhile, great power rivalry is returning. The United States remains the world's strongest country, but American foreign policy has at times made matters worse, both by what the U.S. has done and by what it has failed to do. The Middle East is in chaos, Asia is threatened by China's rise and a reckless North Korea, and Europe, for decades the world's most stable region, is now anything but. • The election of Donald Trump and the unexpected vote for "Brexit" signals that many in modern democracies reject important aspects of globalization, including borders open to trade and immigrants. (Will and Can Biden make a policy reversion from the Trump era? ) • In A World in Disarray, Haass calls for an updated global operating system--call it World order 2.0 • 1. other powers have a say in agenda setting/ decision making, and • 2. the principle of sovereignty/ borders counts for less HOW? One critical element of this adjustment will be adopting a new approach to sovereignty, one that embraces its obligations and responsibilities as well as its rights and protections, increasing the role of IOs. • *President of the Council on Foreign Relations . • https://www. • .com/watch?v=1_Eh_QXuw3A • American Decline – Global Power in the 21st Century-LSE (6.4mins) Hegemony: the domination of one element of a system over others. Concepts Hegemonic status is based on the possession of structural over, particularly the control of economic and military resources, enabling the hegemon to shape the preferences and actions of other states, typically by promoting willing consent rather than through the use of force. The term implied that international or global leadership operates, in part, through ideational or ideological means. Hegemonic stability theory Power transition theory Unipolarity refers to an international system in which there is one preeminent state, or ‘pole’. There is only one single great, implying an absence of constraints or potential rivals. CONCEPTs Unipolar system has been defended on the grounds that the dominant actor is able to act as ‘world police officer’ setting disputes and preventing war (Pax Britannicus and Pax Americana) and guaranteeing economic and financial stability by setting and maintaining ground rules for economic behaviors. Critics argue that unipolarity promotes megalomania on the part of the dominant actor, as well as fear, resentment and hostility among other actors. Unilateralism: One-sidedness; a policy determined by the interests and objectives of a single state, unconstrained by other states and bodies. Multilateralism: A policy of acting in concert with other states or international organizations, or a system of coordinated relations amongst three or more actors. CONCEPTs Multipolarity: An international system in which there are three or more power centers. However, this may encompass arrangements raging from tripolar system (the USA, EU, Japan) to effectively non-polar system (Haass), in which power is so diffuse that no actor can any longer be portrayed as a ‘pole.’ Neorealists argue that multipolarity creates a bias in favor of fluidity and uncertainty, which can lead only to instability and increase likelihood of war (anarchical multipolarity). Liberals argue that multipolar system are characterized by a tendency towards multilateralism, as a more even division of global power promotes peace, cooperation, and integration (interdependent multipolarity) What system are we in? Questions Who are in the rising power club?