Professional Documents
Culture Documents
By Aw Joey
Introduction
International relations (IR) is like a stage where actors are needed to put on a show. Actors are any
person or entity which plays a role that is attributable in international relations. There are two kind of
actors in the world of International Relations which are states and non-state actors.
States are territories run by a government and have a permanent population. Although states are the
most important actors in IR, they are strongly influence by non-state actors. Non-state actors will be
discuss in more detail in the following section.
Transnational Actors
Transnational actors are actors that function below the state level but functioning across the state borders.
There are two types of transnational actors which are the transnational corporations (TNCs) or
multinational corporations (MNCs) and the nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).
Industrial corporations makes goods in factories in many countries and sell them to business and
consumers in various countries. The largest MNCs are automobile, oil, and electronic industries.
Almost all of the MNCS are based in the G7 states. Examples of this MNCs are Sony, Honda,
Toyota, Petronas and more.
Financial corporations such as banks. They operate multinationally with more restrictions than
industrial corporations. Examples are Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited (OCBC
Bank) and others.
Services such as McDonald’s fast-food chain, international airlines like MAS, Asiana Airlines
and more, Hilton Hotels & Resorts and many others.
MNCs are increasingly powerful as independent actors. Many of the industrial MNCs have annual
sales of tens of billions of dollars each (hundreds of billions of dollars for top corporations such as Wal-
Mart). MNCs are able to match to most international organizations (IOs) in size and financial resources.
The largest IGO (UN) has about 2 billion dollars a year in revenue, compare to more than 250 billion
dollars for the largest MNC. The largest state (United States) has government revenues of 2 trillion
dollars. Therefore this shows that the power of MNCs does not rival the largest states but exceeds many
poorer states and many IOs.
MNCs are view as citizens of the world beholden to no government. Head of Dow Chemical once
dreamed to buy an island to build Dow’s headquarters. In such view, MNCs act globally in the interests
of their (international) stockholders and owe no loyalty to no state. MNCs are motivated by the need to
maximize profits.
MNCs’ operations support a global business infrastructure connecting a transnational community of
businesspeople. An example is that a U.S. manager arriving in Seoul, South Korea, does not find a
bewildering scene of unfamiliar languages, locations, and customs. Rather, he/she will be able to move
through a familiar sequence of airport lounges, telephone calls and faxes, international hotels, business
conference rooms, and CNN broadcasts – most likely hearing English spoken in all.
MNCs also contribute to their host country’s development. As MNCs operate in other states, it will
provide job opportunities for the locals in that state and thus, helped to stabilize the economy in that
state.
Another kind of NGO is the religious movement. Religious movement is a set of beliefs and ideas
administered politically by a religious group to promote the principles of conduct. They are a politically
active organizations based on strong religious convictions.
Although religious movement have a strong influence in politics in the older days such as able to
cause a war between people with different religions, nowadays, religious movement act as a peacemaker
between states. For example, the late Pope John Paul II of Catholic Church had addresses bishops from
North and South America at the Vatican in 1997 to help end the Cold War.
Other kinds of NGOs are AIESEC (which links students worldwide), World Wide Fund for Nature
(WWF which works on issues regarding the conservation, research and restoration of the environment)
and hundreds and thousands more of NGOs to go.
Conclusion
Although states remains as the most important actors in the global system, the non-state actors in today’s
world have an increasing influence and power in IR. One of the largest MNCs has revenues that even
surpasses some of the poorer states shows their increasing influences. As the world continues to globalize, it
will be difficult for us to distinguish corporations, countries and other actors in an era of collapsing states
and re-emerging nations.
References
Art, R. J., & Jervis, R. (2011). International Politics: Enduring Concepts and Contemporary Issues (10th
ed.). New York: Pearson Education.
D'Anieri, P. (2011). International Politics : Power and Purpose in Global Affairs (Brief ed.). Stamford,
United States of America: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.
Goldstein, J. S., & Pevehouse, J. C. (2006). International Relations (7th ed.). New York, United States of
America: Pearson Education.
Kegley Jr., C. W., & Wittkopf, E. R. (2004). World Politics : Trend & Transformation (9th ed.). Belmont,
United States of America: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
Rourke, J. T., & Boyer, M. A. (2000). World Politics : International Politics on the World Stage, Brief (3rd
ed.). New York, United States of America: Dushkin/McGraw-Hill.