Chapter 1 Summary: Issues in World Politics

Chapter 1 Summary and Highlights Issues in World Politics PSPA 101 MWF from 4-4:50 Chapter one “Issues of world politics” It explains how politics could be the reason as to why wars and disputes occur, and mainly how there are long-term effects that the world deals with. Examples...

Chapter 1 Summary and Highlights Issues in World Politics PSPA 101 MWF from 4-4:50 Chapter one “Issues of world politics” It explains how politics could be the reason as to why wars and disputes occur, and mainly how there are long-term effects that the world deals with. Examples are given that demonstrate when a country is at stake, how the whole world would suffer the consequences simultaneously. The chaos was always an outcome of political conflicts; this is when the chapter sheds light on the inevitable change that countries undergo. Moreover, a question is raised showing continuity; whether or not these changes are of reoccurrence and how the government could interfere to deal with a social and political experience. Terrorism is mentioned many times as it is at the top the agenda leading to global conflicts of communication. The end of the Cold War and a new global agenda? Under the title “The end of the Cold War and a new global agenda”, it is demonstrated how the world, hundreds of years ago, is definitely different. Issues and problems Issues in World politics draw the attention of researchers interested in that field along with those directly involved with a certain issue concerning World politics. To understand an issue, statistics and facts are not the only resources needed. The issue must be placed into context – history, and the problem from where this issue arose should be analyzed.  Also, these issues represent one side of a more persistent problem that confronts with world politics, and here the form of ‘rich-poor’ and ‘South-North’ problems appear. ‘South-North’ problem is when a large number of states are forced to come together and to operate to their disadvantage in an economic system controlled by a smaller number of rich countries that benefit on their behalf. Basically developing countries suffer most from this issue that challenges the community internationally. Types of issues How can we perceive the concept of world politics? We can consider it as in the history such as grasping the idea as a “continuous stream of events”. However, we should capture the sense of world politics in a different way. According to the social scientists, it is imperative to categorize the issues in order to compare and contrast them properly and effectively. There is what we should be careful that it is tricky to compare the issues from the aspect of natural science and that of social science on the same basis of typologies. The reason is that while the natural science approach leads the consequence of the eternal reality, the social science approach concludes the actual reality and they can actually create the nature of social reality because the typologies employed by social scientists can be used in social reality. To make the important point, the classification can be very politically delicate because closer examination illustrates that how the identification can be connected very deeply to a political issue. For example, the issue of Yugoslavia shows that how classification leads the serious matters in terms of the problem of religion and race. The Cold War has been prominent issue in the 20th century. Moreover, the theme of Cold War is the perfect topic for classification, typology. In the first example, there is a clear distinction between domestic and international issues. Issues composed with closed establishments were identified as domestic, on the other hand, issues evoking between them were perceived as international.  On the basis of this distinction, international issues can be considered in the aspect of “high and low politics”. High politics engages issues that decide the nature of the environment in the territory where low politics can occur. To state the meaning between them, high politics means the state security and the management of the foreign environment. To make the issues of high politics matters easier, the officials have been engaging in the low politics matters to undertake their works. There are two crucial remarks regarding high politics and low politics. The first is that both politics are equally important and low politics cannot happen without the establishments of high politics. The second is that academic study of world politics should be focused on high politics at the expense of issues considered as low politics. However, as the issues cannot be identified as either domestic or international, we cannot state that issues can be divided into high politics or low politics. As a result, the distinction between high and low politics was actually a fake one. There is no clear distinction, or typology that can explain world politics at present. The significance of issues in world politics Like other issues in the world, issues in world politics differ in their significance. It is safe to say that this relates to the interests of groups and institutions involved. But what does the significance of an issue depend on? To say that the most significant issues are those that grab the attention of world leaders and media would be an artificial way of defining things that matter as news headlines can give a false impression of significance. Another way of defining what makes issues significant would be to address the priority given to political leaders or institutions that have the power of making a difference through decisions and actions. That leads us to question whom these issues are significant to, which is important in framing political action & interaction analysis.  