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October 5, 1998 Suggested Questions for Essay 1 Answer one of the following: 1. Is the balance of power the only reliable basis for order in international relations? 2. Compare and contrast the League of Nations and the United Nations as international organizations. 3. Did decolonization after WWII undermine or strengthen the structure of the modern international society? 4. Why did the 'second Cold War' begin; and why did it end with the collapse of the USSR? 5. Are liberal theories of international relations necessarily utopian, and is this a problem? October 5, 1998 During the pre-Westphalian system, there was no real concept of sovereignty. There's no real distinction between "domestic" and "international." There was a central authority (the Pope), and a common language, Latin. Therefore, everything is somewhat unified.
Emergence of a new type of class division, along with new workings between classes. The kings were "keen" on working with the upper capitalist class so that they could get land from the feudal lords and the kings could rule over a bigger area. Bodin - outlined sovereignty: 1) King has absolute authority over a certain area, and 2) externally the king has no authority over him.
Splits in the Catholic church that reduced the authority of the Pope. Ideas emerge that morals and laws are separate from the Church. Scientific knowledge expands, finding natural laws which further reduce Church authority. Change in perspective in art. (Ruggie did work on this.) The perspective may reflect the recognition of the world being split up into separate defined areas.
Changes in military
Medieval system was based upon the concept of the knights, which ran around with different kinds of weapons. This sort of thing shifted to large, standing armies. (Give the peasants guns.) This brought programs of training and drilling. (Show the peasants how to shoot.) (Note that castles were no longer effective, and large structures needed to be built to protect large areas.)
All of this brought about the idea of states and reduced the authority of Christendom. This culminated in the Thirty Years War. Thirty Years War - a bunch of conflicts evolving around Catholic vs. Protestants.
Catholics versus Protestants. Holy Roman Emperor versus France, Sweden, and a few Protestant Germany. Netherlands against Spain.
In Munster and Osnabruck, no less than 194 authorities were present. In 1648, the Peace of Westphalia basically made Protestants the winners. Important things about the Peace of Westphalia
First recognition of sovereignty of states in Germany. General secularization of international relations, and a recognition of religious diversity. Formalization of diplomatic protocols, much of which were brought about during the negotiations of the Peace of Westphalia.
Origin of modern international law, again moving away from the previous single source of authority, the Catholic Church. Positive International Law, where states can only be held to laws which the state agrees to.
This all brought about a new "mechanical system" of independent states, along with a system of rules for an international society. These are important concepts for this course: again, a system of sovereign states, and a society of states. The painting of the signing of the Peace of Westphalia, according to the speaker, reflected a new anonymization of the diplomat, no longer, "John Smith," but just a representative of a certain state.
The 19th century saw a lot of capable rulers that could work with each other and work with the system, and after they were gone the system couldn't cope with it. Structure changed which upset the balance of power. This included technological changes, feelings of nationalism, and capitalism. The balance of power engenders militarism and alliances, which can cause the balance of power to fall upon itself. For this reason, a little incident at the start of World War I can start the entire process.
Was balance of power the cause of WWI? Since the balance of power was so effective in the 19th century, what happened to it in the 20 century? Just recently we've had and are having conflicts in the Balkans; why hasn't this escalated into something like WWI? October 12, 1998
Liberal Theories
Questions: What exactly is a liberal order? Was the inter-war order truly a liberal order? Three main goals of a liberal society: peace, prosperity, and justice. Different liberals start with different aspects, trying to achieve the same goal: having an international system that extends what democratic societies have done domestically. Justice: Realists think that politics is an amoral power play. Personal morals and state "morals" are not necessarily the same. Liberals have two objections to this:
States have consciouses and recognize certain moral values. They can share these values and have certain norms that can be incorporated in certain organizations. States don't live in a moral vacuum. Point: states share moral values. Critical Position - A sort of Kantian idea that, although states live in a moral vacuum, there are certain ways states should behave and they should be forced to do so. This is referred to as cosmopolitanism. Point: there are certain moral values that should be shared.
Institutions:
1930's - David Mitrany - Classical functionalism that died out and came back in the 1960's. - Institutions are created to fulfill needs. Societies create these institutions. In the 20th century, we need some sort of transnational regulation. All sorts of institutions build up and then spill over into bigger, connected institutions like the EU. Rightness of Democracy: Realists say that states can balance each other by trying to meet their needs. Liberalists say that states are different and democracies are more peaceful. Since democracies are ruled by the people, the people themselves are less likely to vote for war since they are the people actually losing things. These ideas come from Immanuel Kant's Perpetual Peace. Michael Doyle has updated this concept by discovering that democracies don't really go to war with each other, but they are still aggressive towards non-democracies. Free Market: The concept that everyone gains from free trade. Some countries are good at producing different things and trade will allow states to maximize efficiency; this connects states economically so that they are very unlikely to go to war with each other.
Constraints on the use of force by states - Arms control, the rule of law that control the use of force and back them up with institutions New way of conducting foreign policy - A more flexible system than the old balance of power, to provide a way to discuss, debate, and resolve disputes; and give ultimate control of the decisions to the people (i.e. no secret diplomacy).
Wilson brought anti-imperialistic ideas to the table: Self-determination - people should be able to control their rulers and decide who should rule of them. One big argument was would the UK and French be able to keep their empires. They basically said that self-determination is only proper if the people could "prove" that they were able to do so.
