Class 1 Introduction PDF

Class 1. Introduction: overview and definition of I/international R/relations Leading figures: - Jeremy Bentham (1748 – 1832) - G. Lowes Dickinson (1862-1932) - David Held - Robert Keohane - Joseph Nye Concepts: - Nation state - Internation...

Class 1. Introduction: overview and definition of I/international R/relations Leading figures: - Jeremy Bentham (1748 – 1832) - G. Lowes Dickinson (1862-1932) - David Held - Robert Keohane - Joseph Nye Concepts: - Nation state - International relations - International Relations - Sovereignty (internal and external) - Globalisation - Westphalian paradigm - Anarchy - Interdependence Dates: - The Thirty Years’ War (1618 - 1648) that ends with the Westphalian treaty - 1919. First professorship/Chair in International Relations established at the University of Aberystwyth (Wales). Class 1. Introduction: overview and definition of I/international R/relations I. The phenomenon of international relations a. The emergence of the State and the classical definition of inter-national relations b. The phenomenon of globalisation II. The academic discipline of International Relations a. Anarchy as a common criteria for definition b. History and developments of the discipline I. a. Competition between the different lords/kings in the medieval age lead to the emergence of political centres that concentrated an increasing number of resources and imposed their authority upon other entities. Each political centre was constructed through the implementation of two different monopolies: fiscal and military = led to institutionalization of the State, unification, political centralization and territorial boundaries. The emergence of the State, a monarchist State initially, was made official after the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), which ended up with the signature of the Westphalian treaties. It represented the end of medieval age and the decline of the Habsburg Empire. 1  The Westphalian treaties also established the State as a privileged form of government: this is what the “Westphalian paradigm” is all about. The political system became organized around States. 5 criteria are used to define the State: (one territory, one population, one system of government, one legal personality, Sovereignty). Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) coined the expression “international” in his Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation in 1789. In this book, he distinguished internal law from “international law”, which implies that the jurisdictions of several countries are concerned. b. David Held is an analyst of international relations, Professor and researcher at Durham University (UK). He has written extensively about the phenomenon of globalisation in the end of the 1990s/beginning of the 2000s. He developed a comprehensive definition of the notion. Globalisation implies the stretching of all social relations, the intensification of world flows, interdependence (see below) and the emergence of transnational/supranational organizations. Robert Keohane (Princeton University) and Joseph Nye (Harvard University) have developed the notion of interdependence. Considering the new dimension of the phenomena of international relations, new expressions are proposed to picture recent trends. The current definition is much broader than the initial /classical definition by Bentham. II. a. The discipline of International Relations consists in the scientific study of international relations. It shares the characteristics of other academic disciplines. In particular, the defining criterion of the international relations’ field is “anarchy”. From the Greek “anarkhia”, it means the “absence of authority”. The international scene is developing itself in an anarchical context: there is no central authority above the States. This criterion has been proposed by Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson (1862-1932) (historian and political activist from the UK), who wrote The European Anarchy (1916) and The International Anarchy (1926). Anarchy is a useful criterion to distinguish the internal political realm from the external one. b. The discipline of International Relations developed itself by initially using the methods of other disciplines such as History, and in particular Diplomatic History; of Law; and of Philosophy (in particular, Political Philosophy). But internationalists were also sceptical about these other disciplines. They found that History was too descriptive, Law too deterministic and Philosophy too normative. Like for other disciplines, the International Relations one is full of subdivisions and controversies (with four great debates). Geographically, the discipline is also unequally distributed. 2  It was born in the UK, in 1919, when the first professorship was created and given to Alfred Zimmern, at the University of Aberystwyth. The discipline then developed very quickly in the United States, for social, financial and political reasons. It also spread across Europe with countries following different trends (Germany and UK follow the American tradition while the Scandinavian countries are specialized in peace studies and France advocates for a sociological approach to international relations). Now it is fully established with an annual convention hosted by the International Studies Association and a list of specialized journals. Glossary State The main actor in IR, sometimes referred to as ‘country’ or ‘nations-state’. The term is used in reference to both the populated territory of the state and the political body that governs that territory. The state is a territory-based sociopolitical organization entrusted with the responsibility of defending basic social conditions and values, including security, freedom, order, justice, and welfare. In popular view, the Peace of Westphalia (1648), following the Thirty Years War, marked the formal beginning of the modern sovereign state and modern international relations. International relations All relationships that go beyond the controlled space of individual States, whatever actors they concern and whatever content they have. Sovereignty (internal/external) Because of their role as protectors of security, states have a monopoly on the authority and power to engage in war. Though states differ in their level of success in defending the values, the state is understood to have legal jurisdiction (sovereignty) over its own affairs and population. Internal sovereignty indicates the supreme power that the State has over its own citizens within its borders and the supreme decision-making and enforcement authority in a specific territory towards a population. External sovereignty is about the principle of self-determination and no subordination: in international relations each state is in a position of independence vis a vis all other states, no subordination, independence from interference, freedom of self-governance. Globalization The spread and intensification of economic, social, and cultural relations across international borders. Interdependence Interdependence in world politics refers to situations characterized by reciprocal effects among countries or among actors in different countries. 3