Sovereignty and International Relations PDF

**, Sovereignty and International Relations** **Power** - Power is the ability to influence or control the behaviour and decisions of people - Power accompanied by legitimacy is referred to as 'authority' - The concept of power is present in social relations as well - **IB's definit...

**, Sovereignty and International Relations** **Power** - Power is the ability to influence or control the behaviour and decisions of people - Power accompanied by legitimacy is referred to as 'authority' - The concept of power is present in social relations as well - **IB's definition of power:** - The ability to induce change through influence and control - An aspect of relations among people functioning within a social construct - Contested relations between (groups) of people dominate politics; increased especially due to globalisation; resulting in the need to consolidate power - **Types of power:** - **Hard Power**: the use of military force or economic influence to establish control - **Soft Power**: the use of a country's attractive aspects (such as language, education or culture) to influence another nation-state's population - The soft power theory was first coined by the political scientist Joseph Nye - **Balance of Power**: All states try to ensure survival by preventing a single state from consolidating excessive military or economic power, which in turn could be used to dominate other states - **Balance of Power is achieved through:** - Increasing the country's military or economic capabilities or - By forming economic or military alliances with other countries in the region **Realism** - A global political theory that suggests that all nations are motivated by national interests to consolidate power and influence - States are concerned about how much power they hold in comparison to other states - **Four types of Realism:** - Classical Realism - Structural Realism - Offensive Realism - Defensive Realism - **Classical Realism:** - The presumption is that the longing for power and influence is an innate human desire - Nation-states are led by individuals who share the desire to dominate the global political system - **Structural Realism:** - Nation-states pursue power because of the structure of the international system - **Anarchy:** - An ordering principle - There is no central authority that governs all the countries - As a result of the anarchic nature of the international system (no central authority governing all countries), nations pursue power to ensure their survival - **5 key assumptions of Structural Realism:** - All states operate in an anarchic system - All states possess the offensive capability to a certain extent - The intention of other states can never indeed be confirmed - Survival is the primary goal of every state - States are rational actors - **How states consolidate/ increase power:** - Military: increased military prowess in terms of development of modern weapons (e.g. development of nuclear weapons), spending on defence as well as a large military force - Latent power: the wealth that the country possesses as well as the size of the population - **Offensive Structural Realism (Theory by John Mearsheimer):** - States that it's rational for countries to pursue as much power as possible - States must pursue absolute power in the international system(hegemony) as much as possible - **Defensive Realism: (Theory by Kenneth Waltz)** - It is unwise for states to overtly maximise their power, considering the international system is likely to retaliate (balance of power) - The pursuit of absolute hegemony is irrational and cost-ineffective - **Anarchy: the absence of specific authority** - The theory of structural realism suggests that the international system is in a state of anarchy, meaning no higher authority governs all the states. - The opposite of anarchy is known as "hierarchy", the system where an authoritative figure/ authoritative figures are present (e.g. national governmental systems) - Every state has the ability and liberty to inflict harm upon another state in an anarchic global system; albeit at differing capacities. - **States ultimately want to discern whether other states in the system are:** - **Revisionist states**: willing to use force to alter the balance of power in the region/ world - **Status Quo States**: Satisfied with the current position and the state of affairs, with no desire to use force. - It is almost impossible to discern another state's intentions with a high degree of certainty - Unlike Military capabilities, intentions cannot be objectively verified as they are in the minds of the decision-makers - Survival is the primary goal of every state (Although states pursue ulterior goals such as national well-being, prosperity and the protection of human rights) - States are assumed to be capable of developing sensible strategies to maximise the prospects for survival. - They may miscalculate from time to time, considering they operate with imperfect information. - **Hegemony:** Control exerted by a single country upon other nations in the international system. - **Balance of Power**: a theory that states the inevitable retaliation by states against a hegemon to maintain a 'balance of power' (or influence) in the international system; avoids potential threats and conflicts. - **Offensive Structural Realism (John Mearsheimer)** - It makes sense for states to pursue as much power as possible - states should pursue hegemony where possible - Defensive