The fate of Germany - Should we punish the Germans (the French idea)? The French wanted the kaiser (the ex-ruler of Germany) and put him on trial (they didn't get this). The French demanded a war guilt statement in the treaty, which they got. They demanded reparations, which they also received. (This reflected the French idea that Germans should be crippled so that they could never do the same things again. What kind of economic system - Rebuild the old economic system and just "tinker" with it so that it never gets to extremes? They tried to reestablish the old systems and stabilize currencies. (Remember that the idea was that free trade brings about prosperity.) The gold standard was used to try to do this. (The problem is that in the 19th century the gold standard was propped up by Great Britain.) They also wanted systems for international welfare to keep revolutions from happening.
Assembly (all members) League Council (executive body) - This was supposed to be where the great powers got together and governed things. Sort of an institutionalized version of the Concert of Europe. Permanent Secretariat Permanent Court of International Justice (1921) Agencies: e.g. International Labor Organization
Articles 8-17: Preservation of Peace - as opposed to the balance of power system, where hegemons were resisted, this collective security resisted power by the other states binding together against those who use force without the "permission" or the international community. There wouldn't be a need for alliances, because all states would be protected against agression - therefore, you could have disarmament.
Articles 18-21: Legal Status of Covenant Article 22: Mandates System (Classes A, B, & C) - In Europe, states were broken up to form others (such as Poland), but non-European imperialist possessions and colonies were divided up into three classes which sort of decided where they were on the scale
of ability of self-determination (classes A, B, and C). German was made to pay reparations, demilitarized, and the Rhineland was turned into a demilitarized zone. Article 23: Social Welfare "Universal peace can be established only if it is based on social justice." Articles 24-25: League's Relation to Other Institutions Problems: The great powers did not properly back up the system. Germany was not included at first, and the Soviet Union wasn't ever included. The US didn't ratify the treaty and accept the League of Nations. For these reasons, the League's decisions couldn't be backed up and it was therefore delegitimacized. So collective security was flawed from the beginning. The economic order wasn't fixed, either. Great Britain was weakened and the US didn't hold up currencies. The US economy collapsed. Everyone tried to cling onto stable currencies, set up trade barriers, etc. and the global economy went down. The failure of the US to keep up the economy was, according to the lecturer, was more important than its withdrawal from world politics. Should the old order have been kept, and just modified, or should everything have been done away with and a new order created? October 19, 1998 E. H. Carr's work blames liberalism for WWI. He is utopian; he thinks that all IR thought should have some goal in mind. However, the thinks that liberalism was too utopian - he thinks that IR thought should also be realistic. Carr thinks that 19th century liberal harmony was kept together by British hegemony. Towards the end of the 19th century, there became a competition of interests instead of a harmony of interests. He sees the procedures after WWI as an attempt to reconstruct the pre-WWI harmony of interests based on economic free trade. Polani (The Great Transformation) also commented on the League of Nations. Morgenthau, a German immigrant in the US, constructed a framework for looking at the balance of power. His six principals:
Politics is governed by objective laws, grounded in human nature. States pursue the national interest, defined as power. The struggle for power (geography; natural resources; industrial capacity; military preparedness; population size and
distribution; national character and moral; and the quality of its diplomacy and government) is universal in time and space.
Tension between morality and successful political action. In this point, he is very much like Machiavelli, where states have a different set of morals. But he doesn't think they are completely immoral. His ethic of responsibility says that they are responsible for their citizens. He also thinks that statesmen should be prudent, and should, after establishing security in their state, should help secure international security. Universal moral principles are just cloaks for particular interests. Centrality of politics in analyzing international relations. This says that relative gains are more important than absolute gains. International relations is not about efficient behavior and helping the entire world, but about who wins and who gets what.
Morgenthau tries to give objective scientific principles about international relations, the endpoint of which says that the only system that will work is a balance of power. He sent a message to the US to work for the well-being of the US without worrying as much about whether the policies are moral.
The location of power had moved away from the center of Europe to states that before were on the periphery, e.g. US and USSR. Decolonization started to occur. The distribution of power begins to become more concentrated, bringing about a "bipolar" system.
1945 George Kennan (minister of the US Embassy in Moscow, seen by the US as their expert on the USSR) gives diplomatic advice on how US foreign policy should implement Morgenthau's principals. Between 1947-1950 on, "containment" started to take on a different meaning. "The Long Telegram" - Said that fundamentally, the USSR was not an ideological country, and the US should not be that worried about it. It is hostile to the US because its leadership needs an enemy to be able to give an excuse of keeping its hold over its citizens, but don't be afraid of this. Communism in itself is not a threat to the US. n 1947, he wrote an article signed, "Mr. X," which says:
"We are great and strong, but we are not great enough or strong enough to conquer and hold in subjugation by ourselves all ... hostile or irresponsible forces." The US should not try to transform the world to be like the US, but should try to manipulate the balance of power. The main power centers are the USA, Great Britain, USSR, Germany and Central Europe, and Japan. If anyone were to dominate any three of them, they would be dangerous, so try to make each of them independent and be able to defend themselves. This therefore explains the actions of the US of rebuilding right after WWII. Stategic goal: Prevent Soviet domination of these power centers so as to protect US national security and way of life.
