9 International Relations and Communication Revolutions

1. AL AKHAWAYN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS STUDIES 9 International Relations and Communication Revolutions Dr. Mohammed Ibahrine

2. Structure of the Lecture • 1. Historical Context • 1.1 Evolution of International Society • 1.2 International History 1900 -1990 • 1.3 The End of Cold War

3. Structure of the Lecture • 2. Theories of International Relations • 2.1 Realism • 2.2 Idealism/liberalism • 2.3 World System Theory • 2.4 New Approaches to International Relations Theories

4. Structure of the Lecture • 3. Structures and Processes of International Relations • 3.1 International Security in the Post-Cold War Era • 3.2 International Political Economy • 3.3 International Regimes • 3.4 Diplomacy • 3.5 The United Nations and International Organizations

5. Structure of the Lecture • 4. International Issues • 4.1 Environment Issues • 4.2 Nuclear Proliferation • 4.3 Nationalism • 4.4 Cultural Conflict in International Relations: The West and Islam • 4.5 Global Trade and Finance • 4.6 Poverty and Development • 4.7 Human Rights • 4.8 Gender Issues

6. 1. Historical Context • 1.1 Evolution of International Society • The ancient Greeks constructed an international society which survived for several centuries in a surrounding political environment of various hegemony empires • But the first modern international society based on lage-scale territorial states came into existence a little later in north-western Europe

7. 1. Historical Context • 1.2 International History 1900 -1945 • These years were marked by massive upheaval • Within 45 years, the world experienced • Two Total Wars • A global economic slump • The ending of major empires, with Tsatist Russia being overthrown by a Bolshevik Revolution

8. 1. Historical Context • 1.3 International History 1900 -1945 • Fundamental changes in politics, technology, and ideology took place in this period, with enormous consequences for world affairs • The onset of the cold war • The creation of nuclear weapons • The end of European imperialism

9. 1. Historical Context • 1.3 The End of Cold War • Since 1945 world politics has been greatly influenced by the conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union, each which emerged as “superpowers” • The ideological, political, and military interests of these two states and their allies extended in Europe, Asia and elsewhere

10. 1. Historical Context • 1.3 The Cold War and Beyond • 1945-1953: Onset of the Cold War • 1953-1969: Conflict, Confrontation, and Comprise • 1969-1979: The Rise and Fall of Détente • 1979-1986: The Second Cold War • 1989-2001: The Collapse of Communism in the Soviet Union • 2001-Present: Post 11/9 world

11. 2. Theories of International Relations • Most of the modern history of international relations has reflected the history of international relations theory • The history of international relations theory has seen a dispute between Realism and its two main rivals, with the debate between Realism and Liberalism being the most long-standing and well-developed debate

12. 2.1 Realism: The Timeless Wisdom of Realism • The core elements of Realism are: • 1. The state is the key actor and Statism is the term given to the idea of the state as the legitimate representative of the collective will • 2. The first priority for state leaders is to ensure the survival of their state • 3. Self-help is the principal to action in an anarchical system where there is no global government • These “Three Ss” constitute the corners of the realist triangle

13. 2.2 Idealism/liberalism • Early liberals rejected the idea that conflict was a natural condition for relations between states • Immanuel Kant believed that the binding of states together into some kind of federation • Kant was the leading liberal internationalist of the enlightenment • Idealism was motivated by the desire to prevent war

14. 2.2 Idealism/liberalism • Liberal institutionalism • After the Second War, there was a recognition of the need to replace the league with another international institution with responsibility for international peace and security • Transnational co-cooperation was required in order to resolve common problems • Ramification means the likelihood that co-cooperation in one sector would lead governments to extend the range of collaboration across other sectors

15. 2.2 Idealism/liberalism • Interdependence: Due to the expansion of global culture, pluralists recognized a growing interconnectedness between states which brought with it a shared responsibility • Democratic peace thesis: argues that liberal states tend to be wealthy, and therefore have less to gain and more to lose by engaging in conflicts than poorer authoritarian states • Liberalism as the end of history: Francis Fukuyama

16. 2.4 New Approaches to International Relations Theories • International relations theories debate has witnessed recent developments • Realism and liberalism together compromised the inter-paradigm debate of the 1980s, with realism dominant amongst the theories • The dominance of realism has in recent years been undermined by two sets of developments: • Globalization/neo-liberal institutionalism • Post-positivist era

17. 2.4 New Approaches to International Relations Theories • Explanatory and constitutive theory • An explanatory theory is one that sees the world as something external to our theories of it • Constitutive theory is one that thinks our theories actually help construct the world

18. 2.4 New Approaches to International Relations Theories • The resulting map of international theory in the late 1990s is one that has three features: • The first feature: This can be termed the rationalist position and epitomized by the neo-neo debate

19. 2.4 New Approaches to International Relations Theories • The resulting map of international theory in the late 1990s is one that has three features: • The second feature: the emergence of non-positivist theories, which together can be termed the refectionist position, and epitomized by • Post-modernist • Critical theory • Historical sociology • Normative theory • Feminist theory

20. 2.4 New Approaches to International Relations Theories • The resulting map of international theory in the late 1990s is one that has three features: • The third feature: social constructivism that tries to speak to both rationalist and recflectist

