Introduction to International Relations

1. Introduction to International Relations

2. IR as a Field of Study • Practical discipline • Theoretical debates are fundamental • IR is about international politics, but the field is interdisciplinary: economics, history, sociology, anthropology, geography etc. • Usually taught within discipline of political science • Domestic politics of foreign countries, although overlapping with IR, generally make up the separate field of comparative politics. • Issue areas: political, economic, environmental, social • Conflict and Cooperation • Subfields • International security • International political economy

3. The Study of International Relations • International relations pertains to the study of state and non-state actors and their relationship to each other in the international system. Narrowly defined: The field of IR concerns the relationships among states (or governments). • International system: • A patterned set of interactions among the major political actors on the international stage.

4. IR and Daily Life • IR profoundly affects your life as well as that of other citizens. • Prospects for getting jobs • Global economy • International economic competition • Jobs entail international travel, sales, or communication. • Rules of the world-trading system affect what you may consume. • War is among the most pervasive international influences in daily life, even in peacetime. • World is shrinking year by year.

5. Actors and Influences • Principal actors in IR are states • Other major actors: 1. nations 2. individuals3. transnational/transsovereign actors 4. Nongovernmental organizations 5. Intergovernmental Organizations 6. Substate actors

6. State As Actor • State: A territorial entity controlled by a government and inhabited by a population. • Theoretical assumptions: • Legal/political entity • Government exercises sovereignty over a population within a well-defined territory Sovereignty: the principle that no authority is above the state

7. State As Actor Characteristics of a State: • Territory • Population • Government • Diplomatic recognition

8. Internal and External Sovereignty • Internal Sovereignty: a government effectively wields jurisdication of its territory, people, resources then internal sovereignty is synonymous with political independence. • External Sovereignty: legal equality of states

9. Nation • Nation: an affective, psychological identity • Group of people who consider themselves to be linked to one another • ethnically • culturally • linguistically • historically

10. Nation-State • a state whose inhabitants consider themselves to be a nation • It is a geographically bounded legal entity under a single • government, the population of which psychologically considers • itself to be in some way, shape, or form related

11. Nationalism • the belief that the nation is the ultimate basis of political loyalty and that nations should be self-governed • Force that led to the expansion of the state system around the world

12. Transnational/Transsovereign Actors • Actors that pursue interests and goals across state borders f.ex. MNCs, terrorists, various political movements, etc.

13. Nongovernmental Organizations • NGOs are international organizations whose members are private individuals and groups • f.ex. Human Rights Watch Amnesty International Greenpeace etc.

14. Intergovernmental Organizations • IGOs are international organizations whose members are states. • Intergovernmental Organizations vary widely in the purposes and breadth of membership • Today more than 300+ formal IGOs with a permanent institutional structure • f.ex. UN, OPEC, NATO, EU, WHO, IMF, OECD

15. Major Reasons for Growth of IGOs • Increased interdependence • Expansion of transnational problems • Failure of current state-centered system to provide security • Effort of small states to gain strength through joint action • Increased international contact

16. The International System • International system • Set of relationships among the world’s states, structured according to certain rules and patterns of interaction. • Modern international system has existed for less than 500 years. • Origin in Treaty of Westphalia 1648 • Nation-states • Major source of conflict: Frequent mismatch between perceived nations and actual borders. • Populations vary dramatically. • Great variation in terms of the size of states’ total annual economic activity • Gross Domestic Product (GDP) • Great powers • Most powerful of these states are called superpowers

17. Figure 1.2

18. Figure 1.1

19. OPPORTUNITIES FOR COOPERATION • Information Revolution: Growing accumulation of human knowledge; and the accessibility of new knowledge through rapidly spreading technologies • Increasing Global Productivity: efficiency of economic output is enhanced through the introduction, spread, and improvement of computer-based technologies, spread of MNCs (economic enterprises with operations in two or more countries), and the mobility of global capital • Rapid Rise of Newly Emerging Global Economies: China, India, Brazil; augers the potential for reduction in global poverty • Development of Renewable Energy Sources: new research and technology investment in energy sources of sun, wind, and biomass etc. • Global Spread of Democracy: unprecedented adoption of democratic ideas and institutions around the world