The US policy changes: 1947 "Truman Doctrine" - "It must be the policy of the US to support free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressure." This starts to broaden the US' interests from a very specific region to the entire world. This is because of fear of the "domino" effect and because the Cold War is beginning to become an ideological situation. 1950 National Security Committee (NSC)-68 - This policy says that increased expenditures can keep going and going, in a Keynes-like economic situation. "A defeat of free institutions anywhere is a defeat everywhere." No possibility is seen for accommodation; the USSR's hostility to the US is seen as purely ideological. "Perimeter defense strategy." Sidenote:
Introduction: What does the question mean? What could count as an answer? What is the plan of the argument? Literature: What are the main theories? How do they differ? How could they be assessed? Argument: Logical structure, use of empirical evidence, make a case for a position. Conclusion: Summarize the argument, state the answer to the question, justify the answer on the basis of the argument. October 26, 1998 Two Traditions Realism "Logic of anarchy" Power vs. morality Balance and stability Anarchic states-system Liberalism "Logic of Cooperation" Justice vs. order Cooperation and peace International society
Towards a Realist-Liberal Synthesis? Cooperation under anarchy The "utopian anarchy" Institutionalizing the balance of power The "anarchical society" Hedley Bull says that this idea of anarchy doesn't present as much of a problem as the Realist would like to say it does, but there is a bigger problem of difference. Pluralist vs. Solidarist Pluralist agree to just put up with others' differences. Solidarist think that the states should form institutions based upon shared culture.
Bull's Theory
Core Concepts
International System (mechanistic/anarchic) - Two or more states in a setting where each has to take account of the other's behavior. International Society (international order) - They care to some extent about the other states, so they interact, not out of necessity, but according to certain rules and for certain goals. The issues of states are served. This is what Bull thinks exist now. World Society (world order) - (Cosmopolitan Society) - A universal community of mankind, where problems such as environmental issues and human rights are dealt with.
Common interests and common values. As long as the states have certain things in common, they can get together and make rules and institutions to realize their common interests. Acceptance of common rules Participation in common institutions
Conceptions of Justice
Individual or human justice (solidarism) - Before justice, we must have some sort of order, and not just any order. Therefore, we shouldn't push the idea of justice too far because we don't necessarily have the order to back it up. International or interstate justice (international order) Cosmopolitan or world justice (world order)
No membership rule Primacy of natural law Inchoate (ill-defined) and universalist rules of coexistence
Sovereign statehood (i.e. only states possess sovereignty) Positive (volitional) law Equal sovereignty and nonintervention Five key common institutions:
Balance of power Diplomacy International law Rules of war Great power system
Equal sovereignty Decolonization and self-determination The norm of racial equality Economic justice Cultural liberation A society of "quasi-states"
"Civilized state:" Must have a government, capacity for diplomatic relations with other states (and equal sovereignty), obedience to the rules and norms of international law. November 2, 1998
Who plays in the bargaining game? What determines each player's position? What determines each player's impact on the result? What is the game's structure? How are results produced?
Therefore, this is what IR would call a pluralist model, including NGO's, transnational companies, etc.
neo-liberal approach, on the other hand, sees detente as a shift towards interdependence. Probably the biggest debate in America is the neo-realist vs. neo-liberal debate (personified by Waltz and Keohane, respectively). The neo-neo debate brings economics into the discussion. Taken from Baldwin's book, there are six points about what's at stake in the debate:
Anarchy vs. Interdependence. How good are the prospects for international cooperation? This is probably the biggest difference between neo-realists and neo-liberalists. The neo-liberals believe that states understand reciprocity and will work together when there is a non-zerosum relationship. Relative gains vs. absolute gains. Maximizing behavior; military security or economic welfare? Capabilities and Intentions: The role of domestic structure. (i.e. neo-liberalists are more pluralistic than neo-realists) The functionality of international regimes and institutions.
This is significantly different between the old realist/liberalist debate, that is, a description of how things are vs. how liberalists want things to be with enough institutions. In the neo-neo debate, neo-liberalists try to be realistic.
Marxist Approach
Fred Halliday sees two fundamentally different ideological systems, and four stages of the cold war:
The first cold war (1945-1953), which includes military buildup and arms races, propaganda campaigns, etc. The period of oscillatory antagonism (1953-1963). Levels of tension go up and down, driven by "shocks" to the system, such as the death of Stalin. Detente (1969-1979). Temporary rapprochement but without addressing the major issues of cold war conflict. The second cold war (1979-1989). A reassertion of six main features of the cold war system, ending with the defeat of the USSR.
Marxist Theories
Classical Marxism
IR should be considered as a product of capitalist/socialist relations as a whole. There are three core propositions to this (in a very short, crude, explanation)
Class relations - This relates to positions of people in terms of method of production. The people who do the work (the direct producers) don't have ownership of the means of production. Expropriation is kicking the peasants off the land, depriving them of the ownership of the land, and give them no choice but to sell their labor. Separation between the political and the economical - Once the peasants have been expropriated, the capitalists don't have to have political control over the peasants because they extract funds from them because they don't have any land. Commodification of social relations - all social relations are actually relations between people, but there is a depersonalization and we think of our social world in an impersonal, abstract way. Marxism had to show that what is going on here is actually a direct exploitation among people.
Core-Periphery Model
However, after decolonization this dependency seemed to continue. To explain this, the core-periphery model says that there are core countries that exploit periphery countries by an unequal relationship. The core continually extracts the surplus of the production of the periphery.
The core can coerce the periphery through military force. Comprador class - elite groups in the periphery states that impose control from the core because they are enjoying the effects of the core. Semiperiphery states usually have authoritarian governments so as to control their citizens in behalf of the core. The provide an illusion of stability and development.
