Bipolar balance of power is a security arrangement under which US and Russia (the two superpowers of

that time- 1940s & 1950s) organized international political, military, and economic alliances in opposition
to each other. So, some countries made agreements with Russia and others with the US.

Nuclear weapons were the more dangerous and threatening in this fight between superpowers and it was
mainly a zero-sum game, meaning that if one got stronger the other was weaker.

Even though Russia and US were so strong, the defeats of US in Vietnam and Russia in Afghanistan
showed that weak nations could present a threat to the security of stronger nations, or at least weaken
them.

1990s was the decade of globalization which emphasized the economic growth, wealth and power based
on spread of capitalism and in the meantime more security. This proved to be wrong in 9/11.

Geopolitics emphasizes in protecting national boundaries.

The Multilayered Security Structure

1. The top layer-  made up of world’s remaining superpowers lie the US, Great Britain, France,
Russia and some strong developing countries like Brazil, Indonesia, and China (also known
as newly industrialized countries (NICs).
2. Second- tier(layer)-  made up of international organizations (IOs) that usually reflect the interests
of minor –state powers as well as serving the interests of their creators, major powers. Examples
of IOs are UN Security Council and NATO. This category includes NGOs as well.
3. The third tier- includes the poor developing countries that are weak and lack hard and soft power
to protect their territory and people.

The Top Layer

It’s up to the state to grant security and as such it should be the primary concern of each government.

There are three options to best distribute the power structure: unilateralism, multilateralism, and
isolationism.

Unilateralism is the idea that only one superpower (i.e. US) should have the opportunity to act as a
liberal (benevolent) hegemonic power and impose a set of rules and regulations for peace and security on
other nations. Now the US is entitled for the sake of global stability to promote values of freedom,
democracy, and individual rights. A unliterary view is what Bush did with Iraq. After 9/11 the Bush admin
thought that they were the ones that had to do something to fight terrorism not only for the US but for the
whole world. They feared weapons of mass destruction (WMD) which include nuclear, biological, and
chemical weapons. But the invasion of Iraq by US and Britain was a complete failure as WMDs were not
found.

Rogue states- states that did not adhere to the norms of international system

National Missile Defense (NMD) was a defensive antiballistic missile program that hoped to destroy
incoming ballistic missiles before they reach their targets.

Antiballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty outlawed the development of space based missile defense system.
But Bush withdrew from it.
Because of Iraq invasion, many consider that US was put on an arrogant position of deciding to broadly of
what constitutes a military threat and as such, other means like multilateralism and even isolationism are
better means.

Multilateralism is the idea that US should have an alliance with other major power(s) to form a multipolar
(more than two) balance of power configuration. This option also suggests the idea of using soft-power as
a more intimately and a surer long-lasting road to security. In a global world, hard power no longer
assures security. While we live in a technologically advanced world, we are more vulnerable to threat.
Communication systems and other technological inventions that we depend on can easily be damaged.
Also, while trying to come up with inventions terrorists can still attack with something low-tech. Some
consider that there’s even not much risk but all these measures are taken to develop the weapon
industry. But even though there are alternatives to how it could be managed, there are no real potential
two countries that could share this responsibility.

Isolationism basically encourages that each country looks after itself and use force only if directly
attacked. This ideology says that unless US’s core national interests are at stake, they don’ have the right
to intervene. According to isolationists, US has proven to be bad at conflict resolution, especially taking
into account that Afghanistan and Iraq people don’t accept liberal values and principles but only have hate
towards each other and other nations.

The Second Layer

Includes NATO, UN peacekeeping and International Criminal Court (ICC) and shows ways how
institutions and both major and minor power states manage security issues.

The UN: After the Vietnam War superpowers looked at the UN to establish number of treaties,
conventions, and protocols to potentially solve the problem of nuclear powers and other arms race.

The Non- Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1968 obliged states with nuclear weapons not to transfer them to
other states, and non nuclear states not to receive nuclear weapons or devices from other states. It’s
been signed by 180 states and it was quite successful in limiting the spread of nuclear weapons in
developing states.

Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention (BWC) of 1972 was signed by 100 nations and it restricts
research on biological weapons to defensive measures, but makes no provision for inspection because
biological weapons are easy to hide.

The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) of 1992 was signed by 157 countries that pledged to
eliminate al chemical weapons by 2007 and never develop, produce, or use them again,

The Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) prohibits the export of missiles and related
technology.

Still rogue states don’t comply with these treaties, and as such can easily buy weapons through different
means. Also, less developed countries (LDC) make up 2/3 of all arms sales, half of which go to Middle
East, where oil export revenues help the purchase of arms.

NATO and UN Peacekeeping

NATO has 26 members. One of the first roles of NATO was in Kosova. Air strikes were authorized in
October 1998, but began in March 1999 until June, when Serbia agreed to withdraw its troops. However,
NATO in early stages did not really have clear military strategies and political objectives. Still there are
many questions with regard to NATO. Who should pay how much, what strategies should it adopt to deal
with civil wars, and more?

UN Peacekeeping efforts use the periodic use of member state troops to help settle disputes and resolve
conflicts. It was initially formed as a mechanism that would deal with aggression and conflict by not
directly involving superpowers or other permanent members of the Security Council. It is supposed to be
neutral and maintain order in states that request them. It has been present in many countries but
considered to have failed in conflicts like Rwanda, Somalia and some Balkan countries.