The long-term implications of an issue is an important factor in determining its importance. There always must be an interpretation of how an issue contributes to change on an international level despite its short-term drama. This provides us with three questions to ask about any issue. First, what is its short-term impact & salience? Second, what is its importance to political leaders & institutions? Third, what are its longer-term implications? A good example would be the issue of global environmental change. At first, there have been ‘eruptions’ of the issue followed by speculations about its effects in the future. Many communities can give extended attention to a lot of issues & help bring awareness to their long-term significance & that’s how different issues enter the political arena. There are other more specific questions to help us understand an issue’s location in the world arena. Such questions are usually asked by political actors to frame their strategies and response to calls for action. These are the four questions used to identify and classify issues: What is the extent of an issue? Does it affect large parts of the globe, or can it be confined? This question is often asked about civil wars and other limited conflicts.  What is the urgency or intensity of a particular issue? This is a subjective question as it relates to ‘significant to whom?’. Every issue has different levels of urgency. What is the salience or visibility of a given issue? This question relates to the role of media and groups and how they can make it a fit subject for national or international action. What is the centrality or location of an issue? This is partly an objective issue of geography, implying that the closer an issue is to important political actors the greater the attention and significance it will acquire. Another dimension of centrality is the sensitivity of the issue because of its link to vital interests. Where these links are powerful, the constraints of geography are of little importance, and such links are enhanced by media and international communication. The Management of issues in world politics Usually when issues that occur on an international level are discovered, a knock-on effect occurs causing something to be done. Different actions are expressed by the nation itself or private groups (companies, pressure groups). However, in some cases those actions are not enough to solve a problem causing the 'world community' to take part. A specific management process is produced to solve the problem. Management cannot be separated from the issues that arise in politics. Yet, it is elusive in how the people acting to stop this issue overcome the pressure. Different groups with different points of views join together to solve the issue. This mechanism is difficult to apply since it is politically sensitive. However, with all those barriers, this issue should be solved or everyone will suffer from the consequences.  Different questions are asked about the issue. The first one is that why should it be managed? Sometimes it is best to leave the problem alone and let it solve itself. However, sometimes it should be handled and solved. Some groups might get affected negatively from the issue and others use this issue for their own benefit and can get negatively affected if they solve the issue. This can cause political tension and can cause more problems. The second question that we should ask is if an issue should be managed and if so then how? This question can also cause problems between different ideological thinking. Even if all the different groups come to a conclusion that the problem should be managed they still have another barrier that stands between them. This barrier is that each group might have different ideas and ways of management. The national groups might also interfere and might want to run things in their own way. This caused two dimensions to occur. First is the scale and participation (unilaterally, bilaterally, and multilaterally). In addition to that, this issue should be solved using the combination of actions at a different level. The second dimension is mechanism. Similar to the first dimensions, mechanism (second dimension) also has its complications. Most of the international institutions want to benefit in their own way thus, causing problems with the national institutions. A lot of complex negotiation is held between those different parties to find common grounds. Most of the times the European union have to deal with the issue on a global level and also have to worry about its own national issues. The final part of management that should be considered is the results and outcomes. This is connected to the question that was asked before 'why manage'? In the end of the day, there is going to be a winner and a loser. A winner would usually argue that it is for the 'common good'. On the other hand, the loser will just suffer from the consequences that arise with the change of management. Selection of issues and key questions Several questions are asked such as if the international community came up with new techniques after the cold war. In addition to that, if the new problem is just representing the older problems in a different manner or if all the issues are continues. Globalization impact and responses are believed to be related to the set of criteria mentioned.  The nature of issue that should be discussed The type of issue and how significant it is The general problem that the issue represents What is responsible for the location of the issue? How the cold war affected the way the issue is presented The mechanism that emerged to solve the issue in an international level The concern of the issue on world politics and the consequences or impact of globalization