Socio-economic heterogeneity of capitalism and communism. Two different socio-economic systems. Socio-economic/political composition of states determines foreign policy decisions. Each system contains a universalizing dynamic. Each system tries to globalize itself. Capitalism tries to grow so it has places in which to invest. Socialism sees a worldwide revolution to emancipate classes. Multiple dimensions of inter-systemic conflict (inter-state, intersocial-economic, inter-ideological) Heterogeneity of international relations
So the Cold War was the result of two completely separate ideologies dedicated to the complete domination over the other. In Halliday's view, detente would never work, and this theory gives us an insight into the end of the Cold War. Halliday introduces the idea of a "Second Cold War," which included a renewal of military buildup, the emergence of the highlight of an ideological difference (such as human rights), a stalling of negotiations (such as SALT 2), reassertion of domestic controls (such as the Republicans reasserting Cold War things), and other policies (such as Kissinger's linkage) joining the entire Cold War ideology.
Realism
"Hobbesianism" or "Machiavellianism" State of War
Pluralism
"Cobweb model" Transnationalism
Rationalism
Grotius/Locke International Society
Structuralism
"Octopus model" Capitalist world economy
Revolutionism
Kant/Marx< Community of Mankind
Some see IR theories as evolving just like paradigms of scientists - theories will be modified little by little until so much empirical evidence forces a completely different paradigm to come about.
Vast nuclear weapons - one nuclear weapon could have the same power as all the weapons of WWII They are not universally shared. Generally recognized to be a special kind of weapon, even if you were to only kill the same number of people.
Theory of Deterrence
Clearly define a limited range of situations where one would use nuclear weapons (such as in retaliation to nuclear attack). Make these commitments well-publicized.
For deterrence, you have to make it clear that using nuclear weapons is perfectly acceptable in certain circumstances.
A special significance given to the situation. A constrained time frame of making decisions. Groups making decisions.
Both sides remained very much aware that the weapons were special kinds of weapons and that the situation was special. Highlights the need of senior leadership. (Such as the shooting down of a plane over Cuba.) Significantly improved superpower relations. There is somewhat of a "learning curve." Kissinger said that "superpowers have an obligation not to humiliate each other" or something like that.
Single event or a time series: is the game iterated? Crises are always events in a series of events. A classic event is Chamberlain's agreement with Hitler. In hindsight, it encouraged Hitler to continue, but at the time it probably seemed the correct thing to do. Is there symmetry in pay-offs and perception of values? SDI, for example, may have removed the symmetry of the game. Are the actors rational and unitary? Do they have perfect information and an unstressful environment? Do superiors have effective control over subordinates?
Natural law is the basis for legitimacy: legal naturalism. There are certain a priori principles which can be worked out rationally. We don't need states to tell us whether some things are right or wrong. Natural law legitimizes and originates law. International society is universal in scope (normatively and geographically). There is a universal society of mankind. Individuals are the ultimate members of international society; they are the proper focus of legal concern. Individuals are the ultimate "units of moral value." Everything must be done with the welfare of the individuals involved.
Only states have international personality; individuals are merely objects of international law.
Bull thinks that power politics still dominates relations between states, and international society is divided because of cultural pluralism, so the solidarist conception is premature. He thinks that order comes before justice, because we can't push the limits of the multiple cultures to the breaking point. People like Falk they think that Bull's description of the world is historically correct, but since 1945 there is a new solidarist conception of the world forming, with the UN at the center.
The UN Charter
The UN Charter contains some elements that look solidarist, but there are some definitely pluralistic sections, also. There was a big surge in 1989 of liberal optimism, which fell rapidly after that. Whether or not the UN appears to be solidarist seems to go up and down with the changing political thoughts of the times.
Growth, spread, and extended roles of international organizations, especially to coordinate international cooperation. The Charter represents an aspiration and intention of international cooperation. A limited role for single human beings or for groups of people in the international arena: new legal opportunities to bring grievances against states. People have an expanded opportunity to present their grievances, but they still need state support. A more extensive role for organized peoples subject to colonialism and racist regimes (anti-apartheid and anti-colonial international legislation; cf. "The Revolt against the West.") Restrictions on the resort of force by states. This is a very important point. The UN seeks to regulate when states can go to war, ultimately restricting all wars except for carrying out international law. Emergence of values designed to limit the role of force as the exclusive legitimizing criterion in international relations. States, after winning a war, do not have a license to set its own guidelines for obligations on the defeated states. The UN now governs ending wars. A set of devices calculated to facilitate the fulfillment of the three "legal functions" of the international community; creation of new standards, settlement of differences; compliance with
norms. As Higgins says, the UN has become a vehicle for creating new international laws.
Universal principles which represent the backbone of the whole corpus of international rules. Concern for the rights of individuals. Article 55 begins to talk about human rights. International law should be related to the well-being of individuals. States have an obligation to participate in law-related actions. New values with pre-eminent legal...???
Even though solidarist themes are in the UN charter, there are pluralist themes as well.
The US is still a hegemon, but there are reasons that suggest that this hegemony may be in decline. (It's hard to measure whether a hegemon is in decline, however.) What kind of world order can we expect now?
Paul Kennedy thinks that hegemons bite off more than they can chew, and they have more than they can handle. Empires exapand, and then they have to maintain their expansions. Hegemons pay all the costs for establishing and maintaining the regimes, and other states get a free ride. Other states can exploit these regimes, while hegemons are at a disadvantage by paying the price. Hegemons distribute ideas to the other members of the system, and this distribution tends to level the playing field.