Human Rights and the ICC

The authority to manage a variety of human rights issues dealing with “war crimes” and “crimes against
humanity” was transferred to the UN. It built two international war crime tribunals to deal with the crimes
done in the Balkans and Rwanda. For some time, it didn’t work but with the trial of Milosevic and Jean
Kambanda (Rwanda) it showed that it had some influence.

By 2000, ICC was signed by 138 countries to hear cases of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against
humanity from anywhere in the world as of July 1, 2002. Clinton signed it, but Bush opposed it not
wanting Americans to be trailed under another court other than American one.

The Third Layer

This layer includes countries that are weak to deal with internal or external threats to their security. Many
of them are labeled as “failed states” because of their domestic violence and economic
underdevelopment. Also, many depend on UN peacekeeping and NGOs in order to function.

Security and development – security problems either delay or prevent economic development by wasting
resources. For this reason, sometimes it’s hard to help some countries because of so many economic
issues. Also, economic problems lead to future social unrest, especially is Mid-East where unemployed
youth can easily become a part of extremist clans. Poverty and underdevelopment lead to tensions
between religious or ethnic groups that can end up in human rights violations and genocide.

Structuralists consider the attempt to “help” poor countries as a way to exploit them and extend
imperialism.

One increasing trend is the growing importance of NGOs like the Red Cross, Amnesty International,
Greenpeace and others. One of the first successes of NGOs was the Campaign to Ban Land Mines. But
NGOs benefit by the so called CNN Effect which is using media to show people how some countries
suffer and then influence their perceptions either by getting them to contribute or other ways.

The Iraq War: Why The Quagmire?

1. The Systematic Level- the way Iraq was invaded…story

Bush admin decided to invade Iraq showing evidence that Saddam was building WMD. Anticipating
that it would find them and win, the whole story ended in failure. There is even some evidence that
Saddam got them to believe this knowing that there was no chance on winning a guerrilla war with
the US. This was US lost as they faced insurgent groups (rebels). It went to such an extreme that US
started to violate the liberal freedoms it tried to promote by using rendition (the act of transferring
suspects to places where torture is allowed like Egypt). Also, US did not take into account the post
war planning (providing medicine, water, and food). To top up this failure, critiques think that the US
should distinguish between PREEMPTION (initiating a conflict because it appears that an enemy is
about to strike, but Saddam wasn’t going to) and PREVENTIVE WAR (not an reaction to an
 immediate threat, rather it is based on fear of long term measures and add up to a major threat in the
long term).

1. The Subsystematic Level- the policies related to Iraq invasion

Lack of victory undermined Bush credibility and domestic support for war. Bush provided the
Congress with “credible” evidence that Iraq is developing WMDs and then the Congress authorized
the intervention. After the failure, Democrats and many Republicans felt they were lied to and wanted
the withdrawal of troops.

1. The Actor Level- the role Bush gave to himself

The president played the major in the entire Iraq story. Bush believing that it was God’s message to
him to do this mission carried it out the way he did!!More importantly, going against the values US
goes by (freedoms, democracy and others) questioned whether US could lead antiterrorism
campaigns and act unilaterally.    

The first NATO peacekeeping mission has its roots on February 28, 1994, when the organization
authorized U.S. fighters to fire on Serbian planes violating the no-fly zone over the former Yugoslavia.
[1]
 Previously,
NATO had limited itself to solving conflicts within its member states; this operation marked a shift as the
alliance worked to keep the peace in regions of Eastern Europe, which was considered to be an "out-of-
area deployment."[2] 
In December 1995, NATO sent an unprecedented 60,000 troops to ensure that all sides would abide by
the Dayton accords, which was replaced by a smaller force of 32,000 troops a year later. [3]
Under a UN mandate, a NATO-led Implementation Force (IFOR) entered Bosnia in order to implement
The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This was succeeded
by SFOR. In a similar manner, a NATO operation (Kosovo Force, or KFOR) continues in the Serbian
province of Kosovo.
The NATO-led mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina has since been replaced by a European Union
peacekeeping mission, EUFOR Althea.

ICC

The International Criminal Court (ICC or ICCt)[2] is an intergovernmental organization and international

tribunal that sits in The Hague in the Netherlands. The ICC has the jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for
the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.

The ICC is intended to complement existing national judicial systems and it may therefore only exercise
its jurisdiction when certain conditions are met, such as when national courts are unwilling or unable to
prosecute criminals or when the United Nations Security Council or individual states refer investigations to
the Court.

The ICC began functioning on 1 July 2002, the date that the Rome Statute entered into force. The Rome
Statute is a multilateral treaty which serves as the ICC's foundational and governing document. States
which become party to the Rome Statute, for example by ratifying it, become member states of the ICC.
Currently,
there are 124 states which are party to the Rome Statute and therefore members of the ICC.
However, Burundi has given formal notice that it will withdraw from the Rome Statute.

Nato\

POLITICAL - NATO promotes democratic values and encourages consultation and cooperation on
defence and security issues to build trust and, in the long run, prevent conflict.

MILITARY - NATO is committed to the peaceful resolution of disputes. If diplomatic efforts fail, it has the
military capacity needed to undertake crisis-management operations. These are carried out under Article
5 of the Washington Treaty - NATO’s founding treaty - or under a United Nations mandate, alone or in
cooperation with other countries and international organizations.