Structural Realism (Kenneth Waltz): - It is unwise for slates to maximise their share of power as the global political system is likely to retaliate - The pursuit of hegemony is irrational - **Hegemony: Offensive Realism** - Offensive realists argue that states should always be looking for opportunities to gain power and should do so whenever it seems feasible, - States should maximise power, with their ultimate goal being their establishment as a hegemon because that is the way to guarantee their survival in the international system. - **Hegemony: Defensive Realism** - While defensive realists recognize that the international system creates strong incentives to gain additional increments of power, they maintain the stance that it is irrational, at a strategic level, to pursue hegemony. - States should not maximise power but instead strive for what Waltz labels " an appropriate amount of power". - Defensive realists emphasize that balancing will occur if any state becomes too powerful. - An offence-defence balance indicates how easy or difficult it is to conquer a territory or defeat a defender in battle. - The Offence-defence battle is almost always in the defender\'s favour - Any state pursuing conquest will likely lose a lot of resources. - Aims in Offensive position are limited as the state would strive to retain its position simultaneously - Even when conquest is feasible, it does not pay: the costs outweigh the benefits - Because of the existence of nationalism, it\'s difficult for the conqueror to subdue the conquered - The ideology of nationalism is all about self-determination, which means the occupied will ultimately rise against the occupier - **Realism summary** - it\'s more rational for states to pursue power - Offensive and defensive realists disagree on how much power is enough. - The global political system is characterised by power. - Dominated 20th-century thinking about global politics- most other theoretical perspectives are reactions to or criticisms of realism. **Liberalism** - Liberalism in Global Politics: (John Locke) - Apart from realism, liberalism is a more widely accepted alternative perspective on comprehending global politics - Other theoretical perspectives include idealism, neo - Marxism, constructivism and feminism. - International liberalism is different from domestic liberalism - In International relations, liberalism refers to the emphasis on interdependence between states - Realism stresses on continuity of international systems, liberalism stresses on change. - Key Principles: - Societies and states have become extremely Interdependent over the 20th century - therefore it is easier for states to relate with each other - Interdependence: - the idea that states and their fortunes are connected to each other - what happens in one state can have effects on another state - relations between two states can greatly affect the relations between other states - Complex interdependence: a kind of interdependence (aside from the tradiſional form) established after the second world war. - Components of complex interdependence - Multiple channels - Multiple issues - Decline in the use of effective military force - Realism sees states as the only significant actors, and therefore is confined to state-to-state relations - Liberalism does not deny the importance of State-to-state relation; but also proposes that states aren\'t the only important actors in global politics. - Non-state actors in global politics : - Transnational corporations - Non-governmental organisations - Intergovernmental organisations - Liberalism underlines all these non-state actors as important components across national borders. - Substate actors are also important: - Non- multinational businesses that purchase imported goods - Provincial government trade missions - Individuals who travel, or have relations beyond their country of origin. - Why focusing on only state-to-state relations is inadequate - States aren\'t the only actors to have interests that drive their action - Non-state actors may have their own goals and interests that may differ to those of the stales - Multiple areas of interest to global actors: - states are not only interested in military security - Other factors include economic, ideological, religiou, cultural and environmental issues - Purely domestic matters can have a grave impatt internationally as a result of interdependence, making it a foreign policy. - Complex interdependence means the military is not as effectively or as frequently used as it was in the past- many issues of concern - Trade relations and economy can also collapse If unwarranted military force is used. - Complete interdependence means stales are constrained in use of military power as it only harms the interests of multiple stars and other actors. - The three components of interdependente (complex) lead liberalists to expect much more cooperation in global politics. - Comparing Liberalism and Realism - Liberals do not deny the existence of conflict but argue cooperation is the norm - States trade peacefully, sign non-aggression pacts; share military responsibilities - some states have small/ no militaries - Some centuries old military rivalries have transformed into military /economic partnerships - States cooperate because it is in their interests to do so. - Justification for the liberal perspective: - States realise that hostile actions are likely to harm their states Interests as much as those of any potential rivals - the multiple