The US is too liberal in its welfare, etc. The US becomes unable to adapt. It's trapped in a sort of imperialistic nostalgia.
In the 1980's people thought you could draw up some sort of balance sheet and see that the US was a hegemon, but other factors say other things. For example, you could look at the military power of the US and see that it was great, but some of these weapons were becoming out of date - the use of nuclear weapons doesn't make much sense in the world today. Even though the US may look strong on paper, in real life it is declining. Even though it is economically strong, it is in reletive decline - the difference between it and other states is getting smaller. A monetary argument would say that the US has went from a creditor to a debtor. A cultural argument talks about US cultural icons (jeans, McDonalds), but it's hard to say exactly how each of these mean anything - how do you measure their effects. Nye claims that a lot of these theories have created a mythical golden age back in the 50's, and then overestimates the decline from a mythical high. Keene says that we are seeing what one author calls the "transcendence" of American hegemony. Power is a different animal, now. Being a hegemon means different things. Maybe the US can't be called a hegemon, now, but there is a hegemony, a "hegemonic block." With the end of the Cold War, it's not that the US can "lay down the law," but that the US can advance its ideas and ideals, bringing about the end of the ideological system of communism. The relevant question then is how do regimes gather their power? It may be that liberal ideas are being embedded in the international scene, maybe put there by the US to begin with, but they are hanging around, whether or not the US can be rightly considered a hegemon. If an opponent of this new order rises, it may well have to use the language (e.g. freedom, democracy) of the new order. For example, Hughs shows how some are using Hedley Bull to speak against the ideas being handed them from the regime itself. They use the ideas of the regime against itself. January 11, 1999
International Organizations
Intergovernmental Organization - An international organization in which legal membership is solely open to states, and the decision-making authority lies in governments. An association of states, in other words. International Non-Governmental Organization (INGO) - Others besides governments are included. (Issues-based organizations, liberation groups, the mafia, etc.) International Regime - Social institutions; ways of behaving; states and others occupy particular roles.
Neo-liberal Institutionalism
The institutions we have are the ones states want to have. This is closer to realist theory. These institutions can always be rolled back if states do not like them.
Constructivism
States will manage to cooperate when they have a common identity and/or culture.
General Assembly - the "legislature" of the UN. Composed of all the members, each of which has one vote. It became the place where smaller countries could challenge the great powers. It usually uses a simple majority, although in some cases a 2/3 approval may be used. Its purposes included approving the budget, overseeing the secretariat, making resolutions and declarations, etc. Security Council - Has 15 members, five of which are permanent and 10 of which are elected. The security council members must always have a representative at the UN headquarters. Normally operates under "Chapter 7" issues. Secretariat - Is now down to about 8500 people. Has a budget of about 1.5 billion a year, but is currently scaling down. International Court of Justice - the "judicial" wing of the UN. The main arbitration body when member states bring issues to it. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) - Promotes the goals of "Article 55," the human rights article. Has about 54 members, elected for three-year terms. It's one of the ways NGOs can penetrate into the UN system. (Trusteeship Council): suspended operation in 1994
Specialized Agencies
World Health Organization (WHO), ILO, UNESCO, etc. Have an autonomous status.
Interventions against states for peace and security or for international welfare. Coordinating activities between states. Acting as a legitimizing organization for international law and the actions of states who claim to act on behalf of the UN.
Regionalism
Explanations of Regionalism
Structuralism
Realists, who are normally for "get-as-much-power-as-you-can," deal with giving up power to a regional organization in several ways. They may say that banding together with like-minded states will effectively give each state more power - increasing the balance of power in their favor. Another theory is that a hegemon may create a regional organization to enhance its regional power, such as the US and NAFTA. Liberal accounts of globalization easily accommodate regionalism. Regional organizations help manage flows across national boundaries. Neo-liberalism still see regional integration as state-driven.
Constructivism
Constructivism says that the identities of states determine what their interests are. Regional integration follow from shared values and identities in an area.
Neo-functionalism
Again, you have spillover effects with each level of integration, creating more integration and more reasons for integration.
Unit-level Theories
States join regional organizations in order to strengthen its structure. Another idea is that there is a strong link between democratic states and cooperative regional integration.
There are two main reasons the EU began: 1) the need for economic rebuilding, such as early attempts to bind together to rebuild the coal and steel industries, which was later expanded to other areas. Economic integration could also bring about economies of scale. 2) Monnet's idea that closer cooperation, largely through economic integration, would lead to more peaceful relations because deep integration would make war too costly and irrational. Therefore, regional organizations in general are usually to bring about either economic gains, regional security, or both. The Council of Ministers makes most of the rules in the EU. At first at least, rules were formed by unanimous consent. The European Parliament plays much of a lesser role. The European Commission has standard-setting powers and such, and has played a large role in the direction of the EU. The European Court of Justice is legally very important. The Single European Act of 1986 made the most changes. This involved creation of a single money system and of certain standards. The Maastrict Treaty of 1992 changed the name form the European Community to the European Union, and made the following important changes:
A wider role for the Parliament, via "co-decision." Qualified Majority Voting in the Council on some issues. The principle of subsidiarity; that is, decisions should be made at the lowest level possible. The idea of "European citizenship," including rights of mobility, certain legal rights when abroad, etc. This is more important rhetorically than in regard to actual current concrete rights. A new "three pillar" structure: Economic and Monetary Union, Foreign and Defense Policy, and Justice and Home Affairs.
Therefore, in general we see small integration that spread to much wider regional integration. The EU has advanced far beyond what its initial "founders" ever thought. States, however, still seem to be the main players.