20. OPPORTUNITIES FOR COOPERATION • Continued Growth of Authoritative Global and Regional Institutions: WTO, WHO, EU, OPEC—these coordinate national policies with regional and even global norms and practices • Proliferation and Networking of NGOs: Growth of global civil society through people organizing across borders to address global threats, humanitarian crisis and aid, technical information, cultural, political, and social cooperation. • Growth of international regimes: formal and informal coordination and collaboration in certain issue areas to maximize global security and prosperity • Decline of interstate Warfare • Rapid Proliferation of International Law protecting the individual: codification of human rights, spreading norms or racial and gender equality

21. POSSIBILITIES FOR CONFLICT • Global Environmental Degradation: these global threats include • global warming, the thinning of the protective ozone layer of the atmosphere accompanied by rising rates of skin cancer; • destruction of the world’s rain forests (global lungs) and denuding of other forested areas; • rapid urbanization owing to peasant flight to megacities in countries like China and India with accompanying pollution and urban poverty; • Spread of deserts into formerly fertile regions of Asia, Africa, and Latin America; • The elimination of species of plants and animals and reduction in biodiversity; • Accumulation of radioactive debris and nuclear waste

22. POSSIBILITIES FOR CONFLICT • Overpopulation: in developing world may contribute to famine, spread of disease (AIDS), land hunger, political unrest, and large-scale migration to rich states with aging and shrinking population • Resource Depletion: energy demands outstrip known reserves of petroleum and natural gas as growing populations and economic development places ever greater stress on finite sources of fresh water and fertile land • Proliferation of Religious and Ethnic Extremism: identity construction in the age of globalization prompts fragmentation, the questioning of authoritative governmental and social structures from below; target often innocent civilians • Global Proliferation of WMD: spread of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons to countries divided by profound political differences, f.ex. Pakistan and India

23. POSSIBILITIES FOR CONFLICT • WMD may spread into rogue states (Iran, North Korea) and non-state actors, such as global terrorist networks • Collapse of states: spread of socio-political disorder in selected regions • Global spread of disease: rapid spread of pathogens that threaten humans, livestock, and plant life and the threat of new pandemics such as the avian influenza • Growing North-South wealth discrepancies: rising disparities in wealth between winners and losers in the course of globalization • Threats to the LIEO: established by the West after WWII, responsible for much of western wealth and prosperity, by increasing trade demands from poorer countries • Historical resistance by the U.S. to work effectively with international and multilateral organizations: global threats cannot be managed unilaterally

24. Core Principles • IR revolves around one key problem: • How can a group – such as two or more states – serve its collective interests when doing so requires its members to forego their national interests? • Example: Problem of global warning. Solving it can only be achieved by many countries acting together. • Collective goods problem • The problem of how to provide something that benefits all members of a group regardless of what each member contributes to it

25. Core Principles • In general, collective goods are easier to provide in small groups than large ones. • Small group: defection (free riding) is harder to conceal and has a greater impact on the overall collective good, and is easier to punish. • Collective goods problem occurs in all groups and societies but within a state, gov’ts provide public or collective goods. • Particularly acute in international affairs • No central authority such as a world government to enforce on individual nations the necessary measures to provide for the common good

26. Core Principles • Three basic principles offer possible solutions for this core problem of getting individuals to cooperate for the common good without a central authority to make them do so. • Dominance • Reciprocity • Identity

27. Table 1.1

28. Dominance • Solves the collective goods problem by establishing a power hierarchy in which those at the top control those below • Status hierarchy • Symbolic acts of submission and dominance reinforce the hierarchy. • Hegemon • The advantage of the dominance solution • Forces members of a group to contribute to the common good • Minimizes open conflict within the group • Disadvantage of the dominance solution • Stability comes at a cost of constant oppression of, and resentment by, the lower-ranking members of the status hierarchy. • Conflicts over position can sometimes harm the group’s stability and well-being.

29. Reciprocity • Solves the collective goods problem by rewarding behavior that contributes to the group and punishing behavior that pursues self-interest at the cost of the group • Easy to understand and can be “enforced” without any central authority • Positive and negative reciprocity • Disadvantage: It can lead to a downward spiral as each side punishes what it believes to be the negative acts of the other. • Generally people overestimate their own good intentions and underestimate those of opponents or rivals.

30. Identity • Identity principle does not rely on self-interest. • Members of an identity community care about the interests of others in the community enough to sacrifice their own interests to benefit others. • Family, extended family, kinship group roots, clan, nation, religious and ethnic groups • In IR, identity communities play important roles in overcoming difficult collective goods problems; while at times identity construction can intensify the collective goods problem • Nonstate actors also rely on identity politics.

31. Table 1.4