channels that connect non state actors tend to constrain states - Even if leaders recognise security threats and want to use forces, they often receive criticism in the form of public opinion - In democracies where opposition is legal and citizens can hold their authority accountable, multiple channels are more likely to constrain leaders from engaging in conflict. - The effects on complex interdependence is more significant in a democratic world - (other) factors responsible for complex interdependence: - spread of democracy - Nuclear Deterrence - Wealth redistribution - Technological development (increased communication) **Types of Power** - Types of power (summary) - Hard power power - Soft power - Multilateralism - Unilateralism - A country\'s soft power is its ability to form alliances and influence parties, not through military force. - Soft Power uses attractive aspects to establish influence such as culture, languages, education and values - The theory of soft power heavily relies on the concept coined by Joseph Nye in the year 1980, which outlines the same aforementioned values. - Multilateralism: the idea of multiple countries collaborating with each other working towards resolving a global issue. - Unilateralism: one country working in solitude on a particular issue - The unilateralism /multilateralism debate: **Unilateralism** **Multilateralism** ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Is only a concern to weaker nationsCreates a sense of independence from diplomatic obligationsCan lead to collective disapproval and (multilateral) even action against state Guarantees collective supportClarifies the nation's perception on the issueIncreases the benefits of alliance\*\*\*\*Although it leads to compromises - Note: Soft power is fragile - it can be destroyed and is often embedded in society which is beyond the government\'s control. · - Military power: - Military strength is essential while applying hard power - Military resources such as land, air or sea. are the ultimate means of force for another group or state to comply or to change their behaviour. - The military force of states tends to determine the overall power they possess (number of soldiers, weapons, nuclear power, GDP spending etc) - There are a multitude of factors, however, that go into determining which states are actually Militarily powerful - Poor yet unstable states (such as Iraq, Afghanistan, South Sudan) tend to spend a larger portion of their GDP on defense. They primarily use this force however to diffuse conflicts that occur internally - States with larger populations (such as China, US, India) - Wealthy countries and those keen on playing a major role în international security spend the most on defense, with the p5 nations of the UNSC (US, UK, China, Russia and France) having the largest defense budget - Military power, however, does not merely depend on the amount of resources, but also the fact that how well the resources are put to use and weather the objective of the military is being achieved as an end result - Example: Failed "War on Terror" campaign (US :2001) - Military power is often measured by the size of a state\'s military or its military spending. - It is also useful to assess how effective a state?s military is in the conflicts it engages in - Just as military power is measuredó economic power too can be measured through multiple parameters: - Gross Domestic Product (GDP): measures merely the size of the domestic output, for example in billions of dollars. - GDP per capita. Measures the size of an economy as a proportion of the total population - Economic growth : measures the annual or quarterly percentage by which a state\'s economy has grown or declined. - A lot of nation\'s choose to rely solely on economic power (example: Germany / Japan) - However it is unlikely that if a country is not a major economic power; they will have a strong military considering the fact that a larger portion of that country\'s GDP would be spent on perfecting the military. - States tend to also usé economic power as hard power ( sanctions, for instance) - States also build an economic relationship among each other (mainly through trade) that helps aid any strengths or weaknesses the country might require - Economic power can be measured in different ways. It can be used as a method of hard power- in the form of sanctions - and is needed \'If states wish to be strong military powers. - Structural Power: - Structural powers is when states influence the political ideas, structure and framework of \'global politics - Example: Capitalism vs communism (ideological warfare): - 2011: Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq; use of  Military power by US - Arab Spring (2011): Mass public demonstrations - Ideological: relating to political principles and structures for ordering government and society - Structural power is the means by which states affect global politics, usually by promoting a model of politics that they favour , such as democracy or capitalism. - Relational power: this is when a state has a relationship with another state and uses this relationship to influence the other state to change its behavior. A state may use military, economic, hard, soft, smart power, or a combination of these to achieve its aims and goal - In order to be successful, the state must know the other state\'s strengths\' and weaknesses and know both what would be a convincing threat and what would be an attractive reward. - Joseph Nye's 3 types of