Americas
In South America, a debt crisis brought about regional integration, mainly because of integration started between Brazil and Argentine. Later, the EU was looked at as a model. There's therefore a political aspect to regional integration - look at the situation with Chile's fear of guerillas. In North America, there was a long period of peace between the US and Canada, and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) formed out of a US/Canada agreement.
Asia
Asian integration has been much looser. Fears of China and such have helped to form regional agreement, but there seems to be less of a common identity. There is a huge disparity between the position of Japan and the economic position of the other members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Africa
The Organization of African Unity (OAU) was formed against imperialism and colonization. But since these states are trying to get more independence through decolonization, the OAU has had some problems because regional integration inevitably reduces independence to some extent. The main factors which influence regional integration seem then to be:
Some sense of common identity. Economic factors are important, such as how much economic factors give them integration; economic factors seem to be even more important than political factors. External threats or challenges are important (such as with the formation of NATO). Regime type is important. Democratization seems to be related to regional integration. The "emulation effect" of the EU seems to have been prominent, with the EU being a model. The local hegemon is sometimes a factor to regional integration formation, such as the US in NAFTA. But hegemons do not always help regional organizations to form.
Analyze the implications of any ONE intergovernmental, regional or non-governmental organization for the traditional pattern of international order.
What makes an international regime effective? Answer with reference to any TWO issue areas that you have studied. Would democratization reduce the prospects for conflict in the post-Cold War world? International minimum standards of human rights "expose the internal regimes of all the members of international society to the legitimate appraisal of their peers. This may turn out not to have been a negligible change in international society" (John Vincent). Discuss. What principles might underpin a more just international economic order? Are processes of globalization eroding the sovereignty of the nation-state, and thus leading to the creation of a postWestphalian order?
NGO Categories
Single-Issue Pressure Groups
These are the most common; that is, when someone refers to NGOs, they usually refer to these. They can be purely non-governmental, or can be connected with a government.
Power to win disputes, including the use of resources (e.g. military power). Power to set an agenda, to determine which items come up for debate. Structural power - Power to condition states of what their interests are; power to construct identities.
NGO's all use resources to win disputes. Multinational Corporations, for example, fit this category. They work together to "juggle the figures" to make sure they show profits in certain countries (with low taxes, for instance.) They use triangulation, moving resources between several countries to get around sanctions and such. They use regulatory arbitrage - threats (of giving/taking factories, for instance) to get certain things done (tax breaks, funding, etc.) National Liberation Movements and Criminal Organizations in particular use this sort of power, using violence to get their way. The power to set agendas is used a lot by Transnational Media Organizations. They can put certain issues on the agenda. Perhaps the most important, however, is the use of structural power by NGOs. Susan Strange sees four structures: security structures (you might go along with someone because they provide security), production structure (whoever controls production sets the terms of the wage market), financial structure (controlling someone who is indebted to you), and the knowledge structure (systems of
storing and retrieving information and research, organizations that determine right and wrong, etc.). MNCs especially use the production structure. But as for security, do NGO's provide security that a state doesn't? Maybe. As for the knowledge structure, they set the tone about such things - scientists determine if environmental problems are actually problems or not. INGO's have also been active with the knowledge structure by defining what constitutes human rights violations for example.
Economics and politics are intertwined and cannot be separated Economy has to be looked at as an international process there's no longer a need to make a distinction between the domestic and the international.
This is a critique of political theory, orthodox economics, and orthodox international relations studies. Economics is not just another leverage in the international sphere. Politics cannot be thought of as purely independent entities; they interact.
Regime-Theoretical Approach
Regimes can be looked at as the internationalization of political power. There's a degree of legitimacy to the rules and regulations they create. There are three ways of looking at regimes:
Power-based theories still see regimes as created by a hegemon solely for the interests of the hegemon. States actually want regimes, because they see regimes as helping all those involved. Constructivist theories of regimes say states have identities that they learn, and they know what their interests are based upon who they know themselves to be.
Marxist Account
Marxist generally think that the IPE approach is a good start and that bringing economics into the picture is a good thing.
Critical Theory
A static core/periphery model is too rigid; things are too dynamic. At certain periods in time, a certain dominant class and dominant states can come together and fashion world order.
Boyle's Ideas
The entire separation of economy and politics is an artificial separation brought about by capitalism.
Designed to make trade function effectively, when all parties work together.
would be worth someone to pollute. There would be free-rider problems - some could ride on the payments of others, getting clean air or whatever without paying. Another problem is whom would the polluters pay (since this is trying to establish property rights). Furthermore, how can you place a value on environmental issues? Some have suggested pure control: simply set limits on pollution. But how does one get information on compliance, and how can one control the companies? One solution would be impose a tax on certain things such as CO2 emissions. This is more flexible, because some countries might find it so expensive to comply that they might just pay the tax instead of complying. This takes account of different capabilities of countries. But at what level would one set the tax? There might be pollution permits that are issued that can traded - bought and sold - by all countries. This brings the environment into the market system. But how many permits should their be, and how should they be initially distributed? One would still need some central institution that would regulate this.