21. International Theory in the Late 1990s

22. 3. Structures and Processes of International Relations • International Security in the Post-Cold War Era • For much of the cold war period, security was dominated by the idea of national security, which was largely defined in militarized terms • Collective security • Security regimes • Security community

23. 3. Structures and Processes of International Relations • 3.2 International Political Economy • International political economy (IPE) is one of the most important elements of the structure of international politics and a central issue area for a globalizing international relations • The key issue of IPE is the concentration of world economic activity in the countries of the Triad • North America • European Union • Japan/Asia

24. 3. Structures and Processes of International Relations • 3.3 International Regimes • Regimes are identified by R. Krasner (1983: 2) as “sets of implicit or explicit principles, norms, rules, and decision making procedures around which actors' expectations converge in a given area of international relations”

25. 3. Structures and Processes of International Relations • Regimes now help to regulate international relations in many spheres of activity: • 1. Security Regimes • 2. Environment Regimes • 3. Communication Regimes • 4. Economic Regimes

26. 3. Structures and Processes of International Relations • Regimes now help to regulate international relations in many spheres of activity: • Communication Regimes • In 1863 the major industrial states came together to establish a standardized system for postal communication and this was formalized with the establishment of the Universal Postal Union in 1874 • In 1865, the International Telegraph Union came into existence to regulate telegraph communication and this evolved into the International Telecommunications Union in 1932 to cope with the increasingly complex technological developments in communication

27. 3. Structures and Processes of International Relations • 3.4 Diplomacy • From the perspective of world politics as a whole, diplomacy refers to a process of communications that is central to the workings of the international system • Diplomacy plays a key role in the foreign policy behavior of states and other actors

28. Waves of Communication Revolution • The history of communication development is one of continuing technological progress • At the very end of the nineteen century Radios was developed as the first communication medium that could be sent broadly, could cross borders without permission • The subsequently invention of television 1927 expanded the range and scope of what could be broadly transmitted over the air without requiring laying cables

29. Waves of Communication Revolution • Telegraphy, radios, telephone transform the ability to communicate over immense spaces • Advances in radio and television telephone have led to another round of dramatic decease in the cost of communication • Each new technology improved the speed, capacity, and reliability of communication, and the cost of communicating declined dramatically over time

30. Waves of Communication Revolution • Ironically the Internet itself is a product of U.S. defense concerns • It began as a network created by ARPA (Advanced Research Project Agency on the Defense Department (called “ARPANET”)

31. 4. International Issues • In this last part of the lecture, we will provide a select range of • theoretical perspectives • and empirical analysis • for understanding the impact of the communication revolutions on • international security • the world political economy • human rights • gender relations

32. 4. International Issues • The current communication revolution is in the process of restructuring the constellation of the international issues in the global society • 4.1 Environment Issues • 4.2 Nuclear Proliferation • 4.3 Nationalism • 4.4 Cultural Conflict in International Relations: The West and Islam • 4.5 Global Trade and Finance • 4.6 Poverty and Development • 4.7 Human Rights • 4.8 Gender Issues

33. 4. International Issues • International co-operation • Increasing demand and pressure for government deregulation of telephone, commercial television, cable, satellite and internet services • Civil societies are increasingly able to reduce their isolation and build far-flung networks within and across national boundaries, coordinate and coordinate collective action • Citizen-based networks could yield a major new global peace and disarmament movements

34. 4. International Issues • Communication revolution • Is likely to foster not only international cooperation, but also peace • The democratic peace thesis builds on a growing body of evidence • The importance of communication to democratic civic culture supports the expectation that democracies strive to develop intensely communicative international relationships

35. 4. International Issues • If fact, it can be argued that, largely owning to communication, the Westphalian system is already past history • Computer data transmissions and telephone calls do not halt at frontier checkpoints • Such technology permit persons to have nearly immediate contact with each other, irrespective of their location on earth and regardless of the state borders that might lie between them

36. 4. International Issues • High quality Communication lowers forecasting errors and eliminates accidental wars • Improved communication between the ruled and ruler increases the pacifying impact of public opinion on foreign policy • USA an the Soviet governments have been quick to recognize the impact Satellite technology for security reasons

37. 4. International Issues • Communication revolution will • topple (overthrow ) bureaucracies • reduce the role of the nation-sate

38. 4. International Issues • The expectation of net war will be easily initiated and waged, participant will be able to build and maintain complex networks

39. 4. International Issues • State regularly capacities have ceased to meet the criteria of sovereignty as it was traditionally conceived • Communication increases trade and economic interdependence, which in turn produces international cooperation • In the face of huge offshore bank deposits and massive worldwide electronic money transfers, states have also lost sole ownership of another former hallmark of sovereignty´, the national currency

40. Gender Issues • With the help of global conferences and global telecommunications significant supraterritorial bonds have been cemented in women’s movements and in thousands of computer-mediated communities formed through newsgroups on the Internet

41. Global Social Movements • Global social movements are mobilized to reshape policies and deeper structures of social relations (like militarism or capitalism) • They pursue their causes by exploiting computer networks

42. Liberals and Communication • Liberals underlie the rosy view that communication and contact have pacific consequence on international politics • Increasing communitarian and interaction improves the prospects o cooperation • The greater the contact, the greater the respect • Conflict is rooted in miscommunication

43. Summary • The International political history of communication is that it parallels and amplifies trends in international relations and international relations theory