relational powers: - Threats and rewards that are likely to encourage the state to a desired goal. - Controlling the agenda: \'limiting the choices of the other state to reach a desired goou. - Establishing preferences: getting the other state to want the same goal as your state - One state can use its (relational) influence to change the behavior of another state using hard, soft and smart power. - Social and Cultural power: - Globalization has a huge impact on this - Gives advantage to brands from country of Origin (soft power) - Eg: Simpsons, facebook, BBC etc. - Cyber powers - eg. Wikileaks (2016) - Governments of nations west heavily in cyberspace - A lot of countries also use cyber attacks against countries - The Internet has empowered new groups at both state and individual level. - key infrastructures such as banking, water, transport and tele depend on cyber security. - The relatively new social, cultural and cyber powers have varying effectiveness. Cultural power may do little for nations whereas cyber power has empowered many groups, states and individuals. - Measuring Power - measuring power as resources : this is done by calculating the size of the amies, economies and populations - Although the most obvious forms of measuring power, it is argued, that these cannot be considered accurate as states may not use these resources effectively. - Furthermore, it is possible that states may misuse or use these powers ineffectively against their opponents. - Measuring power as behavioural outcomesë measuring the practical effect that states have when they use their power resources - This usually involves judgement regarding objectives such as air strikes or sanctions being levied effectively - Distribution of power; understanding whether the word system is unipolar,  bipolar or multipolar. - Unipolar: when one state is more powerful than all - Multipolar: when power is distributed amongst all states - Bipolar: is when power is available majorly only between 2 (perhaps rival states) **Sovereignty** - **Sovereignty**: A state with sovereignty has complete control over its government and external sovereignty when it allows other states control over what happens within their borders. - **Factors:** - permanent population - defined territory and borders - effective government - the capacity and legitimacy to enter into relations with other states. - The Montevideo Convention is used to determine whether a nation is a sovereign state. However, there are many challenges to this method because some non-state actors conform to features of statehood. - It is possible to gain statehood (independently), usually by holding a referendum and to be recognised by the UN. However, there are many States and contested borders around the world - Realists argue that despite globalisation eroding state sovereignty, states are still the most potent factors in international politics. However, liberals believe that the rise of IGOs is becoming as necessary, and sometimes even more than the role of states in the global order. - Liberals believe that state sovereignty is not exclusive and, therefore, believe in the necessity of intervention in states abusing their powers, whereas realists would argue the opposite. - States can be organised in several different ways, ranging from democracy to autocracy and with a variety of structures such as federal (unitary) **The Emergence of the Nation State System** - Actors in global politics: - the most fundamental actors are individual people - the behaviour of individuals affects how trends in the world are changed - But individuals exert even more influence through organisations - Social Contract Theory: people tend to join groups and establish governments naturally. Trade a portion of their freedom for law and order in order to ensure collective security and relative peace. - Nation States are the pre-eminent political organisations on the world stage today. - Modern nation state system was born with the peace of Westphalia (1648) - Thirty years War: complex multidimensional conflict originating from cultural, political and economic currents sweeping Europe following a protestant reformation. - No overarching institution had the authority to regulate state control. - Anarchy became core organizing principle of Westphalia rather than hierarchy - State: an organised political entity with a permanent population, a well defined territory and a government - Nation: group of people who feel common identity due to a shared language, culture and history. - Nation - State: a specific geographic area containing a sovereign polity, whose population identities with polity. **State Legiłemacy** - John Locke (Theory) - blank slate - unalienable rights - Separation of powers in government - Legislation - Execution - Social Contact Theory (Reiteration): agreement between people in society to accept punishments and abide by law. - Thomas Hobbes: - Humans are inherently hostile - Laws are here to protect us from each other - Worst state of humanity - John Locke: - Humans are inherently good - Laws are here to protect our inalienable rights - best state of humanity - Sacrifice liberty to gain protection - Popular Sovereignty: government is geared by the people, power comes from the people, and. therefore people need to have a say in governance - Authoritarian government - ruled by a single person or a group of people - people in the country have very few rights and freedoms - obedience to central authority is insisted upon - these governments have strong Military force - Democracy: A system of government by which the population elects a leader to represent them - government elected by the people for the people. - The people of a democracy have rights and freedom that they must be given by law - A form of government in which all eligible citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. - Types of states: - Fragile: the presence of a less than competent government, unable to protect its people or citizens from a range of conflicts. Eg. Yemen - Failed: a government that has disintegrated to a point where the basic functions of a state authority are not being performed; as a result losing its legitimacy. Eg. Syria **Intergovernmental Organisations** - Intergovernmental Organisations: "responsible for maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations, achieving international cooperation, and being a centre for harmonizing actions of nations" (UN) - Headquarters of the UN in New York, Nairobi, Vienna, Geneva and Den Haag - Led by Secretary General Antonio Guterres - 6 principal organs: - UN General Assembly - UN Secretariat - International Court of Justice (ICJ) - UN Security Council (UNSC) - UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) - UN Trusteeship Council - A Non-Governmental Organisation - NGOs tend to be non-profit, voluntary, citizens' groups which are organised on a local, national or international level. - task-oriented/driven by people that share a common interest, NGOs perform a variety of service and humanitarian functions - Increase accountability of the governments - advocate and monitor policies while also increasing political participation - Major actors in international politics - Types of NGOs: - Operational: Mobilize financial resources, materials, volunteers to bring about a difference at a local, national or international level. Funds are obtained through donations or crowdfunding campaigns. Eg.  Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) - Advocacy: Campaign and activism based NGOs and operate to expand political and social awareness in society, and help increase the state authority's accountability within state (or outside) borders. Eg. Amnesty International **Political parties** - Social Movements: a loosely organised initiative by a group of people to attain conclusive results for a particular cause, typically socio-political in nature. Eg. Black Lives Matter Movement - Violent protest: an organised initiative portraying collective disapproval towards a socio- political reform (protest); which oftentimes devolves into the use of violent force and aggression by state and non state actors. Eg. Yellow Vest Protests - Political parties: - They are a key element in almost every country in the world. - There are one party systems (China), 2 party systems (US) and multi-party systems (India) - Political parties by nature function at a national level, therefore - They differ in their composition, structure and aims - Joseph Howe , Washington: "political parties should not exist as they create a divide and impedition of free thought" - Similar ideas across political parties: - they agree on some policies and programs for the society with a view to promote the collective good - since there can be different views on what is good for alle parties try to persuade people as to why their policies, are better than others - they seek to implement these policies by winning popular support through elections - Parties reflect fundamental political divisions in society - Parties are a part of society and thus Involve partisanship - Thus, a party is known by which part it stands for, which policies it supports and whose interests it upholds **Interstate Relations** - Informal forum: provides an opportunity for world leaders to meet and discuss matters of global importance (Eg. G8) - Global Governance: - Global Governance is a movement towards political integration of transnational actors aimed at negotiating responses to problems that affect more than one state or nation. - Tends to involve institutionalisation (Eg.UN, ICC, WB, EU etc) - Limited enforce compliance - "Global governance" also used to describe designating laws , rules or regulations at a global scale - Treaties: an informal agreement between 2 more countries for military, economic or diplomatic reasons. - Collective Security: the idea that countries are more able to project hard power as a part of an alliance than they would Individually. - Economic Trade Corporations: - One of the common methods of cooperation - in the form of economic treaties, negotiations over tariffs, barriers to trade or membership of regional trade organisations ( Eg. Eurasian Economic Union) - Intrastate war: Sustained political violence that takes place between armed groups representing the state, and a non- state groups. - Violence of this sort is usually contained within the borders of a single state, but comes with the risk of spilling over. - Interstate war: Interstate violence is a conflict between two or more states (both members of the international system) who use their forces in the conflict - Key Questions: - Causes of the conflict - Similarities - Differences - Effect on the global political system - Level of Analysis - Terrorism- there is no agreed definition; terrorism can be defined in many different ways - Criteria for determining terrorism: - methods /results of achieving an objective - Perpetrator - Target (military/ civilian?) - Motive - Legitimacy of the cause