Establishing Regimes
All states want to protect their sovereignty, and they want something in return if they give up any of their sovereignty. The problem arises when states have diverging goals. Global warming may not be such an acute problem to some countries, for example. There is a continual battle about even what the agenda should be. Then there is the problem for compliance. How do you know when countries are complying? Then there s adherence. Would any states want to use their power to back up the rules? Why would states want to adhere to the rules? How can one incorporate international legal systems into domestic legal systems. There are a lot of uncertainties, also. A lot of the terms that are handed around are in themselves unclear, not to mention the clarity of the results of proposed policies. Related to knowledge issues, Haas has talked about epistemic communities, groups of scientists who share beliefs about how things are. Crises bring about a demand for solutions, which bring about epistemic communities with shared beliefs which can formulate policy.
Ozone Regime
Started at the Vienna Convention in 1985. The UN Environmental Program (UNEP) has come about to monitor worldwide environmental CFC production. The later Montreal Protocol expanded this, with everyone agreeing to eventually eliminate all CFC production.
The picture is much bleaker here. The science is less clearer that human-made greenhouse gasses will cause global warming. The US recognized that the costs of reducing CO2 are high and that other factors made it different from the ozone issue, and so the US has balked at complying. To create an environmental regime, it is therefore better to have a technical consensus, and there needs to be a way of monitor compliance. There needs to be converging interests on compliance. Litfin notes that scientific ignorance can be exploited by knowledge brokers through discourse. February 15, 1999
Nuclear Norms
States shouldn't share nuclear technology with non-nuclear states and non-nuclear states shouldn't develop nuclear weapons. States shouldn't use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states or even use them for blackmail. There should be a disarmament. Non-use and non-stockpiling of biological and chemical weapons. There is to be no testing of nuclear weapons.
Nuclear Weapons
For deterrence, again, you must have a well-defined commitment. The deterrent must be made public, and there must be a capability of using the weapons after surviving the first strike. You must have a willingness to the commitment, and the opponent must know this. This all assumes actors are rational. If deterrence is such a good thing, wouldn't it be good to have more nuclear weapons? Bipolarity is however an important concept. With only two sides, there is less of risk of misperceptions and defections are not as hard to deal with. It's easier to manage crises with only two powers, and they have clearly marked spheres of influence. Therefore, the realist thinking is that bipolarity makes for a more stable situation. Introduce nuclear
weapons into the picture, and you have Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). That is, nuclear weapons + bipolarity = MAD = stability. The non-proliferation regime isn't just a regime created by the superpowers, however. The Baruch Plan 1946 was that by technical means alone the US could remain the only power with nuclear capability and prevent its proliferation. Of course, proliferation followed soon after this. Peaceful nuclear knowledge is very similar to weapons-related nuclear knowledge, which makes technological controls difficult. The focus then turned to a non-proliferation regime. The superpowers obviously want to keep a monopoly on nuclear technology. They thought that monitoring might impede commercial development. They want certain assurances:
Negative Security Assurances - We won't attack you with nuclear weapons. Positive Security Assurances - We will protect you if you are attacked by nuclear weapons. No First-Use Agreement - We won't use nuclear weapons first, even in a conflict with a company with nuclear weapons.
The states which didn't subscribe to the non-proliferation regime (e.g. Israel, South Africa, Pakistan, Argentina) were always a problem, although South Africa and Argentina have signed up to the regime. There are "rogue states" such as Iraq and North Korea which have signed up to the regime but are suspected to have developed or be developing nuclear weapons. Another problem for the regime is the "fragmented nuclear states," basically the former USSR. Most would say that these are not "rogue states," but the problem is more the capability (or lack thereof) of these states to maintain control over the weapons. There is a list of reasons why countries are acquiring or trying to acquire nuclear capabilities. Nuclear weapons not only bring prestige, but also bring a bargaining power. March 1, 1999
Security
Security Studies
The traditional IR realist view of security is that states try to protect their way of life and get to a condition where they would not be defeated if a war were to occur. This view sees war and violence as simply means of effecting political goals. It is primarily concerned with military security.
After the end of the Cold War, this view fell out of favor - how can one explain the collapse of the Soviet Union in terms of military status? Buzan says that the termsecurity is sometimes ambiguous, and that security should be reexamined in terms other than those of military. Not only should we examine other issues of security, we should carry out the analysis at the individual, state, region, global, etc. levels. Think about regional security - how does the security of one state depend on the feelings of security of another state? Critical security studies says that one has to think of security in terms of emancipation, another term which can be interpreted in a large number of ways.
Theories of War
Waltz saw three images of war. The third image says that there is nothing in the international system to prevent them from happening - wars occur from anarchy. This is a Humian theory of causation, which means that there are no true causal connections, just certain correlations of events. But what other reasons are there for wars happening; does anarchy in itself cause war? The second image of war says that democracies do not go to war with each other or sees conflicts as resulting from capitalist competition and expansion. Neither of these views see wars as always inherently bad. The first image of war looks at the individual level, and see tendencies of individuals as causing wars. For example, humans may no get their basic needs fulfilled: food, water, autonomy, etc. A feminist explanation would fit in this category: it would therefore not be caused by humans in general, but by men in particular. Patriarchal society is viewed as promoting war; until recently, for example, most industrial war complexes were predominantly men. Another view would see war as an expression of culture. Some wars can only occur in certain settings with certain cultural beliefs and situations.
Theories of Peace
Galtung thought that you could distinguish between negative peace and positive peace. Negative peace, the absence of violence, is inadequate because there may be other exploitations in a society. He advocated positive peace, the presence of harmony (yet another ambiguous term). Michael Banks later said you should think of four parts of peace. One should think of harmony, of course, but that's not enough because a society might wipe out another society, leaving harmony. One should also think of order, which includes predictability and such, but violent systems might be orderly but not peaceful. You could think of peace as related to justice, but this really just changes the emphasis to another term.
His fourth (preferred) option was to think of "peace as process," a way of resolving conflicts whenever and wherever they occur. March 8, 1999
Kant
Kant's Perpetual Peace describes the modern international society that had been evolving about 100 years before he wrote it.
A treaty of peace must be final. National self-determination. Standing armies must be abolished. No national debts must be contracted. Non-intervention. Regulation of conduct while fighting a war.
States are ungoverned entities. Through reason, you can work out that certain things are right or wrong, and reason says that peaceful relations are right.
A league of peace should be constructed. The league of states is a federation that enforces the dictates of right reason, and when states realize what is right reason, they will abandon their old ways and follow the right reason.
Michael Doyle
Michael Doyle has possibly the most popular contemporary formulation of Kant. He tries to amend Kant. He says that democratic stays have been successful at forming a union within themselves, but there are serious defects with their dealings outside the union. His first question is whether they are peaceful because they are all alike, and his conclusion is that it is not because of shared identity. He examines Kant's argument that democratic states won't go to war if its citizens can decide, and he finds that this isn't so; they seem to only be peaceful between themselves, but warlike to non-democratic states. He advances the idea of a "spirit of commerce," that the more states are integrated with each other economically, the less they want to disrupt this activity. He gives three reasons why liberal states fail. The first is that they go out of their way to be belligerent with non-liberal states because, like Kant's idea of a liberal state being inherently right, the other non-democratic states must be wrong. The first problem Dr. Keene sees with these ideas lies in the definition of a democracy. "Democracy" is hard to quantify, especially if there is an ambiguity between a republic and a democracy. Secondly, does a correlation mean causation, or are some states democratic simply because they live in a pacific region that is, say, protected by a hegemon such as the US? Thirdly, how close is this to Kant's original argument, and should we worry about any differences? Doyle doesn't really examine the relationship between capitalism and liberal democracy. Fourthly, what is the relationship between Westernization and democratization?
Francis Fukuyama
Liberal democracy will eventually spread throughout the world because, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it has no contender. Liberal democracies value equality and mutual respect, and all humans are constantly striving for recognition. It's only in the context of liberal democracies that we can reach mutual equality.
Samuel Huntington
Huntington agreed with Fukuyama to begin with, but has since moved away from this. He now says (in Clash of Civilizations) that the spread of liberal democracies is ultimately a process of Westernization, and this will create its own component: other
societies will rally around their cultures, bringing about "the West against he rest." This addresses identity, which is important and has been left out by liberals. March 15, 1999
Humanitarian Intervention
The standard view is that there is a problem between sovereignty and international human rights. The UN Charter is ambiguous - although Articles 1 and 55 refer to human rights, Article 2 strongly refers to state sovereignty. There is then a problem of selectivity - only certain states are picked out to criticize. Vincent says that this tension between sovereignty and human rights is overstated. He says that states get their sovereignty only by recognition by the international system in the first place. If states are scrutinized by other sovereign states, this will, if these states stand up to the scrutiny, further legitimize the states.
Revision Topics
Section 1: Theory and History of International Relations
General Theories of International Relations
Realism, Liberalism, and Marxism Traditional international society theory The Neo-realist-Neoliberal debate
The origins of the Westphalian system The expansion of international society and decolonization The European balance of power system The League of Nations and the interwar system
Bipolarity, nuclear deterrence & systemic stability Containment and US foreign policy Inter-systemic conflict and the end of the Cold War
International Regimes
Utilitarians say that we shouldn't make a distinction between individuals and states. Like Kant, since we're all individuals, we should work out what's best to spread out happiness to everyone equally. They say we can talk about international politics in the same way we can talk about domestic politics. Libertarians argue, like Locke, that individuals are moral agents because they are moral in themselves. We own our own selves, and have a right to those things that we require to flourish properly as human individuals. People have a right to take as much as they need as long as they leave (as Locke said) "as much and as good" for other people. In the world, everything is obviously not equally distributed. Some libertarians say that things should be tinkered with, others say that the overall system should be overhauled.
Charles Beitz's International Rawlianism builds on Rawls' theory. Rawls says that individuals are free and equal and have the capacity for moral choice - a sort of modified social contract theory. If we were not born with any preconceptions, we would say that each should have an equal right for civil and political liberties. There should be the maximum resources for the least well-off. There is no cooperation internationally.
Beitz says that this should be extended internationally. States are already interlocked through trade. There should therefore be cooperation internationally. Rawls comes back and says that we have to cooperate domestically, but international cooperation is relatively quite small; Beitz may be somewhat right, but overall interdependence is so low that it is negligible. Communitarians say that Beitz ignore crucial differences between communities. Since we as moral agents are constructed by communities, if we start out with no knowledge of a conception of good, there is no basis for international justice. We therefore need a common moral language before we can talk about international justice. People have tried to make a synthesis of liberalism while keeping a place for cultural differences. Andrew Linklater, for example, says that citizens have a certain view of what citizenship means and the framework and obligations that comes with it - the equality of citizenship. He sees that globalization is causing people to lose territoritality feelings, and start to feel themselves as "citizens" of a larger group. The state has given a sense of a community, and through communication, trade, etc. we can gain a wider sense of community. Globalization, however, comes with certain assumptions and frameworks for morals and norms. Is this dangerous? Is the framework brought about by globalization even worse than before, or is it bringing about a new less-defined, neutral global community?
Copyright 1998-2003